Kate Papenfus is a senior cinema & media arts major at Anderson University who had an amazing opportunity over the summer. Papenfus was a media intern at The Spring Ministries, a summer camp in Gladwin, Michigan. During her time at this camp, she not only learned more about her craft but also about herself.
During her time at camp, Papenfus filmed and edited weekly videos, took photos and managed social media accounts.
Crediting her classroom experiences, Papenfus shared it was great to be able to jump straight into editing and not have to ask Google for help.
Because of this knowledge, Papenfus notes that she was able to focus more on what she was capturing while having fun doing it, instead of needing to focus on how to edit pictures and videos.
In addition to improving her cinema and media skills, she was also able to improve her social skills by communicating with a variety of different people by answering questions and giving tours.
Papenfus says, “Not only was I able to interact with the kids during the week, I also had the opportunity to interact with a lot of the parents.”
Although Papenfus is used to being behind the camera, she enjoyed being able to step out and work on her social skills with people during the summer. Managing social media also allowed Papenfus to connect with people externally through the content that she was creating online.
Papenfus was able to extend her resume and gain more experience through her skills while also being greatly impacted. Papenfus spoke on how she was able to connect with the kids both through the content that she created and through her personality.
Many of the kids at this camp came from non-Christian or difficult pasts, so it was very important to her and the staff to show them Christ-like love while they were working at the camp. Through their efforts, the staff saw many lives changed through the way they expressed Christ through their actions.
While impacting the lives of the kids, Papenfus was also impacted.
“The kids and the rest of the staff made this summer so amazing. I felt so loved and accepted. It was truly awesome to see the Lord working in everyone’s lives (and) being able to spread the gospel through my work.”
Through her photography, Papenfus was able to capture beautiful moments sharing how her love for photography is not based on how well she can take a photo, but how she can tell a story through images and videos.
One of her favorite memories was listening to kids yell and cheer when they saw themselves in the videos that she made. It gave Papenfus a lot of joy to capture pure and raw emotion and see how her content was able to impact the people around her during the summer.
Papenfus has a lot of passion for her craft and was able to express herself while gaining great experience. Her internship at The Spring Ministries allowed her to grow closer to her work, share her faith with others, and have a lot of fun in the process.
Papenfus noted the memories and new skills taken away from The Spring Ministries camp will help guide her career.
Heidi Vickers is a senior majoring in public relations and dance. She is an associate with Fifth Street Communications, a student-run pr agency at Anderson University.
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