The Office of Experiential Learning is offering a new resource for students to grow their professional profiles. The professional headshot booth, located on the second floor of Corbett Center Student Union, is a free and easy to use way for students to get professional photos to use on all kinds of documents.
A main goal of the booth is to relieve the cost of getting professional photos done. While it might be expensive to have photos taken by a photographer, the photo booth is completely free for students to use.
“When we do camera photo headshots, it could cost anywhere from $25 to $100 to take just a headshot,” said Trish Leyba, OEL director. “So that’s a huge amount of savings, especially for college students when it’s tough out here in the streets financially.”
The photo booth also helps relieve the costs of time and convenience. Because the booth is available whenever Corbett is open, students can get their photos taken practically whenever they want.
“If Monday through Friday doesn’t work for you, if you work from eight to five, it’s still there after five and on the weekends. And so it’s really a convenienc
e factor,” said Tony Marin, the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs.
Something else that adds to the convenience factor is the ease of use. All students have to do is follow the instructions and pose for their picture.
“I thought it was really easy. I like that you can retake photos and like the tips it gives you about posing and stuff and the lighting is good. And you know, it’s pretty straightforward with just your email,” student Van Tiem said.
There are a few rules to follow when taking a photo in the headshot booth. OEL administrators monitor the booth to ensure it is being used appropriately.
“It’s not supposed to be used as, say, one of those mall photo kiosks where you could have a group of people in there and just do some fun headshots. That’s not the purpose of it. So that’s the reason for our monitoring and just to make sure that it’s been used appropriately,” Leyba said.
Although the booth only arrived at Corbett a few months ago, the word has gotten out. Some colleges, such as the College of Engineering, have let students know about it.
“The College of Engineering reached out and I know that they promoted it amongst their students with respect to it being available for students,” Leyba said.
Some students have additionally heard about it from their fraternity or sorority.
“I heard a lot of people talking about [the headshot booth]. We have a big group chat for who’s making a resume in the fraternity. And there’s been a lot of people talking about it. So I decided to come and check it out,” Jacob Ahyo, a member of Sigma Chi, said.
Students are using the photos they take for a variety of purposes. Cruz Tuttle, J.J. Blunt, and William Van Tiem are using their headshot photos on a brochure advertising a mailbox business.
“What we’re going to be doing is destroying the old posts, keeping the mailbox and we’re going to make a new frame that the mailbox stands on. And the picture is going to be for the back [of the brochure] where we have a little about us section. Just giving a little bit of background information on who’s behind the company.”
