AUGSBURG UNIVERSITY
MAY 2019
Attending college was unfortunately never a bestowed privilege but rather the fruit of relentless work endeavors prior.
With aspirations of pursuing a business and corporate public relations education, I diligently applied to several universities. Augsburg University, recognizing my prior achievements in communications during my high school tenure in Wisconsin, generously awarded me a partial scholarship, inviting me to serve as their athletic creative director—an opportunity that enabled me to reside and work in Minneapolis, an invaluable gift for which I am profoundly thankful.
In turn I committed to making a meaningful impact. Participating in a nineteen-credit workload each semester, my photography was featured in a permanent installment on campus in my first months at school. I flourished in third and fourth year production, digital, and media classes as a freshman due to my independent experience.
To afford it all, I worked with one camera and two lenses with no additional production budget to build social and web content week after week for the college.
By my second semester as a eighteen year old freshman, I had the honor of winning a National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Collegiate Emmy Award, an unprecedented milestone for the university and a testament to my exceptional creative talent from a young age.
Receiving the NATAS Collegiate Emmy Award was completely unexpected. I did not provide the academy any submission.
My college roommate and life long brother JaVonni Tarango and I had the idea for this in response to a class project we were tasked with creating a video for in a media class utilizing what at the time was literally some of the very first 3D cameras. We’d had the idea to create an immersive look into the crazy life of two college students chasing pipe dreams we couldn’t afford in a city we only had the privilege of living in due to working. To my understanding two of my professors submitted the work after I had done the assignment, a decision of kindness and belief in me that I’ll always be thankful for.
Dramatically ahead of it’s time, though a bit of a tough-watch now: