This is the second part of a three-part blog post looking back at my first semester at American University, and the challenges and accomplishments that I have had to face in the marathon that was this past semester. This second part looks back at my participation in extracurricular activities from this semester; Part 1 focused on my classes, and Part 3 will be written on the airplane and posted retroactively once I am back home.

School isn’t just about classes, or at least it shouldn’t be, and that’s why I’m very happy about the extracurricular activities and organizations that I’ve gotten involved in this semester. That’s actually what made this past summer and the start of this semester so tense, because so much of my life had been dedicated to extracurricular organizations that I left behind (hopefully temporarily) to come over to AU, and I didn’t really know what I would be doing when I got here. Fortunately, the various groups I have been a part of have been overall a pleasure to work with and have really helped me get through this semester. So in this blog post (which will be much shorter than yesterday’s was), I wanted to take a look at the various activities I’ve been in and what I’ve accomplished.

ATV
ATV is the student-run television station at American University. I became aware of it last spring shortly after opting to attend AU, and watched a few shows on its website. (One of its shows, AU DeRailed, is actually the first place where I heard an opinion contrasting the advertised view that TDR had some of the best college food in the country. Either AU DeRailed was right or most college food is really terrible.) Well, after having hosted and produced podcasts about technology since summer of 2006, I thought that it would be fun to try to put together a show on ATV covering technology. A few days before I left in August, I even came up with an interesting name while I was about to go to sleep: Tech tAUk. (Note the AU in the name.) Well, a week or two in, I submitted a show proposal, and found out that another freshman had also pitched a proposal for a tech show but with a more magazine-style format. We wound up working together to get the show going following his format and my name, and put out three pretty good episodes during the month of November. You can see them on Tech tAUk’s website.

But while I was making my initial contact with the guys in charge at ATV to work out getting this show going, I mentioned to them that I had some experience putting together websites (after all I had redesigned three different websites this year already), and since their website looked kind of pathetic, I wanted to know if they would like some help. I pitched some ideas to them in early September, and once I got my new MacBook Pro in October, spent about six weeks coding and designing the site under the codename ANewTV. I’ll probably dedicate a whole blog post sometime in January recapping all the work that went into that site, but let’s just say that it was by far the largest coding project I had ever undertaken. ATV’s new site has gotten rave reviews and compliments from everyone at ATV, and I’m very happy to have been able to put work into that project.

Since the site launched on November 11, I’ve been getting even more involved at ATV in ways that I wouldn’t even have expected. I am pretty much now at the amateur level of using Final Cut Pro and am learning more about the program every day. I edited most of episode 2 and all of episode 3 of Tech tAUk myself using the program. I am also now the managing editor of ATV Classics, which is essentially the generic name for reruns which I rip off of archives and format for air, and I have contributed some editing and tech directing assistance on Special Broadcast. Both of those shows now have new opening/closing titles which I edited together. I’ve also been doing Prompter for StarStudded, and probably my most fun bit of work was editing together a Best of Fall 2009 clip-show video for ATV. I also helped ATV launch a live online stream of their on-air programming, and also edited together some great new ATV station bumpers that show the “Now”, “Next”, and “Later” programs in their lineup. We’re also working on some great new things for next semester, including putting together an actual television schedule, and being able to do live Skype video interviews in-studio.

In short, during the second half of the semester I have probably at least a third of my waking hours working at ATV and learning the ropes there. The guys there have been awesome to get to know and work with, especially our General Manager, Sean Speirs, who has been a great mentor to me, an awesome friend, and never misses an opportunity to brighten my day with compliments for my work. At the beginning of the semester I thought that media and communications stuff was more of a hobby for me than anything else, but after this past semester at ATV, I’m beginning to reconsider. Maybe when sophomore year comes around, I’ll end up transferring to the School of Communication? But I’ve still got a few months to ponder that idea…

AU Student Government
I got into the Student Government at American in mid-August when I learned of a vacancy in the position of Parliamentarian of the Undergraduate Senate in an e-mail. I applied for the job, was appointed by the President in late August, and confirmed by the Senate in mid-September.

The interesting thing about the Student Government here at AU is that the prevailing view on campus seems to be that it doesn’t do anything meaningful other than getting itself bogged down all of the time in parliamentary debacles. While the SG does indeed do a good number of meaningful things on campus, it does get itself bogged down frequently in parliamentary debacles. My job is to help ensure that that doesn’t happen, but my role is not equivalent to that of a Sergeant-at-Arms, meaning that sometimes we wind up in parliamentary debacles because certain individuals are trying to make them happen.

It also didn’t help that the very beginning of the semester saw the first-ever impeachment proceedings in the history of the Student Government, as a member of the Senate impeached the Comptroller for alleged falsification of summer time sheets. Being as my parliamentarian role is supposed to have me be impartial, I’ll let you make your own opinion on that case. However, that led into three consecutive nights of 11 PM hearings filled with parliamentary missteps and accusations from the defense of witch hunting–with no actual parliamentarian on hand to help keep some semblance of order, since I hadn’t yet been confirmed as parliamentarian yet. Granted, then-Speaker Dunham did a pretty good job given the circumstances, but the entire process was still a mess for reasons beyond his control. And as the incoming Parliamentarian, I was there to observe, and as I have frequently said, if the Student Government were a fraternity then those impeachment proceedings were my hazing.

Since then, though, I’ve established a very good rapport with most, if not all, of the Senate, and with the new Speaker. I am now very comfortable in my position and quite familiar with the governing documents, and will be an ex officio member of a commission to consider revisions to the governing documents next semester, in addition to continuing in my primary role as parliamentarian.

Music
Finally, I haven’t abandoned my participation in music around here. This past semester I did not try to join the AU Symphony Orchestra because I had no idea how my schedule would work out and didn’t want to over-commit myself. However I do intend to try out next semester. Instead, this past semester I participated in the Chamber Music program, though scheduling difficulties got me into a group with one violin and three cellos, which was difficult to pick pieces for (although I did arrange one piece for our group to play).

However, I have also become a part of the AU United Methodist/Protestant Community, which holds worship services Sunday nights at 7 PM. I am the lead (by “lead” read “only”) male vocalist in their student-run choral group Fellowship of Sound, and also contribute cello there as well. Although adjusting to a different religious community and service structure has been difficult at times, the services have given me a tangible way to stay indirectly connected to home, and it has been wonderful to be a part of it. Plus the home-cooked dinners brought over by the Metropolitan Methodist Church across the street every 2-3 weeks has only helped to sweeten the deal. ;)

So that’s pretty much what my extracurricular activities have been this semester. Of course, there’s always so many opportunities to participate in, and there are a lot of other things that I would like to do but have to prioritize out of my life. It’s also worth noting that I’m still not in an actual job yet, placing me somewhat on the poor side of life, so maybe that’s another thing to think about next semester…