Hi everyone! My name is Cameron Poli. I am second semester undergraduate senior with a dual majoring in Professional Writing and Communications with a focus in Media Production. I am interested in learning about structural inequality, and discussing how the pandemic has affected small businesses and others in low income positions. As someone who grew up in Cortland, I have seen many small companies that have been around since I was young suffer and close, just within the the last couple months. I am also very interested in teaching methods, so I am very excited to hear that we will be discussing how race, gender, and sexuality shape how we learn and also the environment we learn in. I am particularly interested in discussing how feminism plays a role in the learning environment.
During my time as a Professional Writing Major, I enjoyed learning about the revision process because it taught me that my writing didn’t need to be perfect in the first draft. As a freshman, I struggled with perfectionism, specifically in writing. In my nonfiction class, I saw writing as something that simultaneously exposed flaws in my academic abilities and in the life experiences I would write about. I was afraid to be vulnerable and write honestly about my life experiences, but I was most wary of re-reading my work (I didn’t like seeing my own errors). After nonfiction and multiple other taking classes where I was required to re-read my work often, I began to realize that the revision process was a powerful tool that not only allotted space for errors, but also considered them a productive and necessary tool for pushing a piece to be in its best form. I see my undergraduate classes as humbling experiences that helped me become a more genuine writer and better communicator.
Welcome to the class, Cameron! So glad to have you.
I love hearing how much writing means to you, and I think the idea of writing as a form of therapy is fascinating. I’m also intrigued by your observation that Covid has resulted in the closing of Cortland’s small businesses. Either of those would make excellent topics for a final project — you’ll just have to decide what you’re most interested in and want to spend time researching in the second half of our semester.
Meeting your lifelong pen pal – how thrilling! This semester, we’ll have to come up with ways of having exhilarating experiences online. But based on everything I’ve read so far in these introduction posts, I think we’re collectively up to the task.
More tomorrow!
Hi Cameron!
I enjoyed reading your post! I think the thoughts that you brought up about structural inequality and how the pandemic affected small businesses is something that is very important to talk about. I come from a very small town that is made up of small businesses and many low-income positions, and both were hit very hard during this pandemic.
As a freshman, I struggled with perfectionism in my writing as well. I was always too nervous to have people read over my writing because I didn’t want to know what mistakes I had made and I didn’t want anyone to know I had made any mistakes. I also struggled with opening up and being vulnerable in my writing. I felt like I was always just brushing the surface with whatever I wrote. Through spending more time freewriting I was able to get more and more comfortable being vulnerable in my writing.
I’m also a big fan of the office! I’m not even sure how many times I’ve watched the show all the way through by now. I also love the John Green quote that you shared. John Green is one of my favorite authors and I absolutely love the novel Looking for Alaska. I look forward to meeting you on Monday!