Published: September 26, 2024 by Gabe Farmer

Hello, fellow San José State University School of Information students! I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with many of you in classes and group projects already, but there are still so many of you I haven’t had the chance to meet yet. My name is Gabe Farmer and I’ll be your new iSchool blog writer! I’m excited to take up this mantle and create helpful, engaging, and community-building content for us all to share. First, I’d like to tell y’all a bit about myself, so you can get an idea of the person behind the posts!

Two years ago, my wife and I packed up our Rottweiler and two cats, leaving my lifelong home of Nashville, TN, to start a new chapter in the San Fernando Valley. We love the diversity and culture of our new home!

Starting a New Chapter at SJSU

After COVID derailed my work in the film industry, I transitioned to the fitness industry, where I’ve been working since. However, I haven’t found fulfillment with the sales tactics inherent in fitness, so I began to look elsewhere for my career path. That’s when I found SJSU and the iSchool MLIS program and began my massive career pivot! As a shy and quiet latchkey kid growing up, public libraries have always held a special place in my heart. I have been working in a public library for six months now, where I recently accepted a new position as a Library Associate, and I could not be happier! I plan to graduate in the fall of 2025 and continue my career in public librarianship.

This is my third semester in the iSchool MLIS program and it has been a fantastic experience for me so far. I have honestly been blown away by how much of a connection I have been able to make with my professors and classmates despite the program being completely online!

My Vision for the iStudent Blog

My vision for this blog is to nurture that feeling of connection and be a conduit for that feeling to reach more students.

I want to achieve this by amplifying the reach of our community-focused resources. Through this blog, I hope I can help other students find relevant student organizations, networking events, and other valuable opportunities such as the upcoming Library 2.024 Worldwide Virtual Conference.

Beyond just spreading the news of opportunities that are already available, I would love to include the voices of other iSchool students (like yourself) and amplify their stories and interests. Making genuine connections can be incredibly difficult when you only converse through email and the occasional Zoom call, but I hope that by highlighting the experiences and stories of our little community we can create tight-knit bonds that will last into our professional careers!

With that said, if you have a story or event that you are a part of and think would be a good fit for the blog, feel free to reach out to me so we can chat!

Additionally, I’m excited to incorporate some multimedia assets into this blog! We all know we’re being pushed to incorporate graphic design and video assets into our assignments, so I plan to embrace that and incorporate those through the use of video interviews and infographics to help make the blog a bit more interesting than a massive block of text!

So, in conclusion, I’m ecstatic to accept this position, and I can’t wait to see where it leads for all of us! To stay updated, make sure you keep an eye on the iStudent Blog page or subscribe to the iStudent Blog RSS feed! Again, if you or your student organization have any ideas for a blog post or if you even just want to make a connection, please reach out! I hope all of your fall semesters are going well, and I’ll see you again soon. I’m truly excited about this journey with all of you, and I can’t wait to see how we’ll grow together as a community!