Clubs Create Careers
Before I even received my first college acceptance letter, I knew that I would study English. I was sure of it. I had always loved to read and write stories and was eager to begin studying the styles and skills of the brilliant writers before my time in hopes to become a storyteller myself. I was excited upon arriving at Fordham University to be greeted with the plethora of classes the English Department offered, some of which I passionately embraced, and others not so much. I was later accepted into the Creative Writing concentration, allowing me to step outside the traditional textual courses and take more workshop classes, such as screenwriting. Yet even with the dedicated professors and the diverse range of courses the university provided, my major left me unsure about one paramount decision. What job will I have after graduation?
I used to believe that you chose your major to spend four years preparing for whatever field of work that was closest to your studies because this decision was said to provide you with the necessary skills for your post-graduate career. The tricks I learned from my English courses steered me towards becoming a teacher, but I have always been certain that I did not want to walk that path. Sure, I was an adept analyzer of Shakespeare, but what job could that provide me outside of academics? Although my major wasn’t encouraging me to perform on stage or project films onto a screen, I decided to join some clubs that caught my interest.
My courses kindled my interests in storytelling, but it was my extracurricular activities that flared my anecdotal aptitude. As a freshman, I invested most of my time producing short film ideas with my best friends. Then, April showers brought an opportunity to compete with the school’s other visual storytellers during the week-long Campus Movie Festival (CMF).
CMF travels to universities across the U.S. and provides students with a video camera, microphone, laptop, and professional editing software (Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere) all for free. You had seven days to rent the tools and create your own short film. As someone who had the required knowledge to maneuver Final Cut Pro but lacked the finances to own it on my personal device, this festival was a dream come true.
Based on my tragedy of living with a roommate who refused to shower, I wrote a story about a student whose roommate smelled so bad that he was literally a dead corpse. After confronting his rancid roommate, the main character discovered that his bunkmate was a ghost who had died while attending Fordham in the 1960’s. What’s even creepier was that this ghost was murdered by his roommate so that he could verify the college legend that if your roommate dies, you acquire straight A’s, all so he could transfer into an ivy league school. This guilty roommate turned out to be none other than Donald Trump. My friend Chris Jeske turned the story into lyrics and my other more fragrant roommate, Jake Stavros GSB ‘20, created a blues song. The next thing we knew, our music video was being screened in front of a live audience.
This experience was never reflected through my GPA, but it was as essential to my college career as my other courses. The following year, I decided to live out another dream of mine and tried for Rose Hill’s stand-up comedy team, Allergy Friendly. I figured that if I could write a 15-page paper I could easily write a five-minute set. After making the team and walking onto the stage of my first show, alone in the spotlight, I was terrified. But then, I remembered that telling stories and making others laugh felt as natural as armpit hair. I felt comfortable on stage. I loved being on stage.
Danny McBride, on stage, a member of “Allergy Friendly”
These two clubs allowed me to challenge myself with methods that could never be replicated inside a class room. Now in my final year at Fordham, I spend most of my time writing stand-up sets or expanding on other stories to produce a short video. Majoring in English made me understand that I like stories, but my involvement with Campus Movie Fest and performing stand-up comedy made me realize that I want a career in television and film production. Now I have the resume to make that goal a reality.
~ Daniel McBride, FCRH, 2020