Blog Journal #1

    Hello! My name is Stephen Chin and I am a second year Creative Writing student at Florida State University. I hail from a beautiful region of New York called Rockland County, located about 30 minutes above the city. The best aspects of my hometown are definitely the amazing mountains, waterfalls, hikes and cute towns tucked between the valleys. I spent most of my childhood hiking, biking, and falling (see photos below), and somewhere in between all of that foolishness I managed to find an interest in writing. Currently, I aspire to be an author, or a screenwriter, or something like that. I don't have the details ironed out yet, but education is another one of my interests which is why I decided this year to minor in it.

    My experience with technology is limited to essentially the few school presentations I have done on google slides and PowerPoint. I feel that I could whip up a presentation quite well on Google Slides, however, I am no expert in it. I do have some experience with Adobe Premiere where I created various videos and presentations throughout high school and college, so hopefully that'll be useful. Beyond that, I hope to learn more about alternative presentation methods. I have already enjoyed using Canva and Blogger so that's a good start!

    My personal learning network (PLN)  is quite limited currently, and after thinking about it for a while, I realized most of my network is made up of various social media apps. The stand out social media app I use is YouTube, where I am subscribed to channels which all help to supplement my interests, specifically in writing, history, and movie/TV. I also use the website Indeed where my resume is featured for potential jobs. As far as people in my PLN, I have a few contacts (mainly former teachers and instructors) who have helped me with revising my writing for jobs/applications. Last year, I built up a small network of people involved in another one of my interests; hiking. I attended a couple of meetings of the FSU hiking club where I met a few like-minded hikers, and together we share our knowledge of different hikes in the Florida area.

    

                                               A waterfall at the end of a hike near my home

                                            The view of the Hudson River from the Waterfall

                                  The view of the Hudson River from the riverside town Piermont

                                                                My friend in Piermont