October 30, 2020
Penn State provided alum with skills to pursue her dreams
![Illustrations by Amanda Strassler](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/news/_860xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Screen-Shot-2020-10-30-at-2.26.46-PM.png)
I can say that working for Digital Learning gave me a lot of skills that were applicable for film sets.""Having access to professional equipment such as the C100 camera, lighting gear and strobe lights—those skills were a huge leg up,” Strassler said. The Office of Digital Learning helps faculty in the College of Arts and Architecture develop online courses. While working on a short film in one of her freelance jobs, Strassler had the advantage of using all the equipment she practiced on while in the Office of Digital Learning, directly leading to more relevant experience in the field of creative services. “I didn’t expect to still be working for Penn State,” Strassler said. “So many things have changed.” Before the pandemic, Strassler was freelancing as an event photographer for Fever in New York City after originally working in production for the event production company. Strassler is finding ways to be creative and innovative despite the pandemic. She is spending her time working on small side projects to grow Holy Moly Media, including creating and printing stickers to launch on the newly added art shop on her website, holymolymedia.org. In addition, on her Instagram, Holy Moly Draws, she is creating multimedia content using the audio of her interviewed subjects overtop her process of creating illustrations. Even though she graduated, Strassler continues to take advantage of the opportunities offered through the College of Arts and Architecture’s internship program. She looks forward to the scheduled Zoom workshop meetings every week, including using them to hone her teaching skills by helping with demonstrations. “I really appreciate the community that [Stephanie Swindle Thomas] has built with the internship program. I think it’s really helpful for interns in college and building connections for when they graduate, but it’s also really helpful for me,” Strassler said. “When you go off in the world it’s a lot harder to make connections and meet people [compared to when you are in college].” Strassler moved to New York City immediately after graduating, hoping to find work on film sets—which she did, thanks to Penn State connections. She has also continued to refine films she made in college, including one that was accepted into the Los Angeles Short Film Festival. Now with her LLC, Strassler has more control over projects and events and has started to develop a client following. She looked into full-time jobs before establishing her LLC, but craved the lifestyle of working on sets and the thrill of spontaneous projects. During an internship while an undergrad, she realized being in an office from Monday through Friday wasn’t the life for her. She also began to see how the companies hired freelancers to do the creative work.
I want to show up to set whenever I can and work these crazy long-hour days, and then in two weeks or three days it’s over and you can see what you did and see what you created. I just love that.”Story by Neilyce Tejeda
![Illustrations by Amanda Strassler](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/news/_680xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Screen-Shot-2020-10-30-at-2.26.46-PM.png)
![Concert by candlelight](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/news/_680xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/DSC07987-scaled.jpg)
![Portrait of person with glasses and blue hair](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/news/_680xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Portrait-Commission-scaled.jpg)
![Painting of individuals holding machine guns](https://arts.psu.edu/assets/uploads/news/_680xAUTO_fit_center-center_80_none/Untitled_Artwork-2.jpg)
Unit Outreach:
Offices:
Office of Digital Learning
Degrees:
Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Arts