We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Deprina Godboldo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Deprina below.
Deprina, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with education – we’d love to hear your thoughts about how we can better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career.
When it comes to the educational system I believe there are two changes that need to take place. Financial knowledge should be taught to all kids from the moment they start to learn about numbers and fractions. Financial literacy is going to be the backdrop for their future. Everything we do in life has something to do with money and how well you handle it. No one is teaching people how to grow it, invest it or sustain it. The second thing and most important to me is internet safety. These kids have tablets from the age of two. This isn’t a bad thing until they come across something bad and not even their parents understand what is happening online. You can create a tik tok or a instagram page for fun but kids need to do know that, the internet is full of scammers and unhealthy content. The bad thing is parent think ” Well I will just Keep them off the computer” or ” They can’t have any social media pages” but that isn’t the solution. When it’s 2030 and they don’t even know how to fill out an online application, or get any type of work from home job. I think it is really important to teach our kids the importance of internet safety and how it came also make you an entrepreneur. I don’t have kids but I have a 14 year old god daughter & a 20 year old sister. The influence the internet has on everything they do, all the way down to the way they dress is mind blowing to me. It’s best to learn how to live with the internet of things than to try to avoid it all together. I believe adding curriculum related to financial education and Internet safety will prepare students for more fulling careers because they will be exposed to a larger range of opportunities out side of what they see in front of them. Example: My family is from Detroit MI and if you know that is a major union town. I have family that worked for the state, the casino, or friends that work for the big 3’s. If that is all you see and know that is sometimes the furthest you can dream. I never knew I could work in production, make money from editing, make way more money doing social media part time than working at Mcdonald’s, start my own business and more. Like, did you know people get paid just to style the food on a table on video sets? It’s time to get our kids exposed to the careers of the future or learn how to establish their own business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
After gaining 20 years of work experience in retail, nonprofit development, sales and food service management jobs, I decided in 2013 to finally pursue my dreams of going to college. It was the first step in showing the world what I really could do. I went to a media school and I was obsessed with the people on the news and movies/tv series is what I loved the most. Not because most kids were obsessed with watching tv but because I wanted to be the person behind the scenes with my name in the credits. How did they do that scene, how did they make that fly? how many days did it take to film this? Type stuff.
I was born in Detroit to a family of union workers and side hustlers. I was inspired by reporter Lisa Ling on Channel One News and the Bushman on FM 98 WJLB. When everyone was watching Power Rangers on television, I preferred seeing reporter Al Allen on Fox 2 News. by age nine I wanted to work in the media industry in one form or another. Being accepted into Detroit’s Communications and Media Arts High School helped with that.
I started working for the Detroit Historical Society and Museums at 21. After six months as a front desk associate, I was promoted to a development associate. I learned everything she could about fund raising, planning events, record keeping, and of course, 300-plus years of Detroit history. I ended up following my family’s footsteps and took a union job as a cashier at MGM Detroit Casino. But by 2010, she left Detroit moved to New York City and never looked back. I will never forget the day one of the older employees told me, “Do not stay here forever, got out an live your life & if it don’t work out you can always come back”
When I was little I used to bond sheets of paper together and made “books” as a kid. I have no idea why but I love to make the picture to go with it. I didn’t go back to school full time until 2013 & in 2017, I became the first in my immediate family to graduate from college. She earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast production and programming from the University of South Florida. I worked a lot of internships while I was in college. I decided that if I was going to be a 29 year old in college I am not about to be in here playing games so I was interning and being involved as much as possible. I hosted 2 radio shows on campus, was a member of the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists and the National Council of Negro Women all while attending USF.
After graduation, I spent two years working as a social media producer and morning show host for Syke and MJ in the Morning on Long Island while also teaching kids how to podcast and code at the Boys and Girls Club in Locust Valley, NY. This is where I was able to get a lot of my experience working with kids. I was the technology teacher. I was supposed to just monitor the computer room since that is where all the kids ran when they first came to the club, but I turned it into more. I taught animation, coding, how to podcast for kids (a course I created just for kids under 16) and I did internet safety courses. I loved working there and it was probably one of the funniest jobs I had but having to work two jobs because radio wasn’t paying me enough was not why Jesus died for me lol. I wanted more.
In 2019, I enrolled in Syracuse University to earn a graduate degree in Television, Radio, and Film. The dream was finally becoming a reality because I was going get my name in some credits some where. Her scholarship allowed her to work as an instructional assistant and as a coordinating producer for the Orange Television Network. She made her first short film, hosted a movie review show and assisted production of several podcasts for friends. I graduated in a pandemic which I don’t think people really understand how traumatic that is. I had some internships lined up, I was already applying to go where ever these internships would take me. To watch your inbox fill up with “canceled internships” or sorry emails because no one could figure out how to do internships virtually was like a movie. I spent the summer doing one internship virtually with the production company “Spacestation” This gave me a lot of experience with show development, outlines, creative decks and more. Of course as a intern I will prob never see my name in the credits but just know I created a lot of End of the year/decade countdown shows. (top 10 toys from eery decade, top ten hair, top ten soul singer… at least 40 different ones) by the time that internship ended. I was working independently, started doing social media work, got a few certificated online-mixed with my editing, podcast and creative skills. I started my business Prina media LLC in 2021. A few month after starting as a Branded Associate producer with Conde Nast.
My business is my husband and I. We both work in media so we combined our skills to help people in what ever media spae they may need help in. He’s the writer of the team with 20 years of experience in journalism and as a profession in a few NYC schools, he provides major paper editing, essays, writing help /coaching, concepts, and anything of that nature while I provide video editing services, photoshop, Social media planning/help, video production, transcribing, and more. Our main audience is small business owners that know they need to be online but just are confused on how to do it all as a solopreneur. I have consisting worked two jobs since for the last year and a half so I only seek out business when I can. I am currently working on reviving my Youtube channel with more of my how to videos and creating a course for bloggers/journalist that want to advance their skills
my goal is to produce thought-provoking television that both educates and entertains by delivering stories that are only unearthed through exhaustive research and expert attention to detail.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My goal is to make sure everyone can have the same access and ability to online creation as the big wig companies with large marketing budgets.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that I am able to see a mess and figure out how to make it better. I get to make people have that Ohhh Moment. Give them some relief because they didn’t have to worry about teaching themself how to edit a video or make something. I have friends that will just message me and say prina I need help with a promo for my sale or business what ever.. I will sit down and create 6-9 different ideas they can do that relates to their niche. Each times it’s like why didn’t I think of that. We are always busy trying to do things by ourself because we don’t trust people but we all need help and I be worried about strangers like I have known them my whole life. I just want to see us all get those rewards and recognitions
Contact Info:
- Website: https://prinamedia.com/home/
- Instagram: @Prinamedia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MsPrina
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prinadean/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ItsOnly1Deprina
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGlwtmUwHf2wecFqDUMtiDg