For my Multimedia Memoir project I will use a video with music and narration to explain and highlight my experience. Regardless of the topic I end up choosing, I am going to use the same medium and creative process to develop the final project.

• Throughout my entire life— like many children— I have had a very strong bond with my mom. She is an incredible role model and I am so grateful for all that she has sacrificed to ensure that I am able to take advantage of all of the opportunities I am afforded. Our relationship has transformed since I came to college. It is difficult going home and being treated the same way I was treated in high school after having so much freedom and responsibility here at Penn State. My mom is having a hard time adjusting to life as a parent of a college kid and I am trying very hard to know my place when I go home. Although I am an adult, I must remember that this is a learning experience for my mom just as much as it is for me and she always as my best interest in mind.

(Photo by Shannon Smith)

• I have had a great fondness of the beach and the ocean since I was a toddler. My family used to visit Cape Cod or Maine every summer when I lived in Upstate, NY. When I was seven years old we moved to Barnegat, NJ, which is a short bike ride to the bay and just a ten-minute car ride to Long Beach Island. Growing up by the beach has been a great experience and I truly appreciate being able to spend my summer days by the sea when some people live their entire lives without being able to see it in person. In this memoir I am going to talk about how my relationships and experiences have changed throughout my life but my love for the beach– Long Beach Island in particular– remains unchanged.

(Photo by Olivia Hogan in August 2014 on Long Beach Island)

• This semester I took an eye-opening science course with Penn State professor Christopher Uhl. The course challenged you to re-evaluate your relationship with the planet, asking yourself if your behaviors and interactions with the planet are having a positive or negative impact. I have learned so much about who I am and how everything I do affects the world around me. This course led me to changing quite a few of my everyday habits. I try to avoid taking the bus to class, I try to avoid buying coffee and tea frequently to cut back on the amount of styrofoam or cardboard cups I use, I recycle, I take shorter showers, I don’t let the water run when I brush my teeth, I only use the lights in my dorm room when necessary, etc. These changes have only inspired me to implement greater changes in my behavior. It is empowering knowing that by changing your interactions with the environment, you can make the planet a better place.

(Photo by Olivia Hogan in October 2014 at Penn State)

• When I was a freshman in high school I had a very difficult year. It started by finding out that my parents were getting divorced and that I had to move out of the house I’d lived in since I was seven. Following the move and my parents divorce, I received news that my Nana passed away and just a month or so later, my dog passed away. On top of receiving a lot of bad news and dealing with a lot of change, I was attending a Performing Arts high school that I did not like. In this memoir I would detail the ways in which these experiences impacted my life and how I tried to remain positive and learn from the negative experiences in my life.

Photo courtesy of: Pinterest

• The hardest decision I have had to make was choosing between Musical Theatre and Broadcast Journalism as my major in college. I looked at this decision as more than choosing between two majors… I was choosing between two passions, two experiences, two lifestyles, two careers. I struggled for a long time and ultimately chose the major that will lead me to a more secure and financially successful career. Since I am passionate about both paths I was not as if I was abandoning all of my dreams because being a news anchor is also something I have dreamed of since I was little. This memoir will highlight the struggle I had with making this big decision as well as how this decision has and is impacting me and my college experience.

(“Best Actress in a Musical” Ocean Arts Award-Winning performance as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”)
(After interviewing Good Morning America anchor, Robin Roberts about her experience as a lifetime Girl Scout for an article in a Girl Scout magazine in 2009)