In my three years at Goshen College I have been given more opportunities than I even had time to think about.

Jake Smucker

Some were simple choices about social events: whether to attend that musical concert, play that game with friends, watch a movie on the lawn, or play in an intramural sports game. Others were more exciting, inspirational, potentially life-altering opportunities: traveling to Greece and Rome for a video production class, traveling to Kenya for a documentary filmmaking class, studying for a semester in Peru for Goshen’s Study-Service Term, and joining staff at FiveCore Media. I have been involved in FiveCore Media in some way or another since May of my first year at Goshen College. Last Fall, at the beginning of my junior year, I was hired on staff and began to work up to 15 hours per week producing and editing videos for clients both within Goshen College and from the surrounding community.

That experience last year gave me a taste of a professional work atmosphere and the expectations and requirements of such a setting. What surprised me was not the pressure placed on me with a deadline approaching, but how much I enjoyed the focused, detail-oriented task of finishing a video. My biggest projects last year were working on a Faith Mentoring video with Elizabeth Derstine and shooting the multi-camera Festival of Carols event. These were both major projects that taught me a lot about different aspects of video production.

This year is my senior year (already! Hard to believe.) and I have different expectations than I had for the last few years of school. I believe that this year at FiveCore Media will afford me opportunities to further improve at time management and working toward deadlines. However, I also expect to have opportunities to develop advanced skills in video editing and I expect opportunities to further my personal competency in running a full-scale shoot on my own. I have no clue what all my career after college will entail, but there is a good chance that I’ll have to work on my own without professors or maybe even co-workers to ask questions. Therefore, one goal of mine is to adopt the mindset that I need to prepare to do every job on the team. Someday I may need to know how to do them all.

Jake Smucker and Kyle Hufford

 While I hope to be able to do it all, it is a blessing to work in a place where I am     not expected to simply know everything. This is the place for asking questions,   trying new things, and, as a team, ending up with a better video project because of it.