Story by Margaret Connors
Photos by Polly Irungu
Graphics by Karly DeWees

I vividly remember taking The Creative Strategist my first year as a declared advertising major. I’d heard so much about it from other students, but I still didn’t know quite what to expect. Everyone who had taken it seemed to have a different outlook, a different side to the story about the class. But all their perspectives had one thing in common: sheer excitement and fervency about taking their first steps into the intensive upper-division courses in the SOJC.

Taylor Wilder’s lens has captured pitches, pucks, pools and punts around the planet. Mentorship at the SOJC gave her the skills to succeed.

SOJC student group Combined Culture confronts the murders of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and Trayvon Martin in this powerful piece combining videography and thought-provoking narration.