Aili Acone-Chavez

I have always loved writing, but I have not publicly pursued it until this past year. I love reading, learning new words, writing, and acquiring knowledge. I love discussing and thinking about difficult topics and researching why I believe what I believe. Everyone’s voice is valid, and with this belief I love learning how to understand what other people believe and why. I have had one article published in The Chimes Newspaper and have recently started a blog. I have been personally educating myself in Photography for 6 years, and have shot professionally for 4 years. My shooting has varied from school pictures, senior photos, engagement photo shoots, wedding photography, celebration and event photos, to many more categories. I have shot for various events, weddings, school head shots,theater performance and headshot photos as well as detail, feature, sports, and news photography. I have had several of my photographs published in The Chimes Newspaper and in theater Playbills. I love to learn and explore new opportunities for being creative. I am a Journalism and Integrated Media with a concentration in Visual Media Major, and I am also minoring in both Bible and Psychology. After I finish my undergrad at Biola University, I would like to pursue higher education so that I could become a university professor. Ideally, I would like to teach at a university and be a food Photojournalist/Writer on the side. To be completely honest I did not really know what The Odyssey was until a few of my friends, became interns. Knowing my love for insight and writing, one of my friends prompted me to look into The Odyssey and consider applying. After a bit of debating, I decided to take a leap of faith and fill out an application. I applied for both Writer and Photographer positions (I guess if I shoot for the stars and hit the lamppost with one, I would have a second chance with the other). The Odyssey has a solid mission statement and I believe that integrating students opinions on hard, real-life issues is important. As I have before mentioned, everyone has a voice and their voice is valid. I would like to raise awareness about things happening in the world and determine and re-define my stances on these issues. If anything I write could impact someone then my job will be satisfied. I also love looking at things from a different perspective and capturing life through a lens. While telling a story is often done using words, I believe a story can also be told with an image. Sometimes pictures can capture an essence or emotion better than a paragraph or phrase.