An STA position has led to several firsts in my post-high-school chapter. As a faithful lover of visual communication and Adobe Photoshop, applying for the Digital Media Assistant position has been my first on-campus job (even first on-campus activity). After being accepted to the job, it is also my first time obtaining an SSN to occupationally identify as a legal international student worker, here, it is yet another first time feeling some minor financial independence.

The STA position in the Digital Media segment is highly demanding, and not until I work for a while that I realize that. Initially, I had believed that my tasks would revolves around only designing posters, editing videos using my knowledge of several media software. Then, COVID-19 knocks on the door, brought in front of me the pivotal participation of digital media in a virtual college experience and my naivete of what the STA role entails. To meet the needs for technological assistance services, the Ed Tech department implemented a booking system in which the campus community can schedule a meeting with any of the STAs to be assisted with a wide range of projects as IS Formatting, visual designing, Moodle formatting and more. STA must practice good customer service. Now, with the update to the College of Wooster website, we are migrating contents of the old website to the new Inside Wooster website.

I had done a fair number of tasks as an STA while still planning for some future projects. Most recently, I supported a Class of 2021 student with her Independent Studies video submission where she needs to reframe and trim off several raw scenes of her recorded footage. Another one I had helped edit is the International Education Week video submission from our college dance team – Chasing! Seeing their satisfaction with the final product is my favorite incentive of being a good supporter and promoter of technological usage around the campus community.
Overall, being an STA of the Digital Media branch has equipped me with more digital software knowledge and customer service skill which helps me in understanding college resources and make the best use out of them. If you have similar interests to me (to some degree), do not hesitate to apply as an STA, you will very much enjoy the skill set you could obtain in just a short time span.