For the Junior Documentary project at Freestyle Academy, we were challenged to explore an aspect of our community that we were curious about. I excitedly began brainstorming topic ideas and initially intended to pursue something to do with Buddhism. However, I had to think about the feasibility of that topic and ultimately decided that my view was too broad. My mother suggested following her friend around for a day and writing about that experience. That friend happens to be a single mother by choice. I was curious because I knew that my mother’s friend was a single mother, but did not know what her daily life with her child was like. I also became interested in finding out what parenting entails, and the different roles that single mothers have to take on. Just like that, I knew that my final topic was going to be on single mothers by choice. While I did consider interviewing and writing a portion of my book on single fathers, the idea did not pan out due to inaccessibility. I also limited my interviewees to professional women because they were the only women that I managed to get into contact with.

Along the way, I developed many skills that I hope to use in the future. This project gave me an opportunity to practice photographing people on-the-go, a departure from my usual architectural shots. I also learned how to tailor interview questions and conduct an interview; knowing how to navigate this process will help me get the information I need for future research-based projects.

 

Elective Class Production:

In Design, I created a 40-page book using Adobe InDesign. The text of the book is from the research and interview-based paper I wrote in English, while my graphic elements are from my Adobe Illustrator illustrations, and my photos are taken by me and edited in Adobe Photoshop.

 

Click the image to see my book

My book can be purchased at this link.

 

A screenshot of my workspace in Adobe InDesign

 

An on location shot of the Parent’s Place

 

An on location shot at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple

 

Photogallery:

 

Interviewee Bios:

Quynh Pham:

Quynh works as a registered nurse in the Bay Area. She also is a single mom raising her son, Ethan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Margaret Harris:

Margaret (Given a pseudonym and no photo taken to protect her identity) is a physician in the Bay Area. She considered being a single mother in the past but ultimately chose not to become one.

 

Andrea Scicli:

Andrea (No photo preferred) is a strategic medical writer at Stryker Neurovascular. She began her journey to motherhood alone, but eventually found a husband and was able to adopt her son.

 

Karen Friedland-Brown:

Ms. Friedland-Brown is the director of the Parent’s Place in Palo Alto. She works often with divorced couples and their children.

 

 

 

 

 

Research Paper:

The text of my book came from the research paper that I wrote in English. It was an interesting exercise for me to compile evidence from various sources in a way that reflected my own ideas. For the magazine article that I created in Digital Media, I used an abridged version of the English paper.

Click the image to read my research paper