When my professor for ENG 138T announced that our first assignment would be a This I Believe Podcast, I got unbelievably excited. I had no doubt that this assignment would be the easiest A ever, since there was so much I believed in. As per usual, I was wrong. Although I do believe in many things, it seemed impossible to describe one of those things philosophically (with added points if a narrative involved). I tried everything from believing in the color of my own skin to Chinese food.

But that's when it hit me, combine the two! This single stroke of genius brought about what I believe to be the most powerful part of my essay- I wrote about something I didn't believe in.

"I Believe in Not Liking Tacos" doesn't sound super professional or academic, but I got so personal in this podcast that I'm glad it doesn't. This form of communication works so well for me, because I have such an emotional vocal range and my sarcasm goes over a lot better on podcast than on paper. 

My favorite lines include:
"Yet because my skin is the color most people pay for, everyone thinks that I have the not so rare talent of hoping fences".
"I'm probably the whitest Hispanic you'll ever meet, which is made painfully obvious by my atrocious dance skills and complete lack of a 'donk' "
"Whether you're from the Americas, Asia, or Africa, a smile represents happiness, laughter is transformed into joy, and family surrounds us with love."
"As Americans, we define ourselves by our words and actions, not by others normative views. We are smarter than that, better than that, but most importantly, we are stronger than that."

After ranting for a good minute and forty three seconds, my essay shifts. It becomes more reflective and urges others to change the way they stereotype others, as well as themselves. It's important to note that we are the only ones who define who we are, and many times we are the only one holding ourselves back. In this section, I stop using the pronoun "me" and replace it with "us", signifying the unity of the human race.

This project will forever remain one of my favorites. It is extremely personal, and combines passion to break free of stereotypes with my strong personality. I believe that out of all of my works, this is the one that best defines me as a person.

A description of the assignment is as follows:

 “Working in a group of 3-4, students will create a 7-9-minute multi-media
text that explores, depicts, and makes an argument about the history of a
controversy.
 The objective of this assignment is three-fold:

 1. to integrate the rhetorical skills you have been developing thus far in the
    course, especially with regard to the variety of rhetorical modes available in a
    digital context
2.to work as a team researching, designing, and presenting an informative text to
    the class
3.to develop basic facility with a variety of multi-media tools”

So basically we were randomly put into groups of 4 and had to make a video about an issue on the Penn State campus. Since one of my other group members and I had both previously written papers on rape culture, we decided that we would like to make our public controversy  video about that rape culture at Penn State. We hoped to make people more aware of the issue of rape culture at Penn State, by showing how uninformed the campus is through interviews and polls. 

Believe it or not, this video is one of my proudest accomplishments. In the course of this assignment, I had to organize my team, regulate time management skills, learn how to conduct interviews, learn how to use video editing software on macs, perfect my voice acting skills, as well as learn how to discuss a growing issue that is often overlooked on a college campus. 

Sure, the pictures were a little too fast in the beginning  and there were some party shots in the beginning where my artistic side got a little ahead of me, but overall I think it's a great piece of work. As it was a group project, it was not entirely my vision, meaning I had to let go of some ideas just as much as the other group members, but I have never felt so satisfied at the completion of an assignment. 

My favorite parts include the "ums" section (1:23), and the powerful ending.
I love the "ums" because of how the music builds up and just stops to a bunch of people having no idea as to what the answer is to a simple vocabulary question. It was really interesting when we conducted interviews to see what actual students had to think, not just anonymous polls we posted on the web. I'm also proud of the emotional effect the music has on the ending. It makes the issue seem pressingly urgent, and when I read the headline on one of the collegian's articles, it's clear that this is a serious issue. The screen just fades out after displaying the words " It's time to wakeup" with total silence.