Simple Little Life

Background

Throughout my life I moved cities 8 times before college, and I never had any trouble meeting new people. People have been always telling me about how outgoing I am and how easy I am in adapt in different places. However, It is funny to say that I had never thought about being a Communication major until I got to Hanover. Since my first communication class (COM 161) freshman year, I knew that this was the field I wanted to be in. During my 4 years at Hanover College all communication classes helped shape my identity in different directions, each assignment influenced me in a different way to understand who I am, where I belong, and what I want to do.

Social Identity

What about it:

Being an international student coming from Brazil, was not the easiest thing I have ever done in my life. However, like I mentioned before, I have always been an outgoing person so thankfully I did not have a hard time meeting new people and finding my group. Honestly, I can say that I found my group throughout all 14 Communication classes that I took during my time at Hanover. It is like the halo effect, when they all gave me an initial positive impression it just led me to view the later interactions as positive. Also, I remember that one of the course objectives of my Public Communication class was: “learn how to be a more engaged member of society“, and I have been taking this “objective” with me during all my time at Hanover. Additionally, the Communication major made me realize about qualities of myself that I always had but never realized, and through certain assignments it opened up my eyes.

- Courses related: Introduction to Communication, and Public Communication.

Moral Identity

What about it:

Long before coming to college, I never had any trouble making decisions and was a pretty good kid with acceptable behavior. When the topic was horse racing, always on top of everything, never late and 100% dedicated to my goals. However, I did have a hard time when I had to convince my family that I had to skip some responsibilities because of competitions, and I can say that I missed a lot of opportunities because of this lack of knowledge. Now, after several communication classes, I feel that I would be able to convince my family for every and each one of the competitions that I missed. The communication field taught me that we can “influence the soul through words” (Plato). Even though I had hard times convincing my family about my desires, I have always been pretty close with them and homesickness has been a feeling that I have had a lot. However, communication gave me a light on how Family support and Emotional Wellbeing works throughout assignments and class material.

- Courses related: Rhetorical Theory, and Interpersonal Communication.

Professional Identity

What about it:

The way college works in Brazil is different than how it works here. Over there, during your senior year of high school you take exams for the Schools and Major(s) that you are interested in (you can pick different majors in different schools). So, you start your first day as a college student knowing your major. When I was starting senior year of high school I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I took exams for several schools trying different majors. But I could not see myself doing anything. However, since I committed to Hanover College I started noticing the Communication department, and I can say that I “found myself” after exploring different classes and writing about my life before college. The fact that the communication major made me learn about a new field while reminiscing about past memories.

- Courses related: Writing for the Media, and Cross-Cultural Communication.

Identity - paradise of COM

War and Upheaval through Film

The course focus on social conflict as represented through one cultural artifact: film. Observe films that deal directly with military war, as well as films that contain “hidden” social issues about war and/or upheaval. Explore the practice of rhetorical criticism and understanding film as a rhetorical artifact.

Introduction to Communication

War and Upheaval through Film

The subject of human communication is taught to the students in this course, including how to assess fundamental identity notions and enhance effective communication in one's personal experiences and relationships.

Writing for the Media

War and Upheaval through Film

Writing for the Media

Practice writing skills and formats used in a variety of media. Learn to adapt writing for audience and purpose. Write for variety of fields, with emphasis on public relations and advertising. Recognize and develop news and entertainment values in media texts.

Rhetorical Theory

Cross-Cultural Communication

Writing for the Media

Focuses on the study and analysis of rhetoric, which is the craft and discipline of persuasion in communication, and accomplishes several significant goals. This course has a goal to give students a deeper grasp of persuasive communication so they can effectively produce, analyse, and critique communications in a variety of circumstances.

Interpersonal Communciation

Cross-Cultural Communication

The goal is to give students the information and abilities they must effectively deal with the complicated dynamics of interpersonal relationships, promoting effective communication in a variety of scenarios.

Cross-Cultural Communication

The course enhances students’ understanding of the influence of the cultural differences. This class is designed to focus on investigating perspectives on cross-cultural communication, including culture-bond assumptions, cross-cultural analysis of values, beliefs, verbal and non-verbal communication and their impact.

Influence

Cross-Cultural Communication Assignment

In this digital artifact I am using videos and facts about my personal life to visualize the feeling of Social Identity and Interdependence. Throughout the artifact I included some communication strategies that I learned in the major, for example the attention getter to get the audience attention talking about something interesting related to the purpose to call their attention. The usage of footage of me racing in good and bad competitions and the audio being my voice, added a lot on the credibility of the artifact, because since I am talking about personal experiences it could be easier for my audience to relate to the story and make some conclusions about their own life. This assignment also opened my eyes about how the Communication Field is so important in every situation, however you cannot deal with everything by yourself. As I mentioned in my artifact, Brian, owner of Indy Urban Hardwood talked about how his team makes a difference throughout his journey, so I added some information about feelings of social identity - the positive self-esteem that we get from our group - in my project.

Writing for the Media Assignment

This is the most memorable assignment in my 4 years of college. Besides being one of my first “big assignments” in person, besides many grammar errors, this assignment gave me the opportunity to sit down and think about my whole life before college in a different way. This project made me look into my life from a different perspective. I had to use a certain language to my target audience, I provided videos to explain details, mentioned self-disclosure, positive and negative reassurance. However, besides the communication terms and strategies used in the assignment I also used facts based in a true story to add meaningful insight for the project.

Rhetorical Theory Assignment

In this paper I introduced key elements of my identity, and used Mead’s theory (1934) about Symbolic interaction to describe how language shapes social collectivities and individual identities. He says that we discover our identity and the culture in which we live by the symbolic interactions we have with others. I also mentioned another theorist, Burke, because he says that when we use symbols, we identify a person in such a way as to distinguish it from something else. Throughout this assignment In this article, we embark on a personal journey that peels back the layers of my identity to explore the defining moment, its impacts, and the thoughts that have shaped who I am now. The biggest take away from this assignment for me was the definition of “difference”, the Rhetorical Theory book says that “difference” describes the stage of being unique, different, or in some other sense dissimilar…

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SIMPLE LITTLE LIFE

In every piece of material included in this portfolio, you are not only able to notice how each assignment added to my knowledge of the material but also I was able to use my personal life before college to discover new passions. Each assignment that I completed throughout my 4 years opened my eyes to believe in myself, and also made me realize what I do not want to do with my life.

During the process of the Digital Artifact, I had to create something to visualize a lesson from Cross-Cultural communication. In this class, we had guests coming to class to talk about their Cultural Perspectives, and as I mentioned in the Influence tab, Brian from Indy Urban Hardwood said that his team made a huge difference in his life. So, I decided to use a certain part of my identity that it would never had happened without a team. However, it’s interesting to say that I never realized the importance of a good surrounding to get good results. At the same time that the project gave me numerous editing and speaking abilities regarding the course, it also showed me a part of my life that I was lacking and I would never be able to notice without this assignment. Even though I am an outgoing person, I am not the best to speak in public. This video gave me the opportunity to showcase my knowledge related to the communication field, but also gave me the opportunity to show a part of myself that I never thought about sharing in college.

It feels like yesterday that I decided to write a blog post about my journey to get to Hanover. This is my favorite assignment is college. My favorite part about it? All the simple grammar mistakes, the videos of competitions, the general purpose, and the story itself. This assignment helped me realize that I am not only capable of achieving my goals, but that I can overachieve the same goals whenever I have the discipline for it. One of the hardest parts of the project was the self-disclosure about topics that I had never talked about before. Although, to be a good communicator you have to be able to self-disclose yourself, and since after this assignment this part of my identity changed completely. Where now I learned ways to self-disclose information without feeling uncomfortable talking about my personal feelings. Another positive factor about this project is that it made me think about what careers I do not want to follow. As I mentioned in the Professional Identity part, I was completely lost about what career path to follow. I was shooting shots in every direction waiting for something to fall right on my lap like it was meant to be. However, “My Story Blog” made me rethink about my long-term goals, and helped me eliminate many areas that I could never see myself building a future in.

In my opinion, when it comes to Hanover College, its hard to pick a singular memorable moment in my 4 years here. However, when Dr. Bill Bettler gave us this assignment I was excited to sit down and try to pick a moment that I would be able to relate with the communication field. While working on this assignment, I was able to not only focus on the content related to communication but also I was able to think about every single moment that I have had at Hanover College. This was my favorite assigned paper in the communication major because I provide vivid examples about my personal life and related to topics from class that shaped my identity and that I still apply to my everyday life when it comes to behavior and decision-making. This assignment proved to me that being different is unique, and the communication field shaped me in a different way that I would not have thought before .

In this portfolio I’ve emphasized not only how my communication achievements related to classes, but also how important the decision of being a Communication major influenced my identity in simple little ways that made me the person that I am today. If you had told me in 2020 that I would be here, I would not believe you. I am proud to say that I made it through college being part of a department that cares about me as person, and gave me knowledge that no one can take it from me.

I would be lying if I said that I know what career path I want to follow, but I can for sure say that the Communication Field gave me wings to go and try different aspects of communication in different fields. I can proudly say that I feel ready to follow my dreams and keep discovering every single piece of this puzzle called: Life. I used this quote in more than one assignment on the field, and it is the focus of my life since I got to Hanover.

“Dê tempo ao tempo” - Give time some time

Gustavo Assumpção.

The impact of communication in simple ways

Digital Portfolio