About Me

    Welcome class, and whoever else may have stumbled upon this, my name is Amelia Skinkis and I am studying English, Creative Writing, and Spanish at Oregon State University. After graduation, my plan is to either teach English as a second language, or become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and work with neurotypical children. Currently, I am a Direct Support Professional (DSP) and care for autistic children alongside a BCBA, which has inspired me to explore the field. I grew up just outside of Corvallis, Oregon in a small town called Philomath (Phil-o-myth) with my parents and two sisters — one of them older, and one of them my twin. Now, I live in Corvallis with my roommates and my cat, Dora. 

    I haven’t taken a communication course since high school, and it was a basic speech class. I have always been terrified of public speaking, so it wasn’t my favorite experience. In a way, being forced to communicate in that way made it worse. I have passion and a voice, but when someone is telling me to say things a certain way, my voice diminishes. It caused me to overthink rather than communicate.

    In my everyday life, I use Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube most often. Recently, I deleted Facebook because I am trying to cleanse myself of meta apps, but Instagram is the only place where I can get news about Russian Figure Skating (and figure skating in general). Mostly, I look at the few profiles I follow that post daily news stories, and otherwise, I stick to TikTok. Honestly, people are so funny on there. TikTok is the app I can count on to give me a good laugh and make me feel connected to people. Reading the comments is an absolute treat. It is also a good source of information and political news. I recognize the stigma surrounding “TikTok news,” but as long as you check where the information is coming from, more often than not it is more accessible and honest than mainstream media — it is more personal and opinionated, but in a way, that makes it more real. The neutral reporting of mainstream media only allows corruption to go unchecked. We should be getting emotional and angry about what is happening. Finally, YouTube is where I go for long-form videos when I just want to hear people talk about things; some of my favorites right now are video essays on consumerism culture and sneaky (borderline illegal) marketing tactics. 

 

         My Favorite Figure Skating News

   Anna Shcherbakova (my fav figure skater)                                      Dora watching cat T.V.