Polesrm 341: I Hate Illinois Nazis.

There’s been bunches of writing lately, I kinda wanted a little break from that. Decided to pull this from its place later in line to break up the pace here. This was the last semester, and I was really just looking for classes that would fit around the remaining required credits. While I was at PCC I’d leaned some towards my mom’s side of the family with the exploration of an accounting program; while filling those last electives at CSUCI there were a few Environmental Sciences overlaps that leaned perfectly into dad’s side (he was an engineer, but a goof for the Parks). I have a great appreciation for how that played out over those years. Many of my own proficiencies, I see as being present in my parents before me. I like that those college classes reflect my pursuit as being framed by my history. I never would have thought to plan that, but when I saw there were were a compatible block of Environmental credits available, I stopped looking for other possibilities.

The project was to identify a site of cultural importance and present an advocacy for its introduction into the National Park System, or for its repositioning within the system. I had fun with this one. This was a last semester class, at this point in time I had only this project to complete, and the two finals to study for. Whenever I needed a break from those other two classes, I would come back to this for a while.

And hells yes, I wanted to show off. Between those four years at PCC/CSUCI, I saw zero collective increases in skill level at assembling slide presentations from my fellow students. Honestly, these people were just bad at it. And I get that there are differences and I do make allowances! I have a background in design, and education, and communication, so of course I’ve got the practice to put together a more proficient show. But without fail, the standard college presentation consisted of a screen with words on it, with those words being read off verbatim. Maybe there would be a picture pasted in the frame. Sure, I would expect mine to be the most polished, but it was to the rest of the student presentations that I was always looking for those instances of raw creativity that I would have expected from “younger, more spirited” minds, and it was just never there. Not kidding, I was essentially looking for proof that my mind had been left behind somehow by the advances of the younger set. Instead I was just, well, kinda disappointed by these future leaders of America. If they had any kind of fire or zeal for what they were doing, there was some insurmountable barrier to their passion reaching the screen.

I watched this and I’m still crazy proud of it. The policy aspect may be clunky and the transitions aren’t captured as seamlessly as they played out so the video is a little clunky, but the policy is out of the way early and the music solves for a lot of the perceptual continuity. And that’s just on a technical level here, the live presentation only had the policy to overcome. The video was like butter and it was a thing of beauty. Altogether I think it’s a solid pitch and (against the competition) a knock out of the park.

And the first proposed step was already taken- a few months after I graduated, it was announced that Wrigley’s pending application to the Park system was approved. So that was another shot called from the Friendly Confines.