Bryce Heinbaugh

FILA-450

Dr. Keebaugh

21 January 2023

Portfolio Reflective Essay

Integration and Experiential Learning

In the Fall 2022 semester I participated in BC Voice, a student-run news outlet. I was

given the title of staff writer along with other students that participated in the organization. Once

every month I had to pick a subject, interview students, and then write a short article about what

they told me. I had to learn how to go about approaching random people and ask them questions.

I also had to learn how to write a news article, which is a completely different way of writing

compared to writing an essay in a class; there’s a certain style you have to use to keep readers

engaged. I also was the cameraman for the video team. I was in charge of managing the camera,

framing the shot during interviews, and editing the videos. Being in BC Voice had me very

engaged with the BC Community, meeting new people and getting their different opinions on a

variety of topics.

This semester I am participating in an internship at LDA Creative in Dayton. There I am

learning the production side of the design process. As a Digital Media Arts Major I know the

design portion of the process, so getting to learn the ins and outs of the production side has been

very educational. So far I have learned to print design onto canvas and sublimation paper by

using cmyk (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) ink. Then take the canvas and stretch it out onto
a frame. For the sublimation paper, after printing, you take it and apply it onto the surface of

wood, mugs, plates, whatever you want the design on, apply heat and the design on the paper is

transferred onto the object.

Another thing I have learned so far is how to use the laser cutter. You are able to

designate different colors to different functions. LDA normally uses red as cut lines, where the

laser cuts all the way through the material. Black and different shades of grey are simply

different shades. The darker the grey the darker the mark the laser makes will be; same thing

goes for a lighter shade of grey. Sand etching designs onto glass is interesting. I didn’t know

what a sand blaster was until I started working at this business. You cut out a design onto a thick

plastic sticker, put it on a glass bottle that’s completely covered with tape, and etch the design on

with the sand.

I plan on doing freelance graphic design and pencil drawings after graduating so I could

use the hands-on learning for a side job in design production. The internship will and is giving so

much experience on how to create items for displaying design and anything that is within the

production side of things. My experience in BC Voice will help me interview and talk to/interact

with other people better, especially new clients for my work.

Engaging Diverse Perspectives

Before transferring to Bridgewater, I attended Hagerstown Community College. Going to

this college gave me a new perspective of people and their beliefs. One example of this is going

to a school with more people of color than my elementary, middle, and high schools. I would

like to clarify before continuing that I grew up in a rural area. The nearest town from where I

lived was 10 minutes. When I went to school it was a large majority of white children. I could
count on one hand how many black kids went to my school – in high school (all white children

from elementary to middle school). So, it was new and eye-opening for me, going from a mainly

white school to a college that had more black people attending than just a handful.

I’ll admit it was strange at first because I wasn’t used to it but I soon realized that this

was a good and important experience for me. It showed me the diversity of the real world as

opposed to the “isolated” community I lived in. I didn’t talk to many people at the community

college but when I transferred to Bridgewater I have been interacting more with students who are

people of color and getting to know their perspectives and experiences.

Another example would be, again, at Hagerstown Community College when I attended

the World Religions class. In this course we looked over religions all around the world. There

were many differing beliefs in this class. I sat beside someone who was part of the religion of

Islam. There were also a handful of people who identified as Buddhist and Hindu. Similar to the

previous paragraph, where I came from the only religion that people practiced was Christianity,

with its different branches and denominations. My classmates would give their opinions and add

to discussions of their religions.

At the end of the semester, we were required to go to a religious site and attend one of

their services and then write a paper. I chose to attend a Mormon service. I thought Mormons

were similar Christians which is why I chose this religion. At the time I was still getting used to

being around other people who had differing ideals than myself. So, I went with whatever choice

made me more comfortable with my beliefs. Mormonism was very similar to Christianity with

how the service is set up, that they believe in God and Jesus, but their teaching and beliefs are

drastically different. Now, I wish I had gone with a different religion because when I attended
the Mormon service it felt as if I had gone to a normal church service. But it was interesting to

witness a religion that had different beliefs.

These examples changed me and showed me how I could experience and learn new

perspectives and beliefs, as opposed to my all-white, all-Christian life back home. I could

interact with people of different races and religions than mine. I get to see the diversity of my

colleagues and how their religious beliefs, experiences, and race shapes our society. Since I plan

on doing freelance graphic design work after graduating, these experiences will help me to

understand and connect with people that are not of my race, religion, sexuality, and perspective.

Public Discourse

Discussion was highly encouraged in Dr. Josefson’s class and was more in depth than in

previous class discussions I had been through in high school. If you wanted to, you could discuss

or argue with Josefson about a subject he was teaching, as long as you had evidence to back

yourself up, whenever you wanted. Same thing went for other students. Josefson had an official

discussion occasionally, which is what he called the Fish Bowl. He would pick give us a set of

questions the night before and then the next day would select four random students in the class

and make them sit in the middle, and then everyone else would circle the desks around the four

in the middle. In this discussion group we would ask each other how we answered the questions

and then discuss our opinions. The students in the middle were occasionally traded out for others

sitting on the outside either from volunteering or being volunteered by Josefson. We discussed a

number of topics, mainly those that related to our readings and what we were going over in class.

The Fish Bowl discussion I took a part of was whether spanking children negatively or

positively affected them. I argued that it was acceptable to punish your children by just spanking
them, not full on physical abuse such as hitting them with objects (mild punishment). I compared

it to a child touching a stove top, getting burned, and learning never to do it again. The three

other people in the middle with me disagreed, and so I had to argue my case. I showed my

evidence and answered any questions and asked some of my own. I ended up convincing one of

them to see my perspective and join me in the discussion.

The whole discussion aspect of this class showed me how to debate and dispute different

subjects. It also taught me to win an argument I needed strong evidence to back myself up

otherwise I might as well have just been saying nothing. And the fact that the discussions were

more in depth than what I have previously experienced, was eye-opening and a great learning

experience on how discuss. I could use this when discussing topics with colleagues, clients, etc.

Global Citizenship and Intercultural Competencies

For this semester, Spring 2023, I am currently attending the Non-Western Graphic

Design course. In this course we are all required to each choose a region and conduct research of

how that Non-Western region and its different cultures influence how they create design. We, the

students of this course, have to start our research from scratch, as there is barely, if at all,

anything out there about this subject. Another classmate and I are teaming up to research design

within the culture of Islam. Despite this being an independent study, we were allowed to group

together due to the vastness of the subject. We have found that Islamic design is deeply rooted in

its history and beliefs, going all the way back to its founding in the mid-600s CE.

This course will help me to understand a culture that is drastically different than my own.

And seeing other classmates research will further help me understand other cultures that are not

part of the West and how they go about creating design. I can take all this information with me
when I am doing freelance work. If a client is Muslim, or is intrigued by Islamic design, I will

know how to replicate that design as I have studied and researched it in this class. The same can

be said for the World Religions class I mentioned in a previous section. What I learned in that

class about other religions and cultures can also help me understand different groups of people

and their beliefs.

Ethical Reasoning

In my Communication Law/Ethics (COMM-410E) course that I took in Fall 2021, Dr.

Pierson focused on the First Amendment. He also talked about communication laws such as

copyright, and ethics like libel and defamation. We dissected the amendment and discussed all

the areas of communication that it covered. For each section of the amendment, he would give us

court cases or news stories to look at and then discuss how they violated the amendment,

communication law, or ethics. There were plenty of stories and court case that were either

communication law or ethical violations. And we were required to differentiate between the two

and then argue why we chose what we did.

An example of an ethical violation would be PimEyes, a software program that, when

given a photograph of a face, will search the entirety of the internet and all forms of social media

to find pictures of that person. I argued that it was clear violation of privacy and consent. And

despite the pictures being public they could be misused such as for stalking, privacy erosion, etc.

This whole thing was a nightmare.

I could use what I learned in this class and apply it to my work, especially the

communication laws. Ethics is intertwined with these laws, like how it is unethical to steal other
people’s ideas and works. I will use this to avoid violating any ethical principles and

communication laws.
 Artifacts

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MOfRz8ykeg--sAkuSH8DWmxOdVsxChyt?

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https://bcvoice.org/staff_name/bryce-heinbaugh/ - Integration and Experiential Learning