By Dennis Pak

Hi, my name is Dennis & I’m a student just like you.

Admittedly, this is not the most original description but I don’t think the 8 billion people currently living on planet Earth are original either.

Who am I? I’m just a guy trying to get his life together.

By that sentence, does that mean that my life was filled with despair, sorrow… Possible dramatic montages?

Reality says no.

What I mean by “trying to get his life together” is the job I had before wasn’t meant for me. Working at a warehouse doing Blue-Collar work for five years was not only physically draining, but mentally as well. Who knew that being around people that I cannot relate to other than the ability to breath is not good for my self esteem.

Also, being paid only $19 an hour is also not good for my self esteem.

Moving on from that diatribe, what I like to do is to play Overwatch 2 with my friends. Bastion is my main by the way. Also watching anime & whatever nerdy shows are popular with the mainstream audience. Conformity is the best policy.

What I like to do after I finish the Media Arts program is…

TO BE CONTINUED

This is me. Not A.I. generated.

Hello, classmates, my name is Faith Green. I am 18 and recently graduated from North Eugene High School. I was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon, with six brothers and two sisters. My mom makes a living operating and managing two separate preschools in the Eugene area. My Dad is a Forman for a construction team that builds Guardrail.
I have always been passionate about storytelling. Be it through books, movies, art, or music. So it is no surprise that I am a theater kid; I begain my acting career at age ten at a small children’s theater known as Upstart Crow Studios. I learned how to read music the concepts of costume and set craft, and I learned the intentionality that goes into live storytelling. Theater planted a seed in my brain; I began to study the art of playwriting, which turned into screenwriting and storyboarding. I analyzed the tropes and art styles and practiced the skills I learned. I find it amusing that I did all this research for fun; I never thought I could make a career out of it. I was not nearly skilled enough, but one day, I was going through my old sketchbooks and hit how much I had improved. I felt an unexplainable pride in my accomplishment; I all clicked, I could become an artist.

Hi! I’m Jade Wilkerson. I am 18 years old.

This is my first year of collage.

I lived in Oregon my whole life. I was born in Roseburg then moved to Eugene about four to five years ago. I like being in nature and camping. I did Northwest Youth Coup last summer, traveling around Oregon doing conservation work by fixing trails and getting rid of invasive species by camping for five weeks. I worked at Crater lake, Eagle lake in Portland, the mountains of Gold beach, the Umpqua river, and this tiny island on the Mckenzie River.

I have a cat named Ricky Bobby, he’s a black bobtail cat. I have a tattoo of him on my leg. I have a twin sister name Jasmine and two younger step brothers name Chris and Raven. I want to be a animator or a forest ranger. I’m still not sure which one i want to do more. I was also thinking about going into acting. I have been drawing for almost ten years, I’m still practicing. I want to make a cartoons or comics.

My favorite type of music is nu metal, My favorite bands are Korn and System of the down. My Favorite shows is What we do in the shadows, and Adventure time. And my favorite movies is Interview with a vampire, Lost boys, and the good son.

by: Jade Wilkerson

My name is Joseph and I’m born and raised in Oregon.

I’ve been up and down the west coast. I’ve been to Washington, California, Arizona, Nevada and well to the Hawaiian Island of Maui for various occasions.

I love to play Video Games like Warframe, Sid Meier’s Civilization Six, The Crew Motorfest, and many others. I also have a fascination with animations. I actively watch some animators on YouTube like Crydiaa, Sashley, and DJayeRemixTheFox, and more.

This isn’t my first time here at Lane Community College. I started the fall of 2019 but I stopped because of Covid then I tried with Full Sail University but that didn’t last long. Fall of 2022 I called LCC and asked about the in person classes at that time and I was informed that most classes were available in person and more were opening up so I tried joining in the winter of 2022 but I decided to not join that term for financial reasons then I joined in the fall of 2023. 

I hoping that after this class I can continue my goal of helping others through rough times as I have had in the past so I’m hoping that with the animations I make or the games that I may be apart of I can help others find a gateway to a happy place to escape reality for while they are in a rough time of their lives.

By: Joseph Reiter

by JD Rodejo

PRODUCER. HOST. PHOTOGRAPHER. ARTIST.

Born and raised in the Philippines, I moved to the US from Japan in 2021. My first year in the United States was a little difficult, basically starting from scratch, I tried multiple ways on how I can keep myself both busy and involved in the queer community. That’s when I found drag and my drag persona, Morena. 

I started drag a year and a half ago and got really lucky finding groups of people who helped me grow as a person and as an artist. It pushed my creativity and artistic skills to new heights up to the point where I now produce and host my own show, The HotPot, which gives opportunities to new artists, young or old, to showcase their skills in a competition-based setting. It also allowed me to work with multiple non-profit organizations, including Transponder and HIV Alliance, to raise funds and awareness both to the community and its allies. This show also allowed me to further push my marketing and advertising skills as I managed all the posters, photo and video promotions and social media marketing for the show. This year, I also got nominated for Eugene Weekly’s Best of Eugene.

Drag also re-introduced me to my first love, photography. Last summer, I started my own photography business, “Lenses with Lashes”, and was lucky enough to shoot multiple events in the downtown area. This allowed me to expand my knowledge about the Creative Cloud.

My time here in Eugene is extremely limited, and I cannot wait what the next location will bring or what I’ll be able to bring at the next location. I decided to get back in school to refresh and update my knowledge regarding the current state of multimedia. I will also continue being a student worker and work with the Multimedia Department at Lane Community College.

My name is Haley and I am 18 years old. I was born in Tucson, Arizona, but grew up in Oregon. My primary memories were the childhoods I spent in Bend and Florence. Those were both drastically different environments and stages of my life, but I still treasure them the same. I am fortunate enough to have grown up with my family right beside me. 

Ever since I was a young child, I’ve loved drawing and everything artistic. After many years of trial and error, ups and downs in confidence, and consistently trying to grow my skills, I’m now a first-year pursuing an art major. My hope is that I am able to turn my education into a career. I picked up various different interests over the years like music, video games, reading, watching a ridiculous variety of shows and movies, etc., but drawing is the one that has remained the most prominent. 

I’ve always been invested in doing the best I possibly can in school, even if that’s met with copious amounts of stress and constant uncertainty in my abilities. But I will continue to work hard, and am excited to see the new skills I can learn and grow. 

By: Haley Johnson

Hi, I’m Bridget, I’m 18 years old and I’m from Eugene Oregon and I’ve lived there my whole life. I like playing video games, listening to music, and making art. I like watching sports like football and basketball. I listen to all kinds of music but I mostly like rock music. I also have 4 cats, 2 dogs and a chicken.

This is my first year at Lane, I was doing online school for the past 10 years so this is a big change and a new experience for me. I’m at Lane to get a degree in Multimedia Design. I don’t really have any big dreams or passions that led me to doing Multimedia Design, but I always enjoyed and did well in the graphic design, photography, and intro to video game design classes that I had in high school so this is what I chose. I always felt weird about college and the future because I never had any big interests in things unlike other people. I hope during my time at Lane I find my passion or dream.

I hope this Multimedia degree helps me get a job. I’m not quite sure what I want to do for a job, I just hope it pays well and I’m somewhat happy.

By: Bridget Holst

Greetings, I am Lady Diaz, an aspiring animator studying at Lane Community College. These are some of the things that define me:

• I am bilingual in Spanish and English and I have an intermediate level of reading comprehension in Korean. However, I cannot speak Korean.

• I enjoy learning standard French, watching YouTube videos on various topics that interest me, and binging on true crime stories in my spare time.

• I am obsessed with the “Blue Beard” episode in “Los Cuentos De los Hermanos Grim”, produced by Nippon Animation based on the fairytale adaptations of the Brothers Grimm. I also consider this show as my first introduction into Animation and as the reference for the type of work I wish to create. 

• I am very passionate about my academic pursuits and I always strive to learn as much as I can. Therefore, I am a perfectionist who seeks a lot of feedback. I used to fear criticism and see it as a conflict, but since I decided to pursue animation as a profession, it has become the thing that motivates me the most.

I would appreciate it if you could provide me with some feedback on my blogs that will help me improve. 

Thank you.

Lady Diaz

Hey Everyone! My name is Lisa.

As I was thinking about how to write this post, I realized that for one year now, I have been introducing myself by saying that I am a 19-year-old international student from Ivory Coast who came here to follow my passion for making films. I believe that I am more than that, but at the same time, it is a part of me.

Growing up, I was always the “artistic” kid in my family. I would constantly come up with new passions and hobbies, causing my parents to spend a lot of money on ballet classes that I gave up on after two days, a piano that I never knew how to play, and a guitar that ended up smashed on the floor and filled with water. After some time, they gave up, and I kind of gave up too.

Until I discovered BOOKS. I spent my entire middle school years reading books and writing some of my own in the back of all my copybooks. Fictional characters were better than people and I had finally found how to make something of the chaos that was going on in my head. As the years passed, I got into the wonderful world of doing nothing with my days except binge-watching TV shows and reading books. Then, one day, I had this revelation: I was going to make movies for the rest of my life! 

After days, weeks, and months of arguing with my mother (who actually wanted me to become a doctor, as if I had the abilities for that, lol), she gave in, and I flew 7,349 miles to Eugene, where I began this great adventure. I have no idea what I am doing, and I am still very lost after one year here, but as I explore filmmaking and creative work from people around me, I am sure of one thing: I am doing something that I love.

By Lisa Kouadio.

by Nicole Sherman

Hello my name is Nicole Sherman, yes I did only add my last name for more words. Anyway I have been a part time student at lane for about a year now, plus taking the multimedia animation course. I’ve been doing art probably since middle school. Funny thing about it is I only got started doing art because I wanted to show off to this other kid, I can’t exactly remember how it all went because it happened so long ago.

First I started drawing on notebook paper sometimes even on assignments basically any paper I could get my hands on. My teacher wasn’t really happy that I was drawing instead of doing the assignments, but I kept doing it. Eventually if I remember correctly my parents got me my first sketchbook book.
Then I started drawing in that a lot probably going through one to two a year both pages front and back. That happened all throughout middle school untill I graduated middle school. maybe before or after my first year of high school my grandparents bought me an iPad for Christmas. which I still use to this day and I hope to still use it when I get into the animation industry.