Final Draft, Final Story
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Molly O’Neill
December 10, 2015
Profile
Jazmine Dirks is twenty-three year old who has a busy life, but always makes sure she has time for a little fun.
Dirks graduated from Morningside College in 2014 with a B.S. in Corporate Communications, a B.A. in photography, and a minor in Studio Arts. She is currently working on getting her certification in Art Education and M.A. in Art Education at the University of Iowa.
While at Iowa Dirks is also a teaching assistant for an art class, which she teaches students who attend the University of Iowa.
While at Morningside Dirks was very involved. She was on the soccer team for a few years, was in the art club, and played a huge role in photography club. She also worked at her campus coffee shop, the Spoonholder.
When asked about extra curricular activity at Iowa, Dirks said, “ I was very much involved at Morningside, however, graduate school is a different ball game. If I’m not in class, I am doing homework, teaching or grading.”
Dirks seems to be all work and no play. She is very focused on her schoolwork and her teaching. She loves teaching, but did not always want to do it for the rest of her life.
It wasn’t until her last semester at Morningside that she truly realized what she wanted to do for a career, which is to be a teaching artist. She realized this after taking an education course that had a practicum component built in.
She got to experience sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classrooms. For the class they had to spend at least twenty hours or practicum hours, Dirks ended up spending around sixty hours in her classrooms.
Dirks said that she had never felt this way about a career before and she knew she had to look more into it even thought she was ready to be done with school.
Now that she has to go to school longer Dirks is happy with the decision she had made. She said, “ It is a great feeling to be so passionate about something and feel so reassured that I am heading in the right direction with my career choice every time I teach.”
Dirks talked about how she always finds herself in stressful situations. She’s either stressed about school, work, or sometimes just everyday life things.
After a major snowstorm Dirks was sent out to her family’s local grocery store to get some coffee for everyone.
This does not seem to be a big deal to most people, but to Jazmine it was a little nerve racking.
Dirks had to drive a car that was a stick shift, a car that she is not used to driving, because it was the only one that could get out of the driveway. The grocery store was only a few blocks away but that did not calm her down at all.
She made it out of the driveway and was off to a good start. The whole way there she was worried about sliding on ice or getting into an accident. Slowly but surely Dirks made it to the grocery store with no problems.
Dirks was relieved and started to calm down a bit, but shortly realized she had to get back into the car and do it all over again, but this time she had seven cups of coffee with her that she did not have the first time.
Once Dirks got back into the car she started to get nervous again. She was also angry with her family for sending her to do this task.
Once again, Dirks made it to where she needed to be with only a few drops of coffee being spilled.
Dirks said, “This story may be silly to others, but to me it is a snapshot of my life. I let my nerves get the best of me sometimes and I just needed to take time to relax and be calm, so I can save myself the stress and worry!”
Even though Dirks is very busy with her schoolwork, she makes sure to have fun every now and then.
Some of Dirks hobbies consist of; running, reading, movies, and one of her favorites, discovering new craft beers and wine.
Dirks has also done a lot of traveling in the past and plans to continue as her life goes on.
A lot of the travels that she was a part of have been with Morningside professor Dolie Thompson. She has traveled to Las Vegas, New York, and Chicago that were all for photography conferences.
She was lucky enough to be invited by Thompson to go on a three-week trip to Europe to do a research study of the culture through a photographic lens.
Thompson has always be one of Jazmines favorite professors from Morningside. When asked what she thought of Dirks when she was a student Thompson said, “She had a lot of curiosity as a student, and she always went above and beyond when it came to her school work and always did more than what was required.”
Samantha Clark recently met Dirks, her first impression of her was that she was very friendly and outgoing. After seeing Dirks pictures from her Europe trip Clark had this to say, “I feel like you can see what she felt through her pictures, you see her perspective and feel the emotions”
Dirks is a very busy girl that spends most of her days feeling stressed out. In the end she thinks that all the stress and hard work will pay off. She is very excited to start student teaching next year because that is one step closer to where she needs to be.