Emma Bowman is a college senior, majoring in History at the University of California, Irvine. This fall, she will be participating in the UC Washington, D.C. Academic Program. When Emma was a youngster, she would stack a pile of picture books next to her pillow as part of her bedtime ritual. Her love of storytelling translated into her love of history.
When Emma decided last year to take a Literary Journalism course in the UCI Literary Journalism department headed by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Barry Siegel, she discovered that she enjoys telling stories as well as reading them. The course strengthened and broadened her writing skills, and proved to be a turning point in her studies. She learned that the original storytelling of journalism captivates her, and she is now pursuing a career in journalism and public relations.
During her summer internship with TheViewFromHere, Emma provided multimedia storytelling tools for Stockton teenagers to share their views on the issues surrounding the elevated high school dropout rate in their community. She created and managed RView209, essentially a digital chalkboard, to complement the documentary, ClassDismissed, and to promote a dialogue with Stockton youth about the high school dropout problem, causes and possible solutions. This community engagement project gave Emma a meaningful opportunity to hear and to give voice to real youth in a community plagued by what has become a national problem, the high school drop out crisis.
