When students think of the Digital Media Career Academy (DMCA), they likely think of the Morning Growl where school announcements are covered by students trading jokes and filled with segments such as ‘I’m Not Fashion Forward.’ What the Morning Growl does not show, however, is the individuals that make up the DMCA and the things they are doing behind the scenes. Meet Joseline Mora-Obrajero, a senior who has been in the DMCA all four years of high school. Dana Kaushik describes her growth in the program saying, “…through her work as a DMCA ambassador she has since grown to have a powerful voice in our school community.”

  Joseline, known to her friends as Josie, says that the most important part of the DMCA is her classmates who have grown to be her family over her years in the program. Describing its impact on her she says: “I feel like it’s made me a lot more confident and a lot more open to talk about things. I was a really shy person freshman year and I feel like I’ve grown a lot in terms of being able to speak my truth and stuff like that… being more open.” 

  Not only is Joseline a key part of the DMCA, but she is also focused on helping her community and encouraging others to join the program. She is a DMCA ambassador making it her responsibility to represent the DMCA in her classes and among her peers as well as encouraging all those who might be a good fit for the program to join during their freshman or sophomore year. Even now, there are signs hanging around Millbrook’s hall, encouraging all rising sophomores to look into joining the DMCA and Joseline would be the one to ask about joining. “You don’t really have to have any experience… It’s a really good learning experience. I learned a lot from it in my four years,” Joseline says for those interested in the program. Personally, she has found that she has grown in her ability to use technology, explaining that when she joined the DMCA she was not confident in her ability to use technology for anything past everyday tasks, but over the years has become more confident in her ability to use programs such as Adobe.

  In addition to the DMCA, Joseline has also made her mark on the Millbrook community in several other ways including: the Graduaté program, whose goal is to encourage Hispanic students to graduate and pursue college education; National Achievers Society (NAS), a society made up to recognize high achieving minority students for their academic success; and Future Farmers of America (FFA), whose goal is to prepare students for careers in the science, business, and technology of agriculture. Going beyond Millbrook’s campus, she has also started a middle school outreach program looking to get middle schoolers interested in and excited about digital media. She explains further saying, “I remember when I was in middle school high school kids would come to our middle school and just talk about things… and I really wanted to be one of those people so I reached out to my teacher, Mrs. K, and I was like ‘I have an idea. I want to go to middle schools and teach kids about the digital media career academy — get them wanting to come join the DMCA’. She was like, ‘Yeah, that sounds really cool.’ So, she reached out to the East Millbrook teachers and she told them about my idea.” Joseline has already done her first session with the middle schoolers at East Millbrook and is preparing to go back for a second.

  When trying to describe herself in three words, Joseline says that she is outgoing, empathetic, and charismatic with one of her best qualities being that she was an overall very nice person. She also laughed that if she had to choose her worst quality, she would say that she is a really bad procrastinator and is working on improving that.

  When it comes down to it, Joseline is a well-rounded student who has positively influenced her classmates and community over her four years at Millbrook. When describing what she feels makes her spectacular, she says, “I’m really reliable. I feel like I contribute a lot to the DMCA… and I am a person that you can come to if you need anything.”