Starting off freshman year, I enrolled in Graphic Design I with goals to improve my digital art. I had always been thrilled by digital drawings and animation, and I was inspired to build up on my skills. The class was different than I had imagined  – it seemed like everyone knew what they were doing. Trying to focus on my own work, I kept doing the assignments one-after-the-other. By the time October came around, I had felt like nothing had improved. My instructor, Lisa Roskens, was announcing an annual trip they would take to San Antonio for a competition named Fall Fiesta. It had sounded interesting: photography, video production, article writing, and several other fields would be competing at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. I decided to take on the challenge of competing in the Photography field, along with one other person from PHS. Sitting inside of the Hemisfair Ballroom, we were instructed on the guidelines, wished good-luck, and were sent off across the convention center. The themes for the photography field were “Lines, Contrast, Reflection, Convention,” and “Taste of San Antonio.” After a total of 126 photos, I had found only two that I saw potential in.

The moment all people competing were called back into the ballroom, I was feeling confident in my work. When the results began showing, people were eager and on the edge of their seats to see who won a title. After several photos passed under the Digital Photo category, my photo (Photo #31) surprisingly showed up on the presentation screen. Although I was ecstatic that I had gotten the superior rating, I didn’t feel truly proud in my work. Since the only experience I had in photography was with my old phone, I did not know what was considered a good photo. I doubted myself and felt like I would never get a good photo like that again. Arriving back from San Antonio, I pushed away my doubts and continued school like normal.

After the San Antonio Fall Fiesta, I strived to improve my work, going beyond the requirements of my graphic design assignments. Even if it wasn’t photography, I felt that I need to improve on at least something. Another project I participated in was creating a new design for the Children’s Health Kids Teaching Kids book. Each year, people create their own designs for the book, with a new theme each year. This year’s theme was “Under the Sea,” and we were required to make a front cover and two inside pages. This project was drawn out very long, taking almost a month to complete. Although I had not won the competition, I was still proud of my work. A classmate of mine had won instead, along with a scholarship of $100.

Another semester passed, and at this time my instructor mentioned to me about Eagle Nation, which is divided into several parts: Eagle Nation Times, Eagle Nation News, and Eagle Nation Online. I kept it in my mind as a possible path to take for the next year. Throughout the final semester, I had came to the decision that Eagle Nation Online seemed like the most interesting path to me. Excited for the upcoming year, I signed up for the class and went along with my summer.

After the few first classes of introductions, I become overwhelmed with a professional feeling atmosphere. The class was a student led class, meaning that we would assign our own work and our teacher guided us if we needed help. Without a clue on what to do, I look to my instructor on how to start. After being taught about how the backend of the school website works, I immediately created my own draft of the site and began messing around. Eventually I turned the draft into my official redesign, beginning with creating a new front page.

After finishing redesigning all of the pages on Eagle Nation Online, I was ready to submit my draft for the Site Excellence Badge. Our website already had two out of the six badges needed to rank high on the SNO sites leaderboards, and the other students were currently working on the other badges. I submitted my draft, and we eagerly waited for feedback. Two days had passed, and we were informed that the badge was completed and added to our website’s list of achievements. Our team celebrated, and we finally had the satisfaction of pushing the new site live.