by Owl Staff
From left to right: Tacy Brown, Abigail Krass, Faras Aamir, Nneka Iweanya, Claudia Brown.
HCC graduate Faras Aamir transformed Owl Magazine with his videography and design skills. A 2015 graduate, he continues to give back to HCC as a guest speaker in the Journalism/New Media and Advertising program.
Aamir is a multimedia producer, designer, and strategist who has spent the past decade blending creativity with strategy to spark conversation, inspire new perspectives, and leave a lasting impact creating across digital platforms.
This semester, he was a guest presenter for two of Professor Claudia Brown’s classes: MC 208: Multimedia Journalism and MC 210: Introdiction to Social Media. He spoke on a variety of topics including interviewing skills, branding, podcasting and video editing. In addition, he provided mentoring to students working on class assignments and projects for Owl Media.
“Having Faras as a guest speaker set a really high standard to start off my first semester here with Owl Media at HCC.”
“Faras revolutionized Owl Magazine as a student, taking charge of our redesign and launching us into the digital age with video production and social media,” states Brown. “Our current success with Owl Media is due in large part to his continued support. He was instrumental with the launch of Owl Media’s web site, and even taught me as student for an independent study on Tik Tok reels.”
Brown adds, “Alums like Faras help keep the publication and the Journalism program innovative, relevant, and on the cutting edge.”
In addition to guest speaking for journalism classes, Faras Aamir also provided training and mentoring to Owl Media’s staff.
Several students also spoke on Aamir’s impact in the classroom.
“He was a good speaker and it was fun listening to him because he had first hand knowledge with Owl Media,” states Leota Fullano. “I think having an alumni speaker not only benefits the speaker but also the students. It gives motivation to students to reach harder towards their goals.”
Colin Lowry adds: “Having Faras was very interesting, and he even showed some of his content he does on his social media platforms. When I mentioned that I was into podcasting he gave me some good advice on that, and also gave me some tips on interviewing.”
From left to right: Leota Fullano, Mackenzie Cooney, Tyler Caswell, Faras Aamir, Asia Nino, Claudia Brown
MC208 students gather in Owl Media’s production studio with Faras for guidance on interviewing and videography.
“Having Faras as a guest speaker set a really high standard to start off my first semester here with Owl Media at HCC,” said Tyler Caswell. “His experience in multimedia, especially short format virality and branding, gave a wide perspective of whats capable with the training and education he received here in this program.”
Abbie Krass highlights Aamir’s alumni status: “I feel like Faras taught me a lot about how to have a presence on social media. It was nice to have an alum speak because it gives students a sense of hope and comfort. The future can be a scary thing, but knowing others have graduated and got good careers means there is hope for you too. As a college student I think it is very important for us to see influences like that in our education.”
For more information on Aamir’s creative pursuits outside of Owl Media, check him out online @farosty (https://www.youtube.com/@Farosty/featured)