COMMUNITY STORIES: CAROLINE TORRONE
Equally distanced from the shore as it is from the city, it was the classic white fenced, trimmed lawn, two car garaged suburban paradise.
During my entire adolescence I attended small private Catholic schools where my graduating classes never reached over 100 students. My traditional upbringing was important to my parents, an Italian-American father and Peruvian immigrant mother, that their only child get an education while also engaging in our faith.
The combination of religious and cultural contexts in my upbringing, as well as the dedicated example from my parents has had subconscious impacts in every aspect of my life. In unlikely ways it has led me down the professional path of visual communications.
Although it might not seem apparent, I was eager to get out of New Jersey. I knew I needed to expose myself to larger ideas and new regions, especially when I had sparked an interest in the arts. On a whim, I had decided South Carolina would be the place.
I consider it a happy accident, much like how I first got involved with Student Made.
Projects can range from graphics, photography, videography, or a combination of all three! Once I had reached my videography courses, I was eager to create content with moving images with more intention than a hobby. I took every project seriously, whether an instructional video or promotional, and took the time to draft storyboards and scour the internet for new premiere pro hacks.
Every opportunity to create something new lit a fire in my soul, and I wanted what I was recording to matter too.
She described their mission to give a platform to students with small businesses, and I decided that Student Made would be perfect for a promotional project of mine.
Before getting started on my project, I knew that it was not only important for my grades. I knew Student Made and everyone involved had the possibility to benefit from my work, that what I presented mattered for their expansion throughout campus and the local community. Recording them was my way of helping, and I am beyond grateful that they found it useful in their mission!
Since then I have gotten to know my fellow managers, as well as connect with creators and provide them with a service which benefits both of our careers at Student Made and beyond!
I’ve found my sense of motivation and inspiration to be within these interactions with creators who have a developed interest in a hobby, sometimes completely unrelated to their major– and seek ways to promote it and even carry it into their professional lives. As someone pursuing a career in the arts, this desire is all too familiar.
My experience with teamwork as well as inventing thought-up scenarios and images through photography and videography with Student Made has aided my goal to become a filmmaker.
The Content Creation Manager position has allowed me to portray a vision through collaborating with the ideas from creators and the Social Media Manager in order to get something tangible and close to our shared imagination.
Anything that you have been able to spend time with and get excited over is worth presenting to the world; there is an invisible audience waiting to cheer you on. My project getting recognized and bringing me into my role now is my biggest example of this.
Not only for the creators, but for customers in local and non-local communities.
Although the future of Student-Made is unknown, I envision a brand with creators from all different backgrounds interacting in a shared space where everyone gets to learn about and promote their own sense of self through the resources provided by Student Made.
