You may be wondering, what does that video have to do with anything? Well, read on to find out!
The College of Journalism and Communications is one of the nation's top journalism programs year after year. Countless successful and well-known journalists have come out of the college, such as Erin Andrews from ESPN. Successful alumni such as Erin and many others have paved the way for current students and soon-to-be graduates to get a leg up in the industry that not many people have. However, having great alumni to network with isn't the only thing that's helping UF Journalism students make it to the top-- it's also constant innovation.
A specific example of this would be the <a href="http://cmir.jou.ufl.edu/">CMIR</a>. More information can be found at the site, but it's basically a tool and a mindset that the university has set in place to constantly keep us (the students) on our toes. Meaning, always trying to find fresh, new ways to tell stories in a way which adapts to and connects with our ever-changing world. The best way to see what the <a href="http://cmir.jou.ufl.edu/">CMIR</a> does is to look at some of the <a href="http://cmir.jou.ufl.edu/projects/">student projects</a>. Recently, the <a href="https://www.jou.ufl.edu/">CJC</a> changed its newsroom's name to the INC, which stands for Innovation News Center, which further exemplifies how UF does its best to make sure the JOU students are constantly changing, adapting, and keeping up with the trends in the journalism world.
Personally, my favorite thing about the UF CJC is that it enables you to also learn other skills that can translate into other fields that we might want to go into, such as FILM! :)
Remember that film from the beginning of the post? Well, that's a film I was a part of a couple years back. It was made entirely by UF CJC students! This film went onto win many awards and was entered into many film festivals around the nation. The director of the film now attends the prestigious University of Southern California film school and is on his way to becoming Hollywood's next big movie director.
There are many more films that come out of UF that are just as successful. The skills they teach us here are invaluable, and for that I am so grateful.
