Arjun Talks to Grads - with Elena Stoica

We are back with the new instalment of Arjun Talks to Grads. So in this episode Arjun explores how Elena Stoica spent her university life and her recent experience with CNN Academy Abu Dhabi. 

Check out Elena's story on CNN Academy here:
https://academy.cnn.com/home/academyVideo/534864999

Transcript

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Arjun Radeesh  0:06  
So Hey guys, welcome back to a brand new episode of origin talks to dreads. So, hope you guys are having an amazing time and Today we have with us the amazingly amazing Elena. things going on with you today.

Elena Stoica  0:29  
Hey, john, everything's going great. It's almost a year since graduating. I mean, you guys have a few months left of your final or you know, second year. And yeah, this is I guess life almost a year later.

Arjun Radeesh  0:47  
Um, let's do a rapid fire then. Like hot burning questions. Here you go with your first question. I got six questions for you. And it's gonna be really easy.

Elena Stoica  0:58  
So I have to answer super super quickly that

Arjun Radeesh  1:00  
Yep, you got it there. Okay, what is your guilty pleausre in food?

Elena Stoica  1:06  
Oh, I just I love all food. But I would say that seafood and an Indian cuisine are two of my favourite. This morning. I actually went to I forgot the name of the restaurant because it's really really long and I don't want to mispronounce it. But I actually had a Masala Dosa for breakfast and this special type of filter coffee. Really good.

Arjun Radeesh  1:26  
Being an Indian listening to this, it's just truly amazing. Okay, what about a non food your guilty pleasure in non food?

Elena Stoica  1:35  
I love smoking, but it's not really a guilty pleasure. It's more like a hobby. So yeah.

Arjun Radeesh  1:41  
Perfect. Do you believe in aliens? 

Elena Stoica  1:45  
No. 

Arjun Radeesh  1:45  
Okay. What's your earliest childhood memory,

Elena Stoica  1:49  
his childhood memory? I guess being in kindergarten with with different friends and just playing in kindergarten, back in Romania.

Arjun Radeesh  2:01  
Ah, if you had to live in another time period, what would you choose?

Elena Stoica  2:05  
I love this time period. Honestly, I'm not just okay. Yeah, we all depend on my but I mean, it's such a huge technological revolution. And this is a timeframe where I feel like most of us that have grown up in this area of our era, I would say that there have been so many changes in terms of technology in terms of media, and we were able to see the shift from kind of newspapers all the way to digital. So what a journalist used to do 20 or 25 years ago is completely different now. So I like this time frame where we get to see this evolution.

Arjun Radeesh  2:46  
 , if you had a superpower, what would that be?

Elena Stoica  2:50  
superpower teleportation.

Arjun Radeesh  2:52  
Yeah. m Really? 

Elena Stoica  2:55  
Yes. Yes. teleportation, then you can travel anywhere at any time. Imagine you have to get somewhere to I don't know what you want to go on vacation. A quick vacation. You can easily teleport right? Or if you're if there's a breaking news story, you can easily tell them for it. I mean, it's the best of both worlds. Okay.

Arjun Radeesh  3:12  
And my last question is hot dog sandwich. 

Elena Stoica  3:20  
What 

Arjun Radeesh  3:23  
is hot dog a sandwich?

Elena Stoica  3:26  
Its a hot dog?

Arjun Radeesh  3:28  
Hot Dog sandwich. 

Elena Stoica  3:29  
 I would not say no, I would not say it's a sandwich. No.

Arjun Radeesh  3:32  
Okay. 

Elena Stoica  3:34  
To have a sandwich you need two pieces of bread. This is just yeah,

Arjun Radeesh  3:38  
that's tell us two pieces of bread and in between

Elena Stoica  3:41  
as well. You only cut one side of it is you know,

Arjun Radeesh  3:46  
understandable. Anyways, there we end the rapid fire. So tell me so let's dive into the detailed story. So how was how was it like at uni uni life.

Elena Stoica  4:03  
Um, so throughout the three years university, I was always involved with student activities and sports clubs. So during the final year, it was a bit hard because halfway through the year the pandemic struck so we all had to, you know, quarantine it was locked down, but most of my university life I would play volleyball and obviously I was leaving the public eye which is PR advertising and journalism club as well as red beet. So that was mostly how I spent my uni days there. And

Arjun Radeesh  4:42  
since you have like any favourite memory though, of uni.

Elena Stoica  4:49  
Oh, um, well, my favourite uni moments. Like there are three main ones would be ensuring during exam periods, I would say, when I would take a break with my friend green, and we'd go get noodles. And we just have a break and just like eat noodles by by the benches outside and find the thing. Okay, this is a good break. And we've just submitted something, this is amazing. Does that relief moment that's, that's one of my favourites and going to volleyball matches and coming together with the team. Usually we had this ritual that every single time after a match, we'd all go to McDonald's, whether we won or whether we lost, we'd all just go and just celebrate and kind of just be together. So I really miss those. And the other one would be when we finally got the funding to launch red beet, which is our student run magazine, it took us half a year to hours of pitching and constantly getting back to the marketing department and going back and forth to finally get it approved. And during that time, we're just like, yes, the ball is rolling. We're finally starting something we've wanted for a really long time.

Arjun Radeesh  6:11  
Right 

Elena Stoica  6:11  
Yeah, I was very involved in university, I would say.

Arjun Radeesh  6:15  
Anyways, let's talk about the present. How is life treating you after after uni.

Elena Stoica  6:25  
So what I've been up to in the past almost here. So after graduating, I took a bit of time off, just you know, a month and a half just to relax and take a break. And then after that I jumped straight into freelance. So I've freelanced for almost half a year since then, I've gotten into the CNN Academy programme, which was from January, all the way till March. So we just had our graduation on Sunday, as you might know, we just released our project, each one of us created a different story. And we worked alongside professionals, we got advice, we learned so much from so many different, you know, international correspondents and anchors and guest speakers and just so many different voices. So it was such an incredible experience learning from people with so much experience. So that's one part of it. And now I'm looking forward to the next chapter. I'm starting work next week, a full time job. Yeah.

Arjun Radeesh  7:35  
Okay, so I have heard this with a couple of people like our Let's be precise with your friends that okay, you prefer a freelance rather than a full time? Why?

Elena Stoica  7:49  
Um, well, the reason I went into freelance straight away from university was because it was, you know, the pandemic was, you know, fairly fresh then. And a lot of the job posts for journalists, they were, you know, some journalists were being made redundant, there weren't a lot of opportunities. And there were only maybe places for internships, and even then they weren't really that well paid. Having gained so much experience over the course of university because I've done multiple internships, I thought, Hey, I already, you know, I've done enough, I know, I have the skill set, I know what the value is for the work that I can produce. So I said, I need to go into freelance because that's the only way that my work is going to be valued. So went out, and started working with different people. And I think that one of the biggest accomplishments during that time is that I've helped Andrea Zoya, which is a, she's a public speaking and confidence coach. She actually held a talk at Middlesex a couple of weeks ago, I believe. So I've helped her launch her online transformational public speaking programme. And this was, you know, freelancing with her and you know, other people on the side as well. And this programme is now a lot of different consultants, CEOs, entrepreneurs, all these people with loads of experience are going there to you know, learn and get that knowledge. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've helped her set it up in terms of shooting it. I've written a book that accompanies that online course as well.

Arjun Radeesh  9:37  
We wrote a book to,

Elena Stoica  9:40  
um, it accompanies her online course. So it's a seven chapter book that accompanies the online programme.

Arjun Radeesh  9:47  
Okay.

Elena Stoica  9:48  
Yeah, it's a textbook slash workbook. And yeah, that was I think that was my biggest biggest accomplishment so far. And Then followed by, you know, CNN Academy, which came afterwards. So that's also a huge opportunity.

Arjun Radeesh  10:06  
Okay, so let's talk about cnn Academy, because it has been the like, say over the spotlight for quite some time. How was the experience? Okay, what was your first experience or your price expression when you got to be acceptance letter?

Elena Stoica  10:22  
I was shocked. I did not expect it. And I was just mind blown, because I'll tell you why I applied a day before the deadline.

Arjun Radeesh  10:35  
Wow. But you've got to actually prepare a good amount of content, right?

Elena Stoica  10:41  
Of the process for it was a one minute introduction video, and then a 500 word, pitch of your story. And I did this all in half a day. Yeah. So I was

Arjun Radeesh  10:57  
really half a day ?

Elena Stoica  10:59  
Okay, look, back in university, I was the type of person who was like, Okay, I need to do everything on time I need you know, I need to finish everything a week in advance, I need to have space for you know, I wasn't really a rush person. If you ask anyone, I would be ahead of schedule and on track all the time. But because I've been freelancing, and I was so preoccupied with, you know, so many things at the same time, and I was always on the move, I postponed the, you know, the filming of the video for quite some time. And, yeah, one person who really pushed me was Stephen King.

Arjun Radeesh  11:41  
Steve there you go,

Elena Stoica  11:42  
he was the one who reminded me He's like, I don't know, there's a, you know, there's a talk hosted by Middlesex and Becky Anderson is going to be there and are the Reza, he's going to, you know, introduce and explain about the programme. And I came 10 minutes late into, you know, hearing about the opportunity as well. So, it was a bit late, you know, me putting together the videos itself, and the pitch for my story. So it was a surprise to me when they said, Oh, you've been selected for an interview, as a second step was an interview. Because Because I thought, Oh, no, it's too late. Others had a lot, you know, more time to put this thing together. And when I was reading, I was a bit stressed. I was reading the requirements. I was like, Oh, no, we have to make it creative. Let's make it interesting. How am I going to make it creative? What I'm just going to be sitting in front of the camera speaking about myself for a minute, because I don't have enough footage, like stock footage or extra shots to put put it together. So what I did was I put a screen screen behind me. And I made it seem like I was a new I was in a newsroom. Like I was the anchor. And I did that it was so last minute I didn't get you know, I wasn't able to get the advice of other, you know, professors or people or anything. I was just like, Okay, I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna put it out there. I'm just gonna send it, we'll see.

Arjun Radeesh  13:06  
Oh, so it's more of a, you was like, Okay, let's let me do this quickly. And let the fate decide, like, okay, whether I should get in or not.

Elena Stoica  13:14  
In a way. I mean, I knew that I put together exactly what type of person I am and what I can do. And I just put that in video, but I don't know, I wasn't sure about it. That's because they did take quite a bit of time to get back to us. With the interview, it did take maybe two or three weeks. So those two or three weeks, you know, at some point, I was just like, oh, when are we going to get an answer? What's happening? By the third week? I forgot because I was so submerged into work. And then it finally gave on this like, whoa, I'm I'm sure what this is actually happening. I'm going for an interview phase. Yeah.

Arjun Radeesh  13:51  
When you saw Becky Anderson, speak to you. What was that feeling? When a person on TV comes on zoom call or say I believe it was over you were having sessions over zoom? Right? Yeah. So like, Okay, come coming, like literally addressing you guys like face to face? virtually? How was that feeling?

Elena Stoica  14:18  
So we all got to introduce ourselves, and I didn't feel nervous, but I feel like I asked him this because I forgot a couple of things. You know, usually all people introduce themselves with their name, their backgrounds, you know where they've been, you know, and because there was other Reza was already there. It's like, oh, now we'll take it over. We'll switch to Elena, please introduce yourself. You know, he already said Alana. So I'm thinking oh, I've been already introduced so I don't need to repeat my name. And I forgot a couple of details. Like, for example, I forgot to say that I'm from Middlesex University. I forgot You know, like this small little details here and there where, you know, are like what I look forward to learning. I did introduce myself, like why I applied to journalism, what I hope to, you know, learn from the different journalists. But there are a few, you know, kind of minor things that were kind of missing in my introduction, and that's probably because, you know, it's someone that's on, you know, TVs Finally, like, you know, they're and they're speaking to, it's not the TV box anymore. It's like your computers. Well, yeah, otherwise, um, yeah, I think it went. It was a good intro.

Arjun Radeesh  15:42  
Perfect. So like, what was your story about? If you could share that?

Elena Stoica  15:48  
Yeah. So my story is about finding a healthy stress outlet. And I wanted to take the framing from a mother's perspective, because mental health is something that's really, really important. And it's awareness is starting to pick up here in the UAE, especially more initiatives, and more cops are, you know, beginning to form are on this topic. And my story was about a mother of two, who is a marketing director in a multinational firm, who's you know, at home, she's working, if you think your kids, she's taking care of the house, just taking care of her job, everything. So that can become really really, you know, stressful at times. And it's just showcasing that, you know, mothers, women can take time off, to take care of their mental health to relieve stress in any way, you know, possible. And she just happens to do this through motorbiking with her group that founded in 2017. So she founded the only female bike riding club in the UAE. And it's the story behind the writers because I didn't want to take more, you know, like an empowering type of thing like oh women in the UAE or motorbiking, because that was initially how I pitched my story when I went to the Academy. And then when I went there, they said, Oh, but that's like saying people in China eat food. Of course, they equal everyone in school. Why are you mentioning it? You know? So it's kind of the same with the narrative of woman empowerment, I feel that if you keep on going on that narrative in certain situations, you're not normalising it, you're making it seem like it's abnormal for this to happen. So as I said, it's better. You know, like this happened in 2017. local club is found that already, you know, it's been ongoing for a long time, it's already been normalised. So don't bring it up, because then it defeats the purpose. So I said, Okay, yeah, that's true. I saw a different perspective, which before I wasn't aware of, and I thought, okay, but see how, you know, because each one of them have a different story. So I wanted to focus on the mental health part of it. And, yeah, I just want people to think at the end of watching the story, you know, to think to themselves, whether they're, you know, a team, you know, like a young, a young man or an older old man, young woman, whoever it is, whoever watches it, to think to themselves, okay, what am I doing for me? What is my stress outlet? How am I keeping myself mentally fit and having that balance of life?

Arjun Radeesh  18:35  
That's actually some, like, actually a really good story. So guys, if you want to watch it, it'll be there in our show notes. So So what is this one thing which you studied out? When you graduated from CNN Academy? 

Elena Stoica  18:50  
Oh, there have been so many things that this programme has taught me, because in university, you have the theory part, and you do speak to journalists. But what we really added on from this, from the CNN Academy is that the proximity we had to so many different journalists, to so many experts, professionals that have been in the field for such a long time being able to ask them specifics about their, about their reporting about pieces they've done about anything, and getting that answer live in real time. And learning from in a way from them what they've done over the years. I think that was huge takeaway. And another one is script writing, because script writing for TV, and storytelling has to be so concise. So my, my entire interview is 40 minutes long, but then the story has to be told in two and a half minutes or three minutes, which makes it so difficult, especially because I didn't want to be The story, I don't want to have my face, I didn't want to have my voice, because I wanted to create that emotional connection to the main character. And once I placed if I placed myself in there that that, you know, destroys the story for me at least. So, being able to tell the story only with the main characters voice, it's really hard to get those sound bites. And you need to have like a really good speaker, to be able to tell the story. Otherwise, then you do resort to your own voiceover, just to summarise specific points, and then you use sound bites. So creating that script and seeing how it's created to not only create the flow, but also make sure that you're not distorting the truth. And you're not adding something that's not true. To the story, it was a huge, huge takeaway for me.

Arjun Radeesh  20:55  
My last question, what is the one thing which you would like to, like send a message as to aspiring journalism students,

Elena Stoica  21:07  
I would say that there are so many paths to journalism, it's not clear cut for everyone. And from all the different professionals that we've listened to each one of them had a different way in into journalism. So even if you as a graduate student who graduated journalism, and let's say, there aren't job opportunities, at the moment, try to freelance try to commission your work, try to do as many internships as possible to show your, you know, credibility, and then try to balance your work on the side, you might get a job in, you know, another communications field, for example. But at the same time, if you're really, really passionate about journalism, you're always going to make your way back to it, you know, in the long run. So that's, that's what I would say, keep writing constantly. And I do have, because for my dissertation, I did create a guide book for journalism students. So it's a guide to what journalists look forward in entry level applicants. And I'd be able to share that with you to share it with, you know, the university has been shared with the university. And you can have a read through this was pre pandemic. So it's around 50 pages of what they look for in journalists, other than the theory, and other than the things you already learned at university, or  about soft skills, people skills, what type of characteristics, what they, you know, look for in terms of how you are as a person, so I can share that with you. And 

Arjun Radeesh  22:47  
we will include that anyways, in our show notes we have, I think we will have this time instead of words. We'll have a lot of links in our show notes. Cool. My very, very, very last question is, you actually didn't have a graduation ceremony when you were graduating from university. But you had a graduation ceremony in cnn Academy. What was that feeling?

Elena Stoica  23:10  
Oh, that was just it was I was nervous. And I was happy. I was so excited. I wanted to make the most of it. And I really did. And it was great that it was virtual. That's one of the things that you know, this thunder, like really, you know, brought through so that you know, yeah,

Arjun Radeesh  23:28  
that's pretty much it from us. Thank you so much for listening. Please do like, share and subscribe. And before that, thank you Elena so much.

Thank you so much for taking some time from your busy schedule. 

Elena Stoica  23:46  
Thank you Arjun. I really, really appreciate it.

Arjun Radeesh  23:50  
So that's all and this is Arjun Radeesh signing off from let's talk to the grads. See ya