The LCDI’s Student in the Spotlight for October is Maddie Bell, a Freshman here at Champlain. She’s from Denton, Texas and works as a Communications Assistant at the LCDI, where she monitors the social media sites and maintains blogs, in addition to working with the actual site to fix any bugs it might be experiencing. To get to know her better, we asked her a few questions.
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What would be your dream job after graduation?
A. My dream job would probably be to work for a major newspaper as a political journalist/analyst.
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What’s your favorite part about working at the Leahy Center?
A. My favorite part is getting to work directly in my major’s field and gather experience for the future.
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Here’s the big debate: Mac or Windows?
A. I’m a Windows, personally. Macs are just less user friendly to me!
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What is your favorite thing to do outside of class and work?
A. Outside of class I am usually either volunteering or debating. I am trying to volunteer as a reading mentor at a local school and I just recently joined the UVM debate team.
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What is the biggest challenge you have faced in your major?
A. As a freshman, I don’t think I’ve faced many. However, the most difficult class I’ve taken so far has been a graphics design class, which is required. I’ve had to learn everything about InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator basically from scratch.
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What’s your proudest moment?
A. Up to this point, I think my proudest moment was to actually come to Vermont for college. I knew I had wanted to go out of state, but it hadn’t seemed possible until Champlain.
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What’s your favorite thing about your major?
A. My favorite thing is getting to learn about a wide variety of different things. Communications is such a broad field, that I will have experience in all sorts of areas before I graduate, which I believe makes me a stronger candidate for jobs in my field.
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What was your favorite class you have taken at Champlain?
A. My favorite class so far is my Media and Society class, in which we discuss they relationship between media and the rest of the world.
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Where would you like to intern in the future?
A. I would love to intern at the Boston Globe, but my “pie in the sky” dream right now is for the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.
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Is the forensic technology as advanced as television shows such as “CSI” portray
A. Not too sure. I’m still not that familiar with the explicit details of the LCDI’s technology! But probably not, I would assume.
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How did you get started in digital forensics?
A. I didn’t! But I did get started in Communications because I had always had a passion for writing about real-world, impactful things. A COM major seemed like the best way to do that.
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Can deleted files be recovered?
A. Probably.
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If you could go back in time four year what would you tell yourself your first day at CC?
A. Make four years four months, and I would tell myself to bring more cold medicine.
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What will you miss most about CC?
A. I will probably miss the atmosphere the most. All of my teachers are incredibly friendly and encouraging and the students are all so accepting and willing to push their limits, while keeping an open mind too!
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Talk briefly about your capstone project.
A. Don’t have one!
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Did you intern anywhere? If so where and what did you do?
A. I haven’t officially interned anywhere as of yet, but I am looking at the Vermont Transportation Agency for next semester as a marketing intern.
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Tell us about your job search process?
A. So far, I am taking it in little steps. I’m working on getting as many internships as possible and then moving forward to look for a job to hold outside of college.
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If you have accepted a job offer where will you be working after CC? And what will you be doing?
A. Have not accepted anything.
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What area willing you or would like to work?
A. I would love to work in print media, however getting involved in the political sphere (like P.R. for a campaign) would be really cool as well.
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What are your expectations about life after CC?
A. I’m hoping to have a job that pays me enough so that I can pay rent. Other than that, I think my work won’t be such a challenge, since I think that the skills Champlain teaches are invaluable to everyone.
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What quote would you like to leave behind?
A. One of my favorite quotes: “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” –Albert Camus
Watch Maddie’s Interview here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kTvRwNJAnA