MAJORING IN MEDIA:
COLLEGE AND BEYOND

This panel discussion is for high school students who are interested in pursuing their passions in media. Attend this virtual event and learn more about the types of college and university programs there are for journalism, broadcast news, film, documentary, and television.

 

This virtual event is organized and sponsored by the Chapter’s Junior Board Outreach Committee and will be moderated by Junior Board Members Ellie Hall and Juliette Strangio. 

 

We will also provide a resource guide that walks students through ways they can determine what career in media and area of study are best for them, and what colleges and universities in the Midwest offer programs in media and broadcasting. The resource guide also provides a list of websites, free software, and other valuable resources to help strengthen skills in TV and news writing, filmmaking, editing, cinematography, and media literacy.

PANELIST BIOS

Ayesha Abouelazm is a filmmaker, instructor, and poet. She has written and directed many short films. This includes One (2015), Love Is A Gray Area (2016), Utterance (2016), The Girl in the Blue Bra (2016) and Not On My Shoulders (2017). She tends to gravitate towards films that deal with controversial issues and that shed light on subjects that are not talked about. Ayesha is a 2017 graduate student at Columbia College Chicago, one of the largest film schools in the entire country. The Girl in the Blue Bra is one of her more personal works and has been shown in over 20 film festivals so far, where it won “Joint Best North American Short” at the Asia South East Film Festival and best long-short film at the Kinodrome Film Festival. This film is based on the 2011 Egyptian revolution and she is underway on a feature of the same name. She currently is an instructor at Loyola University Chicago.

Brian Andrews is a storyteller and visual technologist. His creative works have been featured in the Sundance Film Festival, Cannes XR - Festival de Cannes, Montréal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, and the Nashville Film Festival among many others. Andrews is an active member of the Visual Effects Society. Currently he serves as the chair of Post-Production at DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Marie Halliday is the Director of Feature Development at Crazy Legs Productions. Prior to joining the team at Crazy Legs, Marie was a Vice President of Development at Adaptive Studios and a Director of Production & Development at MarVista Entertainment. She currently teaches at Columbia College Chicago where she received her MFA in Creative Producing.

Arionne Nettles is a lecturer and director of audio journalism programming at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. As a culture reporter in print and audio, her stories often look into Chicago history, culture, gun violence, policing and race & class disparities as a contributor to the New York Times Opinion, Chicago Reader, The Trace, Medium’s ZORA and Momentum, Chicago PBS station WTTW and NPR affiliate WBEZ.

Carolina Posse Emiliani is an associate professor at Columbia College Chicago. She is an award-winning media producer and educator. She worked in the arts non-profit sector as Programming Director, and ultimately served as Interim Director of the Chicago Latino Film Festival. For eight years she served as the film curator for Mostra: Brazilian Film Series presented in cooperation with Partners of the Americas Illinois-Sao Paulo Chapter. She has guest lectured for numerous educational and governmental institutions; served on juries for the Sundance Institute, Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB), the Independent Television Service (ITVS) among others; and served in the Latinx Community Council of the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Lyn Pusztai advises, mentors, prepares and supports Second City Film School students and DePaul Screenwriting MFA's, for careers in the film and television industries with a focus on comedy. Additionally, students are connected to respected industry professionals through Q & A's, workshops, special events and networking to secure meaningful and educational experiences that advance their careers. She provides ongoing career support for alumni and specializes in relationship building, networking and collaboration. Lyn brings students over 16 years of experience in professional development and has worked in Chicago's improv community in various capacities for several decades.