Zoe Travers, mass communications senior, likes to dabble in many different studies.
Travers recently returned to the U.S. after a semester abroad at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, England.
“It was a little bit last minute,” Travers said. “I was at a crossroads spring of 2019. Early in spring, I was in a meeting with my counselor, and he said I could graduate in spring 2019, in December 2019 or study abroad and graduate in 2020.”
Travers said she decided to graduate with her class.
“I didn’t want to go crazy and graduate early and pack everything in,” she said. “I wanted to let myself be in college for a bit.”
In addition to Travers’s major in mass communication, she also studies three different minors: film, philosophy and Spanish.
Travers said she spent a majority of her study abroad experience taking classes for her film minor.
“I learned a lot of film theory,” she said. “One of the things I found with film is that they teach mostly Hollywood, so the actual films you watch aren’t that different. It’s still pretty American-based.”
Travers said she enjoyed delving into the art form.
“I don’t know if it’s a field I see myself going into, but I really enjoy learning about how to really watch film,” she said.
Now that Travers is back in the states, she said she’s taking it easy.
“I’m not doing a lot right now. I’m just focusing on finishing school,” she said. “I found that I was really, really busy for a long time, and then I was really, really not busy for a period of time, and now I’m circling back to figure out what was more comfortable for me.”
Previously, Travers was a music reporter for OKSessions and a student reporter for both KOSU and the Gayly.
Travers said though she enjoys reporting on arts and entertainment, she is open to anything.
Travers said she recommends students find what volume of work they’re comfortable with.
“Find your comfort level and try to stick to it,” she said. “Just because everyone around you is pushing doesn’t mean you have to. If everyone around is relaxing, you don’t have to. Learn how to say no.”
Travers said she recommends a certain type of food for students as well.
“Walmart cheese danishes,” she said. “Don’t underestimate them.”
Andy Gibson, mass communications artist-in-residence, and Billy Palumbo, visiting assistant professor of film, have made an impact on Travers, she said.
“I thank Billy Palumbo for all the laughs. Billy for president. Thank you, William Palumbo,” Travers said.
Palumbo said before he had Travers in class, he had heard about her from other people.
“I was really excited from what I had heard about her, and it’s been fun to see her kind of translating film classes into what she has been studying here in mass communications and exploring her horizons a little bit,” Palumbo said.
Palumbo said he’s enjoyed seeing Travers push herself to the artistic side of education.
“I had her in intermediate film workshop last year, and it was fun to see her grappling with some of the stuff we were talking about in a different way than everyone else.”
Travers has been learning how to know her worth in the art of storytelling, Palumbo said.
“I admire how selflessly she approaches storytelling, and she’s been realizing that she is an important part of that story as well, even if it’s not about her. She’s realizing that Zoe Travers is important too,” he said. “I’m excited to see how she integrates that into whatever she pursues.”B
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