My Name is Maggie Detchemendy, I am currently a junior at Webster University pursuing a double major in Interactive Digital Media and Graphic Design. I am hoping that after I graduate to find a job related to being a creative and design.
I hope to someday own my own branding company where I can work on many different projects and utilize my many skills
When I was in 7th grade, I was tasked with making a spoof movie trailer for a book we read in my history class. This was my first experience with video editing and creative media in general. I fell in love with the whole process. The filming, the editing, the sounds effects all of it. While most people in my class had just picked a simple template from iMovie and called it good, I spent hours making sure it was perfect and was exactly what I wanted to, even though it was just a silly little assignment. My work did not go unappreciated, as my History teacher decided to give me and my friend, who acted and help write the script for the video, a small award and even ended up showing the entire 7th grade class.
I was very passionate about videography and specifically video editing. I watched video after video on Youtube about editing and continued to improve my skills. I transitioned from the simple iMovie to programs like Hitfilm4 Express and eventually to Adobe Premier Pro (When I could afford it)
In high school I didn't know what I was going to do for college. I knew I liked video and video editing but I thought the only option I had was to become a filmmaker and that was just not realistic for me. I was in all the advanced math classes and was planning on following my older brother's footsteps and becoming an engineer. But I knew this was not going to make me happy. This was when a teacher approached me and convinced me to take a multimedia class which allowed me to work on more video projects as well as expose to more creative media formats.
Then in March of 2020, the schools closed down for the rest of my Junior Year of high school.
Fortunately, I was recommended to enroll in a class called Advanced Design Lab where I essentially worked as an intern for the school. It was in this class where I met a teacher who really pushed me to go for design in college and exposed to even more forms of creative media not just video, including graphic design, UX and UI design, website design, branding, etc.. I soon fell in love with the creative strategy and design process as a whole.
During this time I was also enrolled in a program called the ST. Charles County Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS) in which students were immersed in a professional environment and the curriculum was specifically curated by industry professionals to ensure that what we learned in the classroom would be relevant to the workforce. It was here that I participated in my 2 first internships and truly fell in love with creative media and found that I actually had a talent for it as well.
©Maggie Detchemendy 2023
