Julia from Carbondale - M.S. in Professional Media and Media Management

My name is Julia Rendleman. I'm from Carbondale, Illinois and I'm a master's student in the Professional Media and Media Management Program.

My area of interest is photojournalism, and I do have a final research project which is kind of crazy.

It is about a photographer who was born in Indiana in 1876 and moved to New Orleans at the end of World War I, and was kind of famous in his day but never had any children or anyone to carry on his name. So, after he died in the 50s, he kind of went into obscurity.

But, after Hurricane Katrina 4,000 of his negatives, which are glass plate negatives were found at Preservation Hall in the French Quarter in New Orleans, and so my project is to restore these negatives digitally and create an online archive.

I was attracted to SIU for personal reasons. I was from Carbondale but hadn't lived here in ten years. and I think when you move away, you realize in comparison it's a really great place to a lot of other places.

So for me it was to be near family, and I'd always heard what a good Journalism school that SIU had, and they had recently hired some new professors who were bringing a lot of new ideas and new media to the program, and so that's what attracted me.

I have several classes that I really liked. I can't just limit it to one, but in the photojournalism realm there's been several classes. They've offered a Shawnee class and a Cairo class, and now they're doing a Muddy to Metropolis. In that class, you get to work really independently on a story of your choice around a bigger topic. So if it's about Cairo, Illinois, you're only limited to focusing on something in that town.

In the end a book is produced, and so it's really neat because you get to see your work published and distributed and you have the freedom all semester to work on one or two projects that really grab you. So, I would say those were some of my favorite classes. I worked at the Daily Egyptian, the college newspaper for two years. Last semester, I was the Photo Editor and having the Daily Egyptian here at SIU is an invaluable experience.

Right now I'm doing an internship at a newspaper, and if I hadn't worked at the Daily Egyptian I wouldn't understand what it takes to put out a daily newspaper, from finding the stories to copy editing to sending it to press.

The Daily Egyptian is unique because we have our own press here on campus, which I think only a few colleges in the nation have that, and so to see your work coming off the press it's just an invaluable experience, so anyone interested in photojournalism or journalism here at SIU I'd recommend applying to the Daily Egyptian.

Yes, I think that this program here at SIU has really taken my work to the next level, improved my portfolio by leaps and bounds, and given me real world experiences that are going to better prepare me for a job. I feel confident now that I can go out into the world and look for a job, and sell myself and not be lying.

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Education