I (unintentionally) completed my gateway and my capstone on relatively similar topics. The progression from my gateway to my capstone is so visible, both content and design wise, that I wanted to write a blog post to reflect on it.
My gateway was funny (read: I tried to make it funny). It was framed to debunk common misconceptions that people had about Scotland from movies, books, TV shows, etc. It was niche – I know.
To give some context, my family is Scottish, and we immigrated to the United States when I was 6. All my life I knew about the funny components of being Scottish, because that’s how my parents raised me. My project was fun, it joked around, and didn’t take anything too seriously (even the Scottish referendum, which was actually very serious). My website reflected my tone, and there were light hearted pictures (many of which I took) and animated texts (why is that even a feature, Wix?)
Fast forward a few years. Michigan has opened my eyes to so many perspectives and taught me so much that I slowly learned to think of myself not only as someone from Scotland, but as a Scot who is also an immigrant in the United States. In this day and age, being an immigrant is no small thing.
My capstone project reflected that, as I worked to uncover media misrepresentations of immigrants, and ultimately remind everyone why America is known as the “nation of immigrants.” Much less niche.
The design of my website has changed so much too. From cheesy pictures to (what I like to think are) professional layouts and serious tones.
It has been so rewarding to see how my thoughts and ideas about myself and about how the world views immigration have changed over the last few years. It is especially cool to have both perspectives in an interactive website that I can show people!