Directing His Future
Travel-Learning Course Lets Student Combine Passions for Filmmaking, Zoology
Name: Blake Fajack ’16
Majors: General Zoology and Environmental Studies
Minor: Film Studies
Hometown: Madeira, Ohio
Experience: Travel-Learning Course, “Island Biology”
Lessons Learned: “I learned a lot about working on an independent project and the documentary-making process.
“From the filming, to the research, to the writing, to the editing, I ran into new challenges with each aspect of the process. I used a lot of what I learned in documentary filmmaking and all my zoology classes to meet those challenges.
“It’s about 20 minutes, and one needs to keep in mind that it’s extremely low budget and done completely with a hand held camera, but it’s something that I can be proud of.
“I feel like it matters because we often fall into the mode of thinking where each class is its own thing and there’s no overlap, but this project let me find ways to apply what I learned in every class.”
Why I chose Ohio Wesleyan: “I applied to a few schools, all of them in Ohio, and Ohio Wesleyan had, by far, the best courses to choose from in their zoology department and best classes overall.”
My plans after graduation: “I’m going into a grad program at Montana State called Science and Natural History Filmmaking.”