Panther Prints | Issue 4 | May 2020

@PESHPRINTS Feature • 9
PANTHER PROFILE
Lights, camera, graphics
Senior pursues career in film, television editing
by Myh Seyoum
he lights go up in the theater as the cred-
roll and everyone stares forward in
Tits
awe. More impressive than the writing and
acting was the editing of the film. The visual
and sound effects captured the audience’s
fascination throughout the entire movie.
Unless they’re film buffs, they probably
won’t stop to search up the editor’s name
or watch for their Oscar nomination, but the
editor’s reward comes in making a successful
film. Senior Mercedes Rose hopes to be
one of these editors and one day it might
just be her name up on the screen.
Rose plans to major in Film and Media
this fall at the State University of New
York at Plattsburgh. Exposure to this field
came to her at a young age, since her dad
is a freelance stage manager. She says she
knew she wanted to pursue a career in film
at age 12.
“I just really like the work,” Rose said. “It’s
never stressful or a lot of work for me. In
a way, it’s just enjoying being able to make
my own work and being able to share it
with people.”
Rose says that part of her inspiration
came from a class she took her junior year,
Audio-Visual Productions 1 with Octavio
Oropeza. The class went over basics such
as learning to use editing software and
Passion for academia
Student’s book donations create opportunities for children in developing nations
writing scripts correctly. She was surprised
to receive such positive feedback on her
music video project, which was voted best
in the class.
“It was really fun to hear that everybody
liked what I did,” Rose said. “Since they
liked it, then I really knew, ‘Okay, I do want
to do this, for a fact.’”
Rose also met one of her closest friends,
senior Katherine Creevy, in this class. Rose
and Creevy became close toward the end
of the first semester and found they shared
the same ambition to become filmmakers.
“[The class] was actually a big part in my
decision [to pursue film] because I wasn’t
even thinking of taking the class sophomore
year,” Creevy said. “Then when I decided
to and actually went through it I was
like, ‘Oh, I can see myself doing this for a living.’
Especially junior year is where you kind
of figure out everything so having that class
really pushed me toward my decision.”
Horror and action movies draw the most
interest from Rose. She says that different
aspects of each give her motivation to pursue
them in her career.
“I really like the score of horror movies,
but I would say that I think I’m more interested
in action movies,” Rose said. “Superhero
movies I [emulate] when I edit because I
by Isis Martin
nternational Baccalaureate senior
IZawge Daniel uses his passion for
education to help children in underdeveloped
nations access education
through books.
“I chose to take on this volunteer
work because I wanted to demolish
the education barriers that the children
in Blantyre, Malawi had experienced,”
Daniel said.
In October 2019, Daniel discovered
a scholarship opportunity that would
grant him $2,500 in proceeds for the
completion of a community service
project. After learning about the opportunity,
Daniel’s book donation project
began to form itself into a passion
project for students without access to
quality education.
“My cousins and teachers were
a big support during this process by
helping me publicize my book drive,”
Daniel said.
With the assistance of his friends
and family, Daniel came up with a total
of 100 books through familial and personal
donations within the first month,
but he still wanted to collect at least
a few hundred books. Within the following
months, Daniel received over
800 book donations from classmates
and peers. Aside from his family’s support,
his Ethiopian culture also played
a major role in his success winning the
scholarship later on.
“My parents’ generosity of sending
clothing and money to alleviate underserved
areas in Addis Ababa further
inspired me to take on this volunteer
work,” Daniel said. “As I grew older, I
became more determined to make a
positive influence in underdeveloped
nations, particularly because my goal
for the future is to become a doctor
and establish clinics in underserved
areas.”
Growing up with immigrant parents
from Ethiopia prompted Daniel
to explore the scholarship opportunity
beyond his original project. The
privatization of Ethiopia’s economy
left power unequally distributed in the
Scan this QR code to
watch Rose’s music video
like seeing the effects and everything and
I actually want to learn how to do that.”
Rose wants to change the stereotype of
what it takes to be successful in the film industry.
She avoids being overly competitive
or “cutthroat” because it could hurt her by
burning bridges.
“I want to just prove that you don’t have
to be mean or you don’t have to be a certain
way to get what you want in life,” Rose
said. “You can just work hard and still be really
nice to people. Also, I hope to change
the image of editors because I’ve never
seen a lot of black female editors. I want to
prove that I can do it too, just the same as
anyone else.”
African nation. As a result, accessing
education and educational resources
is difficult for children. The country
of Malawi, where Daniel chose
to donate his books, experiences
similar circumstances. Librarian Steven
Lewis helped Daniel decrease the
cost of sending his books to Malawi
by helping him package the books into
boxes.
“I was enthusiastic about his charity
drive endeavor, though I was worried
about the cost of him shipping books
internationally,” Lewis said.
Without support from his fellow
classmates, Daniel had no club to attach
to his charity donation scholarship;
however, Lewis sponsored the
project under the book club, which allowed
Daniel to continue his project in
school.
“My hope is that by doing this
book drive, it creates a positive,
long-lasting impact on the community
[at school and in Malawi] for years,”
Daniel Said.