It’s been four weeks since I began my first journalism course, Intro to Media Production, with professor Farideh Dada and two words can sum up my experience so far: thrilling and enjoyable.

This course places you in a professional workplace setting where you and your peers get to share ideas and interests, write for a continually award-winning college newspaper, research topics that genuinely interest you and get pushed out of your comfort zone to be more involved with your community.

In the short time I have been editor-in-chief, I have learned several valuable life skills.

These include:

• Being organized
• Meeting deadlines instead of procrastinating
• Professionalism as a worker and student
• How to be prepared
• Setting up appointments with interviewees
• How to work with a team efficiently to create the best possible product

Getting to work closely with classmates helps your social skills and breaks down the social barrier there usually is between students that do not know each other.

As a result, it creates an unbreakable bond between you and your staff. Not only that, you get to meet so many interesting characters that are passionate about a variety of different things.

The City College Times challenges its staff to be the best of themselves that they can be. As a result, you end up becoming a much more mature version of yourself.

It may be overwhelming at first; however, after a week you will have a grasp of your duties and what is expected of you.

This class is a perfect depiction of the saying “Team work makes the dream work”; because if you are stuck, you have a team of editors, staff or even the adviser to find a solution to writer’s block.

My time in this class has been nothing but exciting, and I cannot wait to see where this class takes me in my future.

I suggest taking this course to every SJCC student regardless of their major because the value of what you get out of the class is much more than what it costs.