Dasha from the Ukraine - M.S. in Professional Media and Media Management

Hello, my name is Dasha Bondareva.  I'm from Ukraine.  I'm a 2nd year M.S. in Professional Media and Media Management student.

My main focus is fashion magazines and the area of my research is actually the portrayal of female model bodies by fashion magazines and its influence on the teenage audience.

What I really like about the program, about the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts is that I found what I want to study and I really like the flexibility and I really like the variety of courses offered by this program.

Particularly, I like a couple of classes.  The first one was web design where where we learned how to decorate our own portfolio website, which was really interesting and the second class was Flash Animation, where we learned how to make an animation and create all kinds of banners and all kinds of animated advertisements for the web.

I'm involved in a Registered Student Organization named C.A.T.S. Computer Arts and Technology Society which is a really interesting RSO in creating the animation festival and also supporting video game development and all kinds of animation development which is really really interesting.

As for my assistantship, I'm working for the Dean's Office, and particularly I'm creating and developing all kinds of promotional materials for the college, which are like banners, flyers, all kinds of posers.  Actually it really enhances my graphic design skills, which I'm planning on using while getting a real job in the real world.

I had my animation screened in the I-SCAPE Computer Animation Festival organized by C.A.T.S. and it was really really interesting to see my own first created animation on the huge screen and to see applause from the people.

For the future, I'm planning on working in fashion magazines, preferably in America and to be a creative administrator and do all kinds of creative administrative works there.

I think the M.S. program is really really interesting program because you can actually combine your research skills, do research, write all kinds of papers and also you can take hands-on classes and enhance your graphic, animation, video editing skills, web design skills.

I mean, it can not get any cooler.  How cool is that?