A night with Nicole Dreiski**

Let be first to say that it was an honor to have a children's media expert like Miss Dreiski come and visit our school. Thank you so much Leeper for bringing here in.

So I was lucky enough to be invited to have dinner with Miss Dreiski with a select group of students and faculty. She seemed very eager to hear about "Sail Away" and what we were doing with it. She listened avidly to both Gracie (our writer) and I about what we had to say about it. She also gave us some good advice about story, and also told us about a project she was currently involved in. Soon after she got into a discussion with us about content in children's media. Essentially, her argument was not that we should focusing on censoring children's media (sound familiar) but that we should teach children to be conscious consumers of what they're watching and what it means to them as individuals. I think this interaction will have a profound impact on how I approach media consumption if the Lord wills I have children.

After a delightful dinner, I then had the opportunity to listen to her speak again at the Forrester Lecture. At this, she talked about an entirely different yet relevant subject of marketing yourself and knowing when and how to spin your work and experience to get people to believe in you and eventually fund you. This can be a very awkward position to take for Christian artist's who think that, for the sake of striving for "humbleness", they must refrain from making them seem special. But this does not translate well for looking for job or trying to get funding, and I think Miss Dreiski handled this topic delicately and in truth. I am so glad she came, and I am sure my art will benefit greatly in the future from her dialogue with our student body.