Hello!

I’m Stella, and I’m one of the 2011-2012 teaching fellows for The Modern Story. I’ve posted a short video below to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about why I’m so excited for our digital storytelling program and its mission.

I’ve spent the past four years as an English major at Columbia, thinking a whole lot about what exactly makes up a story, the different ways of telling one, and the many things that a story can do. I’ve loved studying literature, but it’s a bit of a paradoxical activity in college—to be thinking hard about scenes of war, or grief, or family reunion, but to be doing it all insulated in a dorm room. Storytelling does involve a set of techniques and theories, but at its heart, I think, is the process of living and experiencing things openly, thinking about these experiences, and then trying to create something that rings true.

I’m really happy about getting back to this heart of storytelling, by collaborating with a group of students every day to work out our thoughts narratively, and utilizing technology to contribute to a global conversation.

I just flew into Hyderabad last night, equipped with a bottle of pepto bismol and many, many stories from friends and family about what it’s like to be in India. But I still have no idea what this city will become for me over the next six months. I’m looking forward to learning those things about a place that you can only really know by experiencing them for some time—a city’s different moods in the morning and evening, or during sunny days and monsoons.

Introducing Stella from The Modern Story on Vimeo.