Lauren from Oklahoma - MFA in Media Arts

My name is Lauren Selmon Roberts.  Originally I am from Norman, Oklahoma and I am an M.F.A. candidate in Media Arts.

My background is in broadcast news.  Now in the Master of Fine Arts program I really love combining the news world with the world of fine art.

My thesis project is a full-length documentary that was shot in Liberia, West Africa.  It tells the story of one woman who saved the lives of over 250 kids during Liberia's war.

I initially found the M.F.A. program in a film school book and what drew my eye to it was that the M.F.A. program specifically has a three-year assistantship program for its students.

So when you compare it to similar programs across the country, it's very affordable.

One of the favorite classes that I've taken is a digital documentary class with professor Angela Aguayo.

In that class, it was really incredible because each student in the matter of a semester put their own documentary together and at the end of the semester we had a public screening where we invited the public to come and check out our work.

Because of my background in news, when I came to SIU I really wanted to stay involved with news and some on-camera work.  So I got involved with River Region Evening Edition and did some volunteer reporting.

I also was the host for Scholastic Hi-Q, which is a game show that we have on campus here for high school students

Also, I was involved with the Big Muddy Film Festival.  Two years, I served on the selection committee to see which films got into the festival.

For my assistantship, I helped out with documentary    classes and some news courses.

It was really interesting to be a teacher, it was my first time doing that.

I had a fantastic time mentoring students through the creative sides of their news projects and their documentaries.

A few highlights of publicly showing my work: I showed one of my photo series' at the Mixed Roots Film and Literary Festival in Los Angeles, I presented some of my writing here on campus at the Global Media Research Center Conference, some research that I had done about the coverage that Africa receives here in the West.

In the future, I still want to combine my background in news with my newfound knowledge of fine art.

I'm going to be looking for some news jobs and some jobs that are more focused on long format work ... just sending my application out and seeing what doors open.

If you want to really learn how to think outside the box in experimental ways, alternative ways, ways that you don't think you've ever thought about before, I think this Masters of Fine Arts program will be a good fit for you because the professors here, at least for me taught me how to see things with a new lens, and by having my work critiqued by a diverse group of people day in and day out, it really teaches you to see what you make in a whole new way.