Students Explore Impact of Storytelling While Celebrating Diversity and Identity

Students taking an innovative communication class at the University of New Haven are learning about the importance of storytelling by creating an impactful digital collection of stories. As part of their “Telling Digital Stories” special topics course, they created video journalism pieces focused on identity and belonging.

The class is part of the University’s Welcome Project, a collection of short video and audio interviews with students, faculty, staff, and members of the community. Focused on community building and fostering understanding and diversity, the project features interviews that reflect on the challenges and opportunities of living and working together and celebrating diversity, identity, and belonging. The project creates opportunities for important and meaningful discussions in settings such as classrooms, trainings, and workshops.

Students recently screened their projects to their classmates and professors Natalie Chavoya, B.F.A., and Susanne Murphy, M.A. Below, several students reflect on the experience.

Finley Chapman ’22

This is actually my second time in this class, as I first enrolled during the spring of my first year when it was taught by Professor Susanne Murphy and Professor Wayne Edwards. That version of the course focused on telling different student and faculty stories for the University’s Centennial.

That course was what enabled me to develop my skills in Adobe Creative Suite, particularly in Photoshop, Premiere, and Lightroom, helping me succeed in communication classes I have taken since. The course also helped me gain interviewing skills, as I was very shy and nervous about interviewing before I took it.

It was this positive experience that convinced me to take the course again this semester. In taking “Telling Digital Stories,” I have been able to further improve my interviewing and editing skills. I am using these improved skills to bring the stories of different people into the spotlight, including people outside of the University community whose stories aren’t often told.

Being able to take this course again has been extremely rewarding for me. I hope to use the skills and experience I have gained to further help me in graduate school and my future career.

Desheania Andrews ’22

The first semester that the Welcome Project was introduced to the University as a special topics course, I decided to take it, not knowing exactly what I was getting into. But I realized this has been one of the most impactful courses I have taken at the University – not just because of the technical things that I have learned, but because of the stories I have helped uncover.

I believe that college is about finding both yourself and your place in the world. The person you sit next to in class, stand behind when getting your morning coffee, or pass by every day because your class is across the hall has a story – a story you may never guess just by looking at them.

I believe the Welcome Project not only gives people around campus the platform to tell their story, but it also allows your peers to get to know you on a different level. Sometimes it’s about realizing you are not alone on this campus and there are people here that share the same experiences.

The Welcome Project focuses on diversity, inclusion, and belonging, topics that are often mentioned but not always put into action. This project gives a voice to people who otherwise may have never spoken about their struggles in finding a sense of belonging. With every interview and every story told, I have personally learned something through each person, from learning that acceptance doesn’t always start with your loved ones or that embracing your differences can help you be a leader for others.

There hasn’t been a story that didn’t leave an impactful message. Every single person has a message and story that can help someone else, and the Welcome Project gives them a platform to share it.

Tiana Badjue ’22

My video journalism project experience was very different for me in an exciting way, as I am a legal studies major, and I am constantly reading and analyzing documents. With this project I was able to learn new skills and tap into my creative side, though I was nervous about it, and I didn’t know if I would be capable of successfully completing it.

I decided to interview a fellow Charger named Destiny for this project because I think she has an interesting story that was worth sharing. She had the privilege of her mom telling her she was adopted at the age of 7, and this was the beginning of when Destiny questioned who she really was. When she came to the University of New Haven, she started to put herself out there and was able to find who she is through helping other people.

I was very grateful for Destiny for being patient with me during the interview, as I was still new to operating cameras and making sure I was capturing her with the right angles. Due to both of our schedules and deadlines that needed to be met, I was not able to get much video B-roll of Destiny, but she was able to provide a good number of pictures to make her video more impactful.

I was least excited about editing the video because I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it and have the video come out successfully. But my professors were very helpful and provided clear instructions that helped make the process easy for me.

Overall, I am happy with my project and grateful for this experience because I was able to learn new skills, and I executed it successfully.

Finley Chapman ’22 and Desheania Andrews ’22 are communication majors. Tiana Badjue ’22 is a legal studies major.