Virginia Beach, VA — South Nixon

“Columbian College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to admit you to the M.A. program in the field of New Media Photojournalism effective for the Fall 2023 semester.”

The photo here is one that I included in my porfolio with my application to graduate school at George Washington University, and was taken in Virginia Beach, VA, January 2023. I took this photo to explore my own personal style and ability. The interplay of light and water creates endless possibilities for photography because the color, mood, light, and water all shift and change throughout the day, and every second.

What follows is a portion of my statement of purpose, and I hope that I will be financially and professionally able to complete the program.

I’m convinced that developing and strengthening other leaders means I have to find ways to develop and strengthen my own talents as well. I think that it’s true that I can only lead people as far as I have gone myself—and yet leadership is also about asking people to go somewhere we have never been either.

My purpose in applying for the New Media Photojournalism program is to take the time to deepen my understanding of visual storytelling so that I can not only create beautiful work but also lead others to inspire American unity too. Politics is a tough field where one can only thrive through strong relationships, and I’m eager to form deeper ties with other creators who share the same passion for artistic excellence.

My work is inspired in many ways by my grandparents, who demonstrated what it means to love others as they loved themselves and also how to be conservative and liberal at the same time. While work in Congress was always about conforming to a political identity, when I was with them growing up, I was free to be human.

One year for my birthday they gave me a disposable underwater camera. Looking back, the idea of photography as it relates to water was magical to me—and it’s one of those natural creative choices that I wish I had paid attention to and pursued earlier in my life.

But it was also at my grandparents that I would often pick up, read, and look at the photos in publications like Time magazine and U.S. News & World Report. It was at my grandparents that I watched footage of the aftermath of the attacks on September 11—a day that arguably influenced my choice to study politics because it was clear then how much leadership matters.

Going to grad school at this point in my career is about starting over with what inspired me in the first place. And it’s about taking my knowledge of the political process and how movements are formed and using that knowledge to inspire our country in beautiful, artistic ways to choose unity again. It’s about becoming a better leader and creator so that I can develop and strengthen other leaders too.