1.What three lessons were most helpful for you to see?
The three presentations most important to my future experience for the senior project were Thai Restaurant Management, Coaching Hockey, and Midwifery. While watching the presentation, it was clear to see that the presenters were enjoying their presentation and enthusiasm as they spoke. Listening to them, they explained that they all had experience and desire to learn about their topic that had resonated long before senior year, displaying a fervor amongst them due to their connection to their topic.
2. List one thing that you learned about the senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start?
Speaking to the seniors, they made it clear that there was one important rule of thumb to towards the project: to love what you do. Reminiscent of what is often said going into the workforce, it is vastly important that the topic you select in senior year is something you enjoy or have fond attachments towards. This is because it is easier to push through abundant workloads when these activities are generally interesting to you. Applying this to the senior project, if you enjoy your selected topic, it will make it easier to venture through the untold number of checks and research during senior year.
3. What topic(s) are you considering, and why?
Personally, I want to base my senior topic around the video game industry as it has been an integral part of my childhood and an long-time aspiration of mine to one day help develop these games for the public. I find it quite interesting the amount of teamwork and hundreds of man-hours it takes research, brainstorm and test out any video game. Additionally, I positively enjoy the concept of propping up new stories and adventures that each game brings to the market.
4. What EQ do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? (Please don't worry about any sort of formula...we want this question to come from your genuine interest).
As I feel most curious about the creation and planning on what goes into a video game's story, themes and mechanics, I believe I would use the question "What concepts going into a new game make a video game popular amongst the general public?" as my EQ. In this case, the EQ would explore the concepts of what is a video game, what the market is right now for them and what popular mechanics or ideas go into making them bestsellers.
5. What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentorship?
Currently, I have one person in mind for mentorship, a family friend named Benjamin Lilly who has relations with Blizzard Inc: the company famous for the League of Legends, Diablo and Starcraft series. If I can make contact with him, he might be able to help me find more influential developers who work more closely with designing the games sold. On top of this, I hope to find mentorships amongst one of the dozens of smaller gaming companies in southern California including Com2uS, GAMEVIL and Obsidian Entertainment.
