Ashley Hefnawy sits in front of me… fashionable, poised, and radiant with her distinctive head of curly locks. What started as a typical twenty questions evolved into a conversation of music, art, and of course, the Big Apple.
Ashley, a sophomore at Eugene Lang, was born in Westport, Connecticut, a town in Fairfield County. She spent only a portion of her childhood in New England, and the remainder in New York City. She is of Egyptian heritage, a quality that she is particularly proud of, and is also semi-fluent in Arabic. As an adolescent, she lived with her family in Cairo for a number of months. She is the oldest of three children, and has a 16-year-old brother and a 13-year-old sister.
It is clear that Ashley’s passion is music. She describes her melodic tastes as extremely eclectic. Lately, Ashley has been heavily evolved in the electronic music scene, and enjoys artists such as The Chemical Brothers. Recently, she attended the Electric Zoo festival on New York’s Randall Island.
“I got the tickets the morning of the event” she says, “I was so lucky, I had the time of my life.”
Indie and folk bands also fill the contents of her iPod. Despite a multifaceted interest in music, she declared that hands down Andrew Bird is her favorite artist. Ashley is a musician herself… she was classically trained on the violin for ten years, and has picked up the guitar more recently.
When asked what she likes to do in her spare time, Hefnawy said that she enjoys walking around the city, finding new music venues, and meeting new people.
“I really am a people person.” She said.
When asked why she moved to New York for college, Ashley said that she has known she wanted to live in the city as a child. She is extremely interested in pursuing a writing career, and knew that the Big Apple would be the best place to succeed in that dream. When asked what she wants to be doing in ten years, Ashley said she would like to be a journalist specializing in musical reporting.
Ashley describes the New York experience as a unique one.
“When you move to a city like New York for college, you aren’t just beginning your college life” she says, “You are beginning your adult life as well.”
Since moving to the city, Ashley mentioned that she has become more independent and resilient.
What’s on the horizon for our Ashley? I think we will be seeing her name at the top of a Rolling Stone article in the near future.
This is well done. I like that you situate her in the classroom in front of you. Helps ground the reader. It's odd, though, that after introducing the first person into the piece you use the phrases, 'when asked...' etc. Once you've introduced yourself, just say, I asked her...
ReplyDeletealso avoid ... unless you really have a reason. They're used in journalism to connote something missing in a quote, and not generally used otherwise. You can use an m-dash instead.
Good
B
ps - i didn't see this until just now. Didn't realize you'd posted on your own blog