Making Connections

Dominic Salacki thought he had a clear career direction until one weekend made him question it. Here the recent graduate explains to host Dan Baum how seeing the passion of his professors made him feel equipped to follow his own dreams.

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Transcript

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(upbeat music)- Welcome to Redefine U, season five. I'm Dan Baum. Over the last few years, this podcast has been a place to share powerful stories of redefinition and lightning strike moments and to learn and grow with one another through adversity and change, even through a global pandemic. This season to close out the college's 60th anniversary, we invited members of the community past and present to join us in sharing their favorite AACC memories. Be sure to check out all of the season's episodes available now for your binge listening pleasure.- Hello, my name is Dominic Salacki. I am a student at Anne Arundel Community College. I have a degree in transfer studies from 2013 and I am currently working on a media production degree and hoping to graduate December, 2022. I am also the editor in chief of the student newspaper at AACC, the Campus Current, and I'm really happy to be a Riverhawk.- That was great. That's a, that sound bite alone. (chuckles) That's really good. All right, well, let's just jump in. What's your favorite AACC memory?- So my first great memory was March, 2012 when I was working on my transfer degree and I was with Campus Current then as well as like a on staff reporter, we went to New York city to a journalism convention. That entire weekend or like few days or so was really great because I mean it was a mix of like all my favorite things like journalism interaction with friends and New York city. I love this. I love New York city. Like whenever I, whenever I go to New York city I tell myself I need to see a Broadway show. Like I can't be in New York City and not see a show. So, I saw a preview of Newsies and it worked out so well, because Newsies is literally about journalism and Pulitzer and the turn of the 19th century. And it's one of my favorites till this day. And it was really fun attending that convention with my team because of the knowledge I gained from the different workshops. And I even got to meet Megan Alexander who's on Inside Edition. I got to hear her speak at a workshop, and then I got to talk one on one after it ended and get some tips and stuff. So I'm, I'm really grateful for that access from AACC, that helped that become real.- Yeah, I'm, I'm hearing so much relationship and people which is obviously really, really important to you. So share about someone you met through AACC who had an impact on you.- Before I got on here I was thinking about that. I mean, of course Ben Nussbaumer, president of SGA. Our professional relationship is incredible because of how open he is to answering questions and conversing with me for my articles. And then, I mean, we're also friends outside of AACC. Like I can tell how passionate he is about what he does for the students. And he really wants to be there for the students and staff and I mean faculty as well. But he's really doing a great job and I'm really grateful for his flexibility and like openness and friendliness, friendship overall. He's a great guy. He's gonna go far.- That's excellent. So you've been part of the AACC community at different points in your life. So how has being a part of the AACC community redefined you?- I guess I always had this path in my mind that I would go towards a paid position in the field of specifically journalism but then I realized because one weekend I had seen the the Princess Diana movie, Spencer, and then that Monday after I was, I wanted to re-watch the initial trailer that originally got me. I mean, there was inspiring to me and I was obsessed with just from the simplicity of the trailer and how the footage was and the limited dialogue and how it's still packed a punch in the emotion. And that's what I want to do. I want to watch a movie in full length, get the inspiration, get the appreciation, get, get the overall love of this manifestation of filmmaking, if you will. And I want to compile all this footage into a short trailer and like have people like be inspired to want to watch this movie and like, but that's like how it redefined me. How being at AACC redefined me and like who, what kind of profession I want to go into and how much it's a dream of mine as well. How as how realistic it could be because of like the knowledge I've gained from AACC and the passion I see from my professors. I really love being a Riverhawk, formerly Pioneer. Pioneer and then Riverhawk. But I really cherish being a Riverhawk. Everyone is great at their job. They love what they do. They have the passion. They want to help these students. It's like, I mean, no wonder it's the best. It's number one community college in the nation, I think. So yeah, I'm really, really grateful to I've been an AACC student, not just once but twice.(chuckles)- That's great. And you know, I could hear the pride as you were describing. You've done a great job. So I think you should be proud of that.(upbeat music) Thank you for joining us for this special season of Redefine U, celebrating AACC's 60th anniversary. We hope this season inspires you to think about your own favorite AACC moments. How is being a part of this community near or abroad, as a student, faculty or staff member, parent, or friend. Redefine U.(upbeat music)(upbeat music) Redefine U is a production of Anne Arundel Community College. Our executive producer is Allison Baumbusch, and our producer is Jeremiah Prevatte. Others who help with this podcast include Amanda Behrens, Angie Hamlet, Ben Pierce, and Alicia Renehan. Special thanks to all our guests for sharing their stories. Subscribe, find show notes and other extras on our website, aacc.edu/podcast. I'm your host and creator of this podcast, Dan Baum. Thanks for listening.(upbeat music)