How Ambassador Chris Mastered the Transition from a Small High School to Finding a Place at USC
Coming from a small, tight-knit high school in rural Connecticut, change was something I simultaneously craved and feared. USC was the antithesis of everything my high school was, and for that reason, I was motivated to take the leap and choose to attend, even if it was everything I wasn’t used to. While the idea of a large school appealed to me, I also knew I needed to find niches and pockets of community wherever I could to make USC feel like home. Luckily, with over a thousand registered student organizations and opportunities thrown your way to get involved extracurricularly, it was made quickly apparent that I wouldn’t need to worry about having to seek out community.
The most important community I’ve found at USC, however, is undoubtedly Annenberg. Annenberg feels like a family; the faculty, the courses, the resources, and the career opportunities all feel so specifically tailored to its students and encourage discourse among the school’s constituents. I’ve felt that each professor in Annenberg who I’ve taken a course with has truly shown an interest in fostering relationships with their students both inside and outside of the classroom, frequently checking in on our well-being and asking how the course is being received/what adjustments can be made on their part. I was fortunate enough to take COMM 206: Communication and Culture with Professor Alison Trope last fall, who I ended up forming a great relationship with; I’m taking her COMM 398: Fashion, Media and Culture course this semester and have been ecstatic to form a meaningful bond with a professor who feels like they know me. Getting to know Annenberg faculty and seeing that there is no impersonality between students and professors has both comforted me and excited me.
Aside from relationships with Annenberg faculty, Annenberg has also provided me with two incredibly important extracurricular engagements. I joined Annenberg Ambassadors last fall and began interning in the Annenberg Admissions office this semester, both of which have allowed me to engage with the Annenberg community intimately and attract prospective students and families through Annenberg programming and events. Getting to connect with other Annenberg students over a shared love for the school, its curriculum, and its community is a particular experience that only strengthens our camaraderie. Aside from my involvement in Annenberg, I’ve been able to connect with other students over a shared love of music; I am the Director of PR for USC FemFest, which is a music festival hosted yearly that highlights talent oppressed by the patriarchy in the music industry. Getting the chance to connect with students primarily studying Music Industry at Thornton has been an enriching experience, one that’s allowed me to better understand other facets of our larger USC community and continue developing academic interests outside of Annenberg.
Exploring registered student organizations at USC is an essential part of your time here. There’s just about anything you can imagine to get involved with and produce something meaningful within. Not only being able to participate in nearly a thousand of these organizations is rewarding, but hearing what your friends are invested in and what they’re working on extracurricularly is just as fascinating and truly forms a community with such wide and varied interests.
