by Jeffrey Lee Ok—here’s the truth (and don’t tell anyone!). I first joined Arcadia High School’s Digital Communications Internship because, well, the name. You don’t see many high schoolers who get to say they’re in an internship, so I wanted in. So not knowing what I was getting myself into, I filled out the extensive application, responded way too late to confirm that I was going to the interview (that could have definitely been the end of my DCI career there), and made my way into the group interview. Fast forward 4 years to now, and I strongly believe that DCI was the most transformative experience of my high school career. It’s the main reason why I’m majoring in Communications, and gave me a huge headstart in many of the media activities I am in today. As a DCI’er, I was given the chance to visit USC for High School Journalism day, become much better at taking and editing pictures, and found a group of the nicest people around that made me look forward to the meetings every week. And that last part, I must say, although cliche, is the greatest gift DCI gave to me—mentors I look up to to this day, amazing friendships with kind people, and experiences I will never forget.
However, the second greatest gift DCI gave to me has to be the podcast team. I had just completed my first semester in DCI when Mr. Foran announced that a podcast team was going to be added, and they needed someone to be the manager. Interested in the medium and wanting to be more involved in the program overall, I took a leap of faith. And got the position. For some reason, Mr. Foran and Ms. Nuuvali decided to trust some kid with only a semester’s experience of DCI in his pocket. I internally let out my best impression of a Wilhelm scream and got to work looking up online guides, assembling a team, and brainstorming ideas. I was given a month to come out with the first episode but I released the first one in a week. It all went uphill from there. In the beginning, I was simultaneously the manager, editor, interviewer, and social media person, but as the podcast expanded and attracted more notice, the team grew bigger and bigger, like a startup company. In college, I was able to use my experiences in DCI and running the podcast team to be given an opportunity to shadow a radio producer despite being a tiny fish in a huge pond. I was also able to weasel my way into one of the most impressive student-run podcasts I’ve come across, Finance Simplified, by offering my service as their podcast editor. DCI has opened many doors for me, and I am forever grateful for the many days I stayed up deleting duplicate pictures off my camera, listening to the newest podcast episode, and making sure to post about district events on my Twitter page. So if you’re on the fence on whether or not to get involved in DCI, I have only one piece of advice for you: do it.
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12/19/2022 12:26:30 pm
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February 2024
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