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After I had solidified my idea I searched for music that could fit my project’s theme. I looked into a lot of Lofi songs as they provide the soft vibe I was looking for in my short animation. I ended up using a Lofi version of the song Avatar’s Love from Avatar the Last Airbender. I have a relatively strong attachment to this song and the show it’s from as I grew up watching it and avidly enjoyed it with my sister and dad.

For the purpose of my project I had to cut down the length of the song and edit it a bit to allow for better flow and cut down the time. This process was quite time consuming as I am quite amateur at sound editing and struggled to make it flow with the cuts in the song. I still don’t think it is perfect but for the most part I think it serves its purpose.

After finishing up the music I was then able to plan the animation sequencing and organize the action of the character according to the music. I also sampled some general color palettes I liked for future referencing. I planned all the general timing according to the beat and just how it would flow cinematically.

The I hopped on Zoom with Damian and we discussed a little bit about the planning process. He liked my planning a lot and thought it was pretty solid. We discussed a bit about how at times it can be challenging to start a project even after we’ve planned everything out and have all the details. I found that especially with art taking that step from planning to execution is often extremely difficult.

For the first day of my Work Experience I zoomed with professional artist Damian Stamer. He is a local painter who often displays and sells his art at formal galleries.

Prior to this meeting we had called discussing a little bit about each other and what I might want to get out of this experience.

We had agreed to try to come up with a project aligned with my interests and attempt to finish it within the span of this work experience. While his interest in the arts were much more fine arts oriented I quickly came to see that the process is quite similar in planning and execution.

I came into the meeting with some concepts and by the end of our meeting I had a general idea and topic for my project.

For the rest of the time I dove into designing and planning the project. I was planning on making a short animation of a character waiting for a text that never came until they fell asleep.

This was our longest day yet! We kicked it off with a Senate Health Committee hearing on a bill to ban abortions based on the results of a prenatal Down’s Syndrome test. Needless to say, with both senate questions and public speakers, the room was emotionally thick. After the hour was up and the Committee room had to be transferred finance I met up with Aryan, who was working in the office of Representative Harris from Mecklenburg county. He had been tasked with searching through the 2019 budget for nonrecurring funds that Mecklenburg could lose if the a new budget isn’t passed by July, so we sat in the lobby of the General Assembly and compiled numbers in Excel before lunch.

After lunch, I shadowed Ms. DeVivo in a more casual meeting of just lobbyists working together (mostly) on the charter school legislation and we went to the analog bill archives in the library to find Governor Cooper’s voting record on charter school legislation when he was still Senator Cooper in 1996.

Andrew L.

Here’s Aryan holding his homework.

Today was our last day working with Vector Textiles, and our second day seeing the whole group in person. The overall presentation went really well- it was a very casual environment which was really cool. We saw the other VT group for a few minutes, many of whom looked quite dapper in their suits. We even got to see Mr. Self’s dog. She is some sort of shiba mix if I remember correctly, and also very cute. Overall, the presentation day was a great success and I’m glad at how much we as a group, and also Mr. Self, was able to get out of it. He explained that he would be using our research in his work in the future, which was really exciting to hear!

Not a single one of the Legislature’s new chairs would be broken in today because the entire building was deserted — the weather was just a little too nice to end memorial day weekend quite so soon. Luckily, Ms. DeVivo and I made the most out of the quiet halls, touring around the General Assembly. The building has a theme of red velvet and polished brass, which she noted to me when we looked into the galleries of each chamber. From there we swung by the second floor where she showed me her old office from her time as Chief-of-Staff to the Speaker of the House. In the Speaker’s suite was a nice man who took us to the floor of the house chamber and let me hop up on the podium and get a feel for the gavel with which the Speaker calls the House to order. On the way back, we met the House Principal Clerk who is in charge of maintaining all of the parliamentary procedure that the House is run on.

Everyone we met today was super cool, maybe we’ll run into them again.

Andrew L.

This is me looking tiny at the podium in the House chamber (the gavel is much bigger in person).

For as last day, we all met and ate lunch at a restaurant called Spring Rolls. We finally got to meet Greyson in person and we all talked for a while about the past week and a half. Greyson gave us some advice about college and jobs, and we all had a really good time talking and reflecting on our time doing the work experience program!

Today was our final day working with Homestead Sage through the Work Experience Program. To wrap up, we had a meeting with our hosts to present our finalized projects and shared some feedback and reflection on our experience with them. They helped us make some adjustments to our work, but were very pleased with everything we presented overall. I shared with the hosts that I learned so much from being able to work with them. I am so thankful for this opportunity to grow in my marketing abilities! Not only did I learn how to adapt a marketing strategy for an energy and technology business, but also learned more about how to use each of the social media platforms to reach different audiences effectively. Sophia and I spent the rest of the day working on our presentation for tomorrow.