For senior Camila Quiñones, the past four years of college have been nothing short of the typical Wittenberg experience, consisting of being an overly-involved student, however, she “wouldn’t change a thing.”
Now in her last spring semester ever, Quiñones is looking back on her college career, having been involved in over seven different clubs and organizations. She is currently entering her first full year as an Alpha Xi Delta, the most recently re-chartered Greek sorority on campus, as well as being a part of Athletes in Action and her very own, The Hero Project. She also works for the Integrated Media Corps, The Writing Center and the English Department. Even while balancing school, jobs, clubs and her sorority, Quiñones managed to play Women’s Volleyball at Wittenberg as well.
Throughout her college career, she eventually found her way to a love of writing, pursuing an English major with creative writing and cinema studies minors. This has since transformed into dreams to be a film and television writer, and eventually becoming a producer.
This passion was even further explored at the Wittenberg film festival in which she won an award for her film. The festival partnered with The Hagen Center and the Cinema Studies Program, in which people from the community submitted films under five minutes that painted Springfield in a positive light. Quiñones, “Jo,” involved a main character who lost someone and goes around Springfield to remember some of their favorite places.
“There were different divisions,” Quiñones said. “There were three in the high school division and only myself from the college submissions, so I won.”
While her experience may have only taken place at Wittenberg so far, she has big plans for the future. Her dream job is to end up in Los Angeles, starting out with television and working her way up to the “real dream”: writing and directing her own movies. She plans to start applying to diversity programs and staffing positions in May, when pilot shows have begun filming.
“A lot of the industry is working your way to the top,” Quiñones said.
But there is no doubt that Quiñones’ experiences at Wittenberg prepared her for the future as she shares some of her take-away from her time at Witt.
“The Wittenberg education in teaching the wholeness of a person really changed me as a person. Like sure, maybe more logically I should have gone to film school, but in the end, being the film maker is all about being a good storyteller and being open-minded,” Quiñones said. “Stories need to have heart and have depth. Lessons, classes, and relationships with peers and professors has made me a better storyteller.”
