Introduction
I have grown exponentially as an artist at Freestyle. The program has provided me with a range of technology and opportunities for me to express my creativity, including industry-grade materials. I am confident in my artistic vision and I now know how to execute it on a professional level. Featured below is a collection of works I’ve created from 2022-2024 as a Freestyle student, that I am very proud of.
Documentary
Creating the Breaking Barriers Documentary with Kylie Outten was one of my favorite experiences at Freestyle. For the Junior Documentary unit, Kylie and I decided to document the families of the Special Education Students at Mountain View High School. Conducting these interviews introduced me to an entirely new community that I had no idea existed at Mountain View. The ability to communicate the stories of these families correctly became very important to me and I am still passionate and proud of this project. I will always have a special connection to Documentary filmmaking because of this amazing experience!
Breaking Barriers was selected for the All American High School Film Festival, LA Student Film Festival, and Centre Film Festival. (Best Student Documentary 2023)
Lyrical Essay
The Lyrical Essay was our final English assignment of Junior Year. This unit was one of my favorites because it introduced me to a new style of writing, lyrical essays/prose. I was very inspired by the author of Book of Delights, Ross Gay, to try a form of writing that followed my train of thought, disregarding proper punctuation. Not only am I incredibly happy with how this essay came out on a academic writing level, but I enjoy the way it feels like a peek into my brain.
Free Verse Poem
The Free Verse Poem was my first English assignment at Freestyle, in which we studied different forms of poetry and eventually wrote our own thematic poems. In this poem, I allude to the myth of Persephone and the contrast in imagery of childhood and fear to represent the feeling of growing up as a woman.
Personal Mandala
Our Personal Mandalas aim to reflect who we are through peaceful imagery. I enjoyed this assignment because of the freedom we had in designing our mandalas–I think the color palette and flowery, blooming nature of the piece reflects who I am very well. We also had the opportunity to engrave our mandalas on a piece of wood, which is pictured on the right.
World Building Research Paper
For this research paper, I explored the multi-layered impact of the influx of cryptocurrency investors to Puerto Rico, tax loopholes, colonialism, and the Puerto Rican people. This piece is very important to be because my family is from Puerto Rico, and I care very strongly about the sovereignty of the people. One of my biggest challenges with this project was learning how the American economy interacts with the economies of American colonies, which was important context for this paper. I found myself reading Puerto Rican government transcripts and translating from Spanish to understand how these tax loopholes were possible. More and more, this piece is becoming more relevant as it reflects a modern example of colonization.
Reel
My reel is a collection of my proudest film works from Freestyle, including my Zenith pitch films, my Junior and Senior Narratives, my music video production, and more.