The Iraq War: A Student Perspective was created off three students interest and curiosity about what students think of the war and whether it affects us.  We personally wanted to interview a vast array of different and diverse students that come from all backgrounds.  We took our journalism and multimedia knowledge and decided to do a group documentary, which could capture the thoughts of many students on film. Once we decided on our multimedia format and topic, we then came up with questions to ask all 67 students. With Nick’s occupation in the National Guard we were able to get quality interviews from soldiers themselves that served in Iraq, which helped to provide insight to see what it was really like being in Iraq.  We also interviewed Megan, a student who has grown up in a military family and is marrying Derrick an ROTC cadet and a student that will be deployed when he graduates.  These three students, Nick, Devin and Jenna tried to maintain the professional journalism stance by creating a nonbiased documentary telling the stories and opinions of many students.  We hope that we touched the lives of the New Media Communications 301 spring term class.  We personally learned a lot from this documentary and we hope that you all do to. Now lets take a look into the lives of the three creative, new media students.
Nick Conley is in his fifth and final year of college. He started his college career at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, NM where he played baseball and earned his commission as an officer in the United States Army. After graduating with an Associates of Arts degree.  He then moved back home to Oregon and attended Linfield College for a year. Conley transferred to Oregon State University where he has spent the past two years and will graduate with a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Studies with a focus in New Media Communication. For the past three years he has been a member in the Oregon Army National Guard where he is now a First Lieutenant. After Graduation Nick plans on going to courses for the military and by May of next year he is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq with the Oregon Army National Guard 41st Brigade. Conley brought his knowledge of the Army and his film skills to the project.  It was his stimulating questions to soldiers that brought the soldier prospective to the project.
Devin Robinson studied film for two years after high school before becoming jaded with the Hollywood system and the LA way of life.  Robinson did some traveling in Europe, returned to Oregon and became a waiter.  After a few months of that he decided it was time to go back to school.  Now he is in his senior year and studying New Media Communications at Oregon State. Robinson was enticed into this war documentary project because of the age similarity between the common college student and the common US soldier and what they thought of each other. Film and video are his favorite mediums and he was happy to bring his  technical and aesthetic knowledge to the project. He was the creative, master producer where his film skills shined like the Hollywood red carpet.
Jenna Santelli is graduating from Oregon State in a week and half with her study in New Media Communications.  She is going to be moving to Utah in a month to start her journey working at Salt Lake Community College in the Sports Information Department where she will continue her passion for writing sports. Santelli’s dream is to become a travel writer and travel world one article at a time. She has been to Thailand where she volunteered and kept an active blog. She also studied Spanish in Costa Rica. Santelli submitted her resume and this project to a National Geographic Correspondence Program that would help jump start her travel writing career.