On Monday I went to the NP Sun office to meet Elaine, my sponsor. The interview was very informal; I felt overdressed. I just sat in a chair at her computer station and we talked.
She told me about the way the paper works. When you write an article you have to make sure you get certain details like company names, the first and last names of everyone involved, the age and grades of any teenagers, and you have to be very accurate. Another person spoke up to warn me about plaugerism -- you have to cite all of your sources in the article, whether they're quotes or information from a company website.
Elaine looked at my portfolio, including the photographs and writing samples that I brought. She asked me what I would write about if I needed to write an article right then. The first thing I thought of was the cool Lab project that my AP Bio class was doing, so I told her about that. She told me to write the article and bring it in on Friday.
When she asked me what questions I had for her I asked about something my mom told me, that writers for the Sun get $30 per article. I know that I can't be paid for internship so I wanted to clear that up. She said I wouldn't be paid while I'm an intern but interns often remain with the paper during college and they are paid for the work they do then.
If I end up doing well at this internship, I would be very excited to be welcomed back during college.
On Wednesday during AP Biology I started interviewing classmates for my article. I used questions that I had written on Tuesday.
Even though I know what we're doing in the lab, I needed another student's explanation of the process because I obviously can't quote myself. It was a little bit awkward explaining this to Alex. I ended up getting a good enough quote.
I also asked people about where they wanted to take the information they learned in the class. I got several good answers; one person wants to be a doctor and another thinks the class will help her in college.
I used specific target questions to people who I had background information on. This is something that won't work when I do articles on things I'm not already familiar with. The one question that wasn't that specific was "What do you think is most interesting about this class?" I asked almost everybody (there are only 10 people in the class) that question.
I was able to stay after class because I had lunch. I took that time to ask Coach C, the AP Bio teacher, the questions I had prepared for her. I asked her about how she liked teaching the class and what she thought was the best thing about the Lab we were doing. She gave me some good quotes.
Although I wrote the bulk of the article, a rough draft, during 4th block on Wednesday, I fully finished the article on Thursday.
I used what I've learned from reading newspapers to help me organize all of the information I had collected. Writing a newspaper article is very different from writing prose, which is what I'm used to. Short paragraphs are favored and since everything must be sourced you often have to use phrases like "he says," "she says," "According to," etc. I needed to go back to see Coach C because I hadn't gotten the name of the company where the lab supplies came from. I thought it was important because the supplies were actual living organisms.
I found it surprisingly easy to organize the quotes and other information into a 400 word package.
I went to see Elaine after school on Friday to talk about the article and show her my pictures. She printed the article out and read it, marking it up with corrections.
One of my mistakes was using the present tense ("she says") instead of the past ("she said"). I anticipated that mistake but I wasn't sure about it.
Another was that I didn't explain what AP meant in terms of credits. I also left out the ages of the students, the number of hours Coach C. works per week.
For the pictures, Elaine picked one out which wasn't blurry (a lot of them were) and which had no giggling people in it. She told me to write a cut line, which is like a caption.
She told me to find the missing information by Tuesday and get the article in by noon that day. I emailed Coach C on Saturday for the ages, and the number of hours she spends on the class.
Thank you for your comment, Chelsea. Despite all the challenges, I'm sure that I'll be a good teacher when I'm older. Which similarly, you will be a great writer someday because you seem very passionate about it. I hope that after college you do continue to work for North Port Sun. I am also glad that you were able to get some good quotes from Coach C as well as your classmates. That probably made you a little nervous, right? I know that I get nervous when I have to talk in front of others, something I'm going to have to overcome. I like the fact that you write a rough draft first, and then you finalize it. That shows that you are committed to your internship, and I'm sure Elaine is very appreciative of your work.
As with making mistakes, that is very common the first few times. You will learn from them and by the end I'll bet you can write one heck of an article! Good luck! :D
Because Coach C understandably didn't check her email over the weekend, I had to go see her on Tuesday morning to get the last of the information. She couldn't give me the ages of my classmates but she told me how long she spent working on the class.
I had to turn in the article at noon that day. Since I didn't see any of the kids in the article on B days, I wasn't able to get their ages. I had to leave it with only their grade levels and send it to Elaine during A lunch.
Wow your intership sounds like another class! It sounds like your really into it though which is pretty cool. I really liked that you described everything about your intership so well it really gave me good insight into what tasks youre assigned and what type of work your sponsor is making you do. Keep up the good work! :)
It seems like you have alot of fun there but, it seems like it must be hard to get all of the articles wrriten plus balance doing all of your homework too. It will look good on your resume and especially since you can show them some of the articles you have written and that have actually been published in the community's paper.
On Monday I emailed Elaine to get my next assignment and find out what happened with the first one. I didn't see it in the paper on Wednesday, which was the day I thought it would be there.
She didn't get back to me that day, so I had to catch up on some of the homework that has been piling up.
i hope my aunt isnt to hard on you she can be really cool and then she cant lol she is always late which im sure you will come to realize and she can be very particular but if you do what she says the way she says it im sure you wont have any problems :)
Elaine replied to my email on Tuesday. She gave me two more assignments. I started freaking out because one of them was due on Wednesday and the language of the email could be interpreted either as TOMORROW or the Wednesday after. I had to take the safe road and assume that she meant tomorrow. The problem was I was already home so I would only have one day for interviews. I began to prepare questions.
Wednesday morning I went to the guidance office to talk to Mrs. Pool, since the article had to be about scholarships. Mrs. Pool had appointments all day. She said she would try to talk to me between them during 4th block.
During lunch I asked my friend Liz about the scholarship she won so I could include that in the article.
I emailed Elaine in the beginning of 4th block to tell her that I might not have everything by the end of the day. I went down to the guidance office and waited for Mrs. Pool, who was in a meeting.
When she arrived in the office I was able to ask her a few things about scholarships and the comedy show fundraiser coming up.
After school my mom handed me a newspaper. My article had been printed, so that was really cool. She also told me that Elaine had come into Family Table, the restaurant where my mom works, and told her that the scholarship article was due NEXT Wednesday. I have to go into the office sometime between now and then to write an article there.
The panic and stress wasn't fun, but it's good that I got a head-start on the article.
Thursday - I couldn't find Mr. Detwiler to talk to him about Prom for an article due on Monday. I started writing the scholarship article because I already had the information. I have an extremely rough draft of about half of that article.
I planned to find Mr. Detwiler the next day and then go into the office with the information to write the article there.
In the morning before 1st block today I asked in guidance where his room was. I went to his room but there wasn't a teacher in there, only students. I was late to first block.
During 4th block, I ran around some more looking for Detwiler. He was in a meeting in the College and Career Center so I hung around outside until it let out. I asked Mrs. Pool where he might go because I don't know what he looks like and he probably passed right by me. She directed me to his classroom.
I went to Mr. Detwiler's classroom, which I had already visited twice to no avail, and found once more that he was absent. I went inside and scrawled a note to him which matched what I had already said in an email.
On Sunday afternoon, with no reply from Mr. Detwiler, I called Elaine to request something that I had been thinking about the week before.
Since the scholarship article was due on Wednesday but the scholarship fundraiser that I talk about in the article was happening on Tuesday, I thought it would be better to switch the two deadlines (Scholarship to Monday and Prom to Wednesday). This would serve two functions: getting the word out about the fundraiser before it actually happened and giving me more time to find Detwiler. I made my case to Elaine.
She thought it was a good idea except that the deadline for an article to be released on Monday was 5:00 PM Sunday, and it was something like 7 when I called her. However, she had a solution. After I told her that I had most of the scholarship article written already she told me to email it to her and she would put it on the Sun website. Then she would publish it in Tuesday's paper so people would at least see it on the same day as the fundraiser.
I agreed with that and then we talked about the prom article. She said that it really wasn't my fault that Detwiler was a tricky find and she would try to track him down herself. She reminded me to interview a guy in addition to girls for the article and said that it wouldn't be due until around Thursday or Friday.
After we got off the phone I typed out my draft of the scholarship article and emailed it to Elaine.
Thanks for your comment Chelsea. I am very intrested in this career, it would be cool to acually perform the operations. Yet I am still battling bewtween two careers. Hopefully this intern will help me deside.
By the way your intern sounds really cool. I did newspaper for the school for a while and I can see the deadline pressure you can have. It is impressive how u can manage to come up with a new way to handle your article deadline.
So far Mr. Detwiler has proven thoroughly elusive. I hope that Elaine has better tracking methods than mine.
Today I called his classroom and got no answer. I went down to guidance and looked around a little bit. This seems almost futile because I've never seen the guy in my life; every passing man could be the one in question. Still, I asked Ms. Batt if she knew where he was, and alas.
I headed over to his classroom just in case he was hanging out in a neighboring one, but Mrs. Hogue's was empty, as was his.
I know I can write a draft of the article in an hour or so if I get the information. I'm hoping Elaine won't mind waiting for Friday.
Wow it sounds like it's becoming a bit of a hassle to track down Mr. Detwiler! i bet you did think it would be so difficult to contact him when you started writing this prom article.im really excited to hear that you are enjoying your internship. I hope it's not like more work than you asked for though.
I finally got in touch with Mr. Detwiler on Friday. He told me over the phone that Elaine had already talked to him and he directed me toward Ms. Tiger.
I had already emailed Ms. Tiger after hearing her talk about prom in the PAC during advisory. I called her and she told me that there was a prom committee meeting on Monday and I could get my information there. Of course the problem with that is that the deadline for the article was Friday.
I emailed Elaine to tell her what was going on. She didn't really email me back. I planned to stop by the prom committee meeting on Monday and leave by 3:00 to volunteer at the Suncoast Humane Society Thrift Store.
I got an email from Elaine today. She wants me to interview a man who is turning 100 in April. The best time to do it, she says, is 3:00 today. I thought about it and emailed her back saying that I would try to get it in. I can rearrange my volunteering since I have two days off of school.
Now I have to start thinking of questions. I have no idea what to ask him.
I ended up pushing the interview with the 100 year old back to Tuesday because I was thoroughly unprepared and overstressed. I had to rearrange my volunteer hours to Wednesday, but it all worked out.
On Tuesday at 2:30 I arrived at North Port Pines and looked for Marcella, who would take me to Fuller Kline. In the halls and the dimly lit rooms, eyes that have seen so many things were now fixed, blank and dark, in loose sockets. I felt like every one of them was locked on me. I asked a woman at a desk for Marcella and was told that she was gone. I told the woman my mission. She told me that Fuller Kline was at a doctor's appointment.
Perturbed, I left the building and called Elaine. She told me that Marcella was definitely coming; I had to wait. Sure enough, Marcella arrived ten minutes later. She took me to Fuller and Ethel Kline's room. I have no idea if the desk woman was lying or just uninformed.
I shouted my first question, aware that I was speaking to aged ears. Fuller appeared increasingly confused each time I repeated myself and, as has always been so, I became quieter as my discomfort increased. I skipped the first question.
I asked the things Elaine had told me to. Did he have advice for a long life? How long has he been married? What's the secret? Kids? Grandkids? Great-grandkids? What does he enjoy doing now? In what fields has he worked? How long has he lived in North Port? Almost everything I said was repeated more than twice.
After much pushing I recieved some information about Fuller's jobs. He owned several businesses. That's good, I thought, but what were they called? Fuller's voice crackled when he told me. I asked again. I ended up getting the names of two businesses. By that time I was so uncomfortable that I wasn't thinking straight -- I still have no idea where those businesses are/were or when he owned them. I didn't even ask it.
The only other piece of information I extracted in my fluster was that Fuller and Ethel have been married for 68 years. I was impressed with that, but according to Marcella, Ethel had an even harder time hearing than Fuller, although her voice was much clearer. I never asked her age.
Once I had made an attempt at all of my written questions -- I never attempted any of the new ones that arose after I got some answers -- I stood up to take a photo.
I'm supposed to take multiple photos... but I took only one. I thought for the longest time about getting Ethel in it, but when it came down to it I was too afraid to make her lean in toward him over the arm of the chair. It would have been uncomfortable even for a fit person because of the size of the chair. I wasn't going to ask him to stand up either, because I wasn't sure if he walked well.
After I had taken the photo I said thank you as loud as I could, backing toward the door.
Fuller spoke up then. He asked what the interview was for (facepalm). I explained to him that I'm interning for the North Port Sun. Ethel and I explained that I was going to write an article for the newspaper, although I wasn't sure if I could scrounge one up from the tidbits of information I had.
I left, started down the hall and then turned back. I needed the spelling of Ethel's name. I heard them talking, yelling to outmatch the age of their ears. They talked about how they couldn't hear a word I had said. Quietly, I left.
On Tuesday, right after talking to Fuller and Ethel, I went in to the Sun office. Elaine asked me about what I got from Fuller. I think she was disappointed. Well, I was too. I just hope I won't have to go back there. Elaine said that I might be able to call Marcella and fill in the blanks.
I talked to Elaine about my prom story too. After looking at what I had, she suggested making it and "umbrella'd" story, which means that it would have two related stories underneath one large heading. The first story would be about the prom being planned at NPHS and the second would be about Cinderella's Closet.
I started writing the article with the program that they use in the office for newsprinting. It was basically a notepad type of document, which I suppose will easily convert the text to the newspaper format.
When I was done with the first story, Elaine came over and rearranged it. I hadn't had a good hook in the beginning so she moved Jessica Valle's quote up toward the top to add a human element right away. That meant I would have to do a second interview with Jessica.
After she rearranged some things I read it over and edited again. Then I started outlining the second article about Cinderella's Closet using information from a flyer and from Miss Tiger.
Having far too little information and no quotes, I called Christine Mayer, the creator of Cinderella's Closet. She spoke long and passionately about the program and answered all of the questions that Elaine wanted me to answer.
I left the office after that, planning to come in Wednesday after volunteering to finish up.
On Wednesday I filled out the Cinderella's Closet article. I started out with an interesting hook this time -- the fact that people had donated from as far away as New York and Maryland. I finished the article, and Elaine had a happy little reaction to the hook. However, what Ms. Mayer hadn't told me about those far-away donations was what exactly they had donated. Elaine said that she would call her and figure that out.
I edited the article with Elaine's suggestions. She said that I should try to interview people who are going to use Cinderella's Closet. Also, she gave me two other assignments. One is to interview the volunteers at the thrift store where I volunteer. I will have to take pictures at the volunteer appreciation party on the 22nd and write an article about it. The other assignment is to go to a Challenge meeting, which is a program for women. I have to talk to some of them and figure out what they're doing now.
I think its pretty cool that you interview other students then you take that and write an article for the newspaper. You seem to like it there alot. :)
Oh my gosh, the paper on Coach C class sounds like it was very stressful like one of the situations that I would freak out about. I find it hard to keep my cool when things aren"t going as plan. But, wow thats great that you could at least it seems as you did. I think you handled it very well and did what you could. What did Mrs. Emirch say, was she okay with the finished product?
On Monday the 16th I went to talk to Miss Tiger in the morning. She had several people who had signed up for Cinderella's Closet but she wouldn't have all of the names until the next day. She gave me the name of a person who I didn't know. I wasn't sure if I would be able to find her in time.
On Tuesday during forth block I went back to see her and she gave me Erin Powell's name. I had already heard from Mrs. Del Castillo that I could talk to her the next day.
On Wednesday I talked to Erin about Cinderella's Closet. I got a good addition to the story from her.
I had to finish up the two prom articles, get together questions for the thrift store article, contact North Port Pines to finish up my article on the 100-year-old and contact Marie Zolot for the Challenge article.
On Thursday, the 19th, I called up Mrs. Zolot. She hadn't answered the night before. She told me that rather than coming to an actual Challenge class, I should come to the graduation, which is in April. She wanted to make sure that none of the participants felt uncomfortable.
I called Marcella at NP Pines, who told me to come in on Monday to talk to the Klines again.
On Saturday I went to the thrift store to volunteer. I interviewed several of the people I volunteer with for an article about the store.
After volunteering I stopped in to the Sun office to pick up my Cinderella's Closet article. I had already finished the other prom article but I didn't have a copy of the CC one at home. I quickly finished it up and emailed it to Elaine.
On Sunday I went to the Volunteer Appreciation Party in Englewood. While I was taking pictures for the article, my camera's batteries ran out. I only had about six pictures.
On Monday I took pictures of Anne while volunteering. When I got home I sent them to Elaine.
She had emailed me on Sunday asking me to talk to Dr. Kenney's secretary about a kid who had won an award. That is my next assignment. I got a packet of information from Diane. The kid was accepted into a highly selective forum for talented high school students who are interested in medicine.
I started a draft of the thrift store article during fourth block.
I finished the thrift store article during forth block on Tuesday and sent it to Elaine.
I went back to NP Pines. I followed Marcella around while she finished up some things and then we went to talk to the Klines. Marcella is much better at shouting at them than I am, but Ethel seemed to hear a little bit better than Fuller. She talked a lot about Fuller's businesses and I got enough info to write a short article.
After that and volunteering I went home and called Elaine. I told her about the kid who had won the honor and she told me that my prom article would be on the front page.
On Wednesday I started writing the article about Fuller Kline during forth block. Since I don't have a lot of quotes from him, but many from Ethel, I had to limit Ethel's quotes to two so that she wouldn't be talking more than him in the article.
I managed to write out a rough draft that is fairly informative.
On Thursday I made an appointment with Dr. Kenney to talk about the kid who won the honor. I also typed out the Kline article. I'm not as happy with it as I was with some of my others, but it is complete and makes sense.
I sent it to Elaine. She hasn't really gotten back to me on it so I hope it's okay.
I called Alan Bryant on Monday to talk about the Forum on Medicine. He was pretty nice.
After that I called Elaine to fill her in on everything. She didn't assign a deadline for the article on Bryant so I'm pretty sure she has enough by now, so I can relax for a little while.
Mary from the Challenge program called me on Tuesday. I wasn't home so my mom talked to her to get directions to the Challenge graduation. I have to go there on Thursday and interview people about how the program helped them. I called her back to see if there was anything else and she told me that she just had to check with the participants and make sure they were okay with it.
She called me back on Wednesday to say I was good to go.
I called Marcella on Wed. to confirm Fuller Kline's birthday. April 22, 1909. Very impressive. I emailed Elaine with that info.
Holy cow!! Boy are you busy!! I read all your blogs about the 100 year old man and the prom article and your patience is really impressive. I really hope you are enjoying your internship because from all the updates it seems extrememly difficult. It seems like its paying off though since your article was put on the front page. thats really awesome! :D Keep up the good work!! You are showing how very dedicated you are and thats really great! :)
It seems like you are very busy. Even though you have alot of work to do it seems like you get all of the work done. I likes the Prom article in the newspaper. Thats great I bet you were proud of your article on the front page. You are getting good practice for your future career.
I went to the Challenge Graduation. It was kind of a small meeting, but I could tell it was important to a lot of them. All they really did was give out flowers, beads and paperwork to each graduate and then they did some little activities to sum up their experience. They wrote a letter to themselves six months in the future as a motivation tool so that they would feel obligated to get their goals accomplished. I think many of them were really helped.
The need for a tape recorder became very apparent during my interview with them. I wanted to talk to a few of them individually but Marie thought it would be more comfortable if I just asked the room at large. So I had several people answering questions, I was trying to write as fast as they could speak and making sure to note who said what, it all became a bit of a mess.
Now I have notes for two articles, the one on Bryant and the Challenge graduation.
I got a bit of a break from my internship over spring break. I was able to catch up on homework and think about new things to report on.
Elaine saw my mom at work, a restaurant, and told her that she wants to "put me to work again." So I've emailed her and I'm going to call her later.
I still don't know what's happening with my thrift store story or the Fuller Kline one. She didn't ask me about challenge or Alan Bryant but she told me to think about new things to write about.
i hope you enjoy all the time you spend with my aunt. I know she can be a little annoying sometimes but ill let you in on a secret she told me when u covered the Challenge thingy. She wants you to open up more and be a little more comefortable in your ability to talk to others and in your writing. she said your a great writer but you need to be more personable.
I finished writing the challenge article. I sent it to Elaine.
She gave me a new story to work on. It'll be about the schedule change happening next year. I have to figure out why the district is doing it, how it will effect lunches and whether it saves money. I also have to get the opinions of students and teachers.
I talked to several students and teachers about the schedule change next year. It seems that the students are united against it and the teachers are united for it.
The general teacher opinion is that it will take adjustment but it will overall be better for the students and the budget of the school.
The student opinion is that there will be less class time and therefore it will be harder to concentrate and get things done. Maybe it's because all of my classes are advanced, but the biggest argument students had was the depletion of class time.
I made an appointment with Dr. Kenny for Monday to talk about why the district is changing things.
I asked him why the district is changing the schedule. He said that it would cut the budget by dropping teachers. A total of 70 will be lost in the district and 16 at NPHS.
How will it effect lunches? Students will have the same lunch every day, and they will be the same length as they are now.
Money? He got out a calculator. After a quick calculation he told me the district would save 5 million dollars. That was eye-opening to me.
I have to start writing the article now because the deadline is today.
I wrote almost the entire schedule change article on Monday, but I neglected to email it to myself, so I couldn't finish at home and then send it in to Elaine.
On Tuesday I finished the couple of sentences I needed to, edited it, and then sent it out with a pathetic apology sentence.
I'm planning on heading in to the Sun sometime soon. I haven't been there in awhile and I fear I'm a little bit alienated.
I went in to the thrift store to volunteer on Tuesday or so. Matt immediately showed me the thrift store article I wrote, which has finally been printed.
Even after all of this time, I could remember the original words enough to see evidence of editing. It's a small blow every time, but for most of the changes I could see where they were coming from. And there was absolutely nothing huge. It was more like changes from prose-like style to reporter-like style.
This was my first article that was placed on two separate pages with a "see HUMANE, page C4" or whatever it was. So they used two pictures.
Matt seemed pretty appreciative of the article. Every bit of publicity helps.
I forgot to say something about the pictures for the thrift store story.
Lorraine, an editor at the Sun who I don't really know, called me sometime this week to get names to go with the pictures, (and so when the article came out I was actually expecting it).
As for the names though, most of my pictures were taken at the volunteer appreciation party when people were getting their awards. You understand that asking for names in that environment is virtually impossible. I ended up getting some of them from Matt but some of them he didn't have. I literally had to zoom in with a picture editor to the awards clutched in the volunteer's hands. The names were blurred and practically indecipherable, but after recruiting my mother for aid I was able to get them. One of them ended up getting used in the paper.
Elaine gave me another assignment. I have to inverview graduates about their college and career goals. I'm getting on with it, although I'm not sure how I should plan on writing it. I think it would be more interesting to do an entire story on one especially interesting person, but I'm not sure I'll find someone I could do an entire article about.
On the other hand, doing a story on grads in general and including three or four people might end up sounding boring or confusing. I'm afraid saying "so and so plans on going to this college," and "this person wants to do this" is dividing the interest far too much. It isn't as interesting when you eliminate the personal element. So I kind of hope I find somebody who has very specific and unique goals who will tell me a lot about them.
Anne from the paper emailed me with an additional assignment. The embracing our differences opening is tomorrow and they want me to cover it. I can do that since its at 1:00, during 4th block.
I still have to get in touch with Elaine and see when she's getting back to the office. I need to go in to get my evaluation and some time sheets done.
I have been intertwining my article assignments with my AP testing. Elaine didn't give me a deadline for the graduates story so I'm just going to try to have it done by Wednesday.
The Embracing Our Differences assignment wasn't too bad, except that I didn't get to talk to a lot of people because they left after ten minutes. I finished it on Thursday and it was published on Saturday.
On Sunday my grandmother found my schedule change article in the paper. So two back to back - pretty cool.
I keep forgetting my camera. I need it to get a picture of some of the people I interview for the graduates article.
Hey, you interviewed me for the graduate article thing! haha that's awesome. You should let me see it when it's in the paper :) But ya know, if you have other ideas about articles like just interviewing one person, you should talk to Elaine about it.
It seems like this internship has helped you alot. So I'm assuming writing is the career for you?
On Monday I went to the NP Sun office to meet Elaine, my sponsor. The interview was very informal; I felt overdressed. I just sat in a chair at her computer station and we talked.
ReplyDeleteShe told me about the way the paper works. When you write an article you have to make sure you get certain details like company names, the first and last names of everyone involved, the age and grades of any teenagers, and you have to be very accurate. Another person spoke up to warn me about plaugerism -- you have to cite all of your sources in the article, whether they're quotes or information from a company website.
Elaine looked at my portfolio, including the photographs and writing samples that I brought. She asked me what I would write about if I needed to write an article right then. The first thing I thought of was the cool Lab project that my AP Bio class was doing, so I told her about that. She told me to write the article and bring it in on Friday.
When she asked me what questions I had for her I asked about something my mom told me, that writers for the Sun get $30 per article. I know that I can't be paid for internship so I wanted to clear that up. She said I wouldn't be paid while I'm an intern but interns often remain with the paper during college and they are paid for the work they do then.
If I end up doing well at this internship, I would be very excited to be welcomed back during college.
On Wednesday during AP Biology I started interviewing classmates for my article. I used questions that I had written on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteEven though I know what we're doing in the lab, I needed another student's explanation of the process because I obviously can't quote myself. It was a little bit awkward explaining this to Alex. I ended up getting a good enough quote.
I also asked people about where they wanted to take the information they learned in the class. I got several good answers; one person wants to be a doctor and another thinks the class will help her in college.
I used specific target questions to people who I had background information on. This is something that won't work when I do articles on things I'm not already familiar with. The one question that wasn't that specific was "What do you think is most interesting about this class?" I asked almost everybody (there are only 10 people in the class) that question.
I was able to stay after class because I had lunch. I took that time to ask Coach C, the AP Bio teacher, the questions I had prepared for her. I asked her about how she liked teaching the class and what she thought was the best thing about the Lab we were doing. She gave me some good quotes.
Although I wrote the bulk of the article, a rough draft, during 4th block on Wednesday, I fully finished the article on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteI used what I've learned from reading newspapers to help me organize all of the information I had collected. Writing a newspaper article is very different from writing prose, which is what I'm used to. Short paragraphs are favored and since everything must be sourced you often have to use phrases like "he says," "she says," "According to," etc. I needed to go back to see Coach C because I hadn't gotten the name of the company where the lab supplies came from. I thought it was important because the supplies were actual living organisms.
I found it surprisingly easy to organize the quotes and other information into a 400 word package.
I went to see Elaine after school on Friday to talk about the article and show her my pictures. She printed the article out and read it, marking it up with corrections.
ReplyDeleteOne of my mistakes was using the present tense ("she says") instead of the past ("she said"). I anticipated that mistake but I wasn't sure about it.
Another was that I didn't explain what AP meant in terms of credits. I also left out the ages of the students, the number of hours Coach C. works per week.
For the pictures, Elaine picked one out which wasn't blurry (a lot of them were) and which had no giggling people in it. She told me to write a cut line, which is like a caption.
She told me to find the missing information by Tuesday and get the article in by noon that day. I emailed Coach C on Saturday for the ages, and the number of hours she spends on the class.
Thank you for your comment, Chelsea. Despite all the challenges, I'm sure that I'll be a good teacher when I'm older. Which similarly, you will be a great writer someday because you seem very passionate about it. I hope that after college you do continue to work for North Port Sun. I am also glad that you were able to get some good quotes from Coach C as well as your classmates. That probably made you a little nervous, right? I know that I get nervous when I have to talk in front of others, something I'm going to have to overcome. I like the fact that you write a rough draft first, and then you finalize it. That shows that you are committed to your internship, and I'm sure Elaine is very appreciative of your work.
ReplyDeleteAs with making mistakes, that is very common the first few times. You will learn from them and by the end I'll bet you can write one heck of an article! Good luck! :D
Because Coach C understandably didn't check her email over the weekend, I had to go see her on Tuesday morning to get the last of the information. She couldn't give me the ages of my classmates but she told me how long she spent working on the class.
ReplyDeleteI had to turn in the article at noon that day. Since I didn't see any of the kids in the article on B days, I wasn't able to get their ages. I had to leave it with only their grade levels and send it to Elaine during A lunch.
Wow your intership sounds like another class! It sounds like your really into it though which is pretty cool. I really liked that you described everything about your intership so well it really gave me good insight into what tasks youre assigned and what type of work your sponsor is making you do.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work! :)
It seems like you have alot of fun there but, it seems like it must be hard to get all of the articles wrriten plus balance doing all of your homework too. It will look good on your resume and especially since you can show them some of the articles you have written and that have actually been published in the community's paper.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday I emailed Elaine to get my next assignment and find out what happened with the first one. I didn't see it in the paper on Wednesday, which was the day I thought it would be there.
ReplyDeleteShe didn't get back to me that day, so I had to catch up on some of the homework that has been piling up.
i hope my aunt isnt to hard on you she can be really cool and then she cant lol she is always late which im sure you will come to realize and she can be very particular but if you do what she says the way she says it im sure you wont have any problems :)
ReplyDeleteElaine replied to my email on Tuesday. She gave me two more assignments. I started freaking out because one of them was due on Wednesday and the language of the email could be interpreted either as TOMORROW or the Wednesday after. I had to take the safe road and assume that she meant tomorrow. The problem was I was already home so I would only have one day for interviews. I began to prepare questions.
ReplyDeleteWednesday morning I went to the guidance office to talk to Mrs. Pool, since the article had to be about scholarships. Mrs. Pool had appointments all day. She said she would try to talk to me between them during 4th block.
ReplyDeleteDuring lunch I asked my friend Liz about the scholarship she won so I could include that in the article.
I emailed Elaine in the beginning of 4th block to tell her that I might not have everything by the end of the day. I went down to the guidance office and waited for Mrs. Pool, who was in a meeting.
When she arrived in the office I was able to ask her a few things about scholarships and the comedy show fundraiser coming up.
After school my mom handed me a newspaper. My article had been printed, so that was really cool. She also told me that Elaine had come into Family Table, the restaurant where my mom works, and told her that the scholarship article was due NEXT Wednesday. I have to go into the office sometime between now and then to write an article there.
The panic and stress wasn't fun, but it's good that I got a head-start on the article.
Thursday - I couldn't find Mr. Detwiler to talk to him about Prom for an article due on Monday. I started writing the scholarship article because I already had the information. I have an extremely rough draft of about half of that article.
ReplyDeleteI planned to find Mr. Detwiler the next day and then go into the office with the information to write the article there.
In the morning before 1st block today I asked in guidance where his room was. I went to his room but there wasn't a teacher in there, only students. I was late to first block.
ReplyDeleteDuring 4th block, I ran around some more looking for Detwiler. He was in a meeting in the College and Career Center so I hung around outside until it let out. I asked Mrs. Pool where he might go because I don't know what he looks like and he probably passed right by me. She directed me to his classroom.
(continued; class ended before I finished)
ReplyDeleteI went to Mr. Detwiler's classroom, which I had already visited twice to no avail, and found once more that he was absent. I went inside and scrawled a note to him which matched what I had already said in an email.
On Sunday afternoon, with no reply from Mr. Detwiler, I called Elaine to request something that I had been thinking about the week before.
ReplyDeleteSince the scholarship article was due on Wednesday but the scholarship fundraiser that I talk about in the article was happening on Tuesday, I thought it would be better to switch the two deadlines (Scholarship to Monday and Prom to Wednesday). This would serve two functions: getting the word out about the fundraiser before it actually happened and giving me more time to find Detwiler. I made my case to Elaine.
She thought it was a good idea except that the deadline for an article to be released on Monday was 5:00 PM Sunday, and it was something like 7 when I called her. However, she had a solution. After I told her that I had most of the scholarship article written already she told me to email it to her and she would put it on the Sun website. Then she would publish it in Tuesday's paper so people would at least see it on the same day as the fundraiser.
I agreed with that and then we talked about the prom article. She said that it really wasn't my fault that Detwiler was a tricky find and she would try to track him down herself. She reminded me to interview a guy in addition to girls for the article and said that it wouldn't be due until around Thursday or Friday.
After we got off the phone I typed out my draft of the scholarship article and emailed it to Elaine.
Thanks for your comment Chelsea. I am very intrested in this career, it would be cool to acually perform the operations. Yet I am still battling bewtween two careers. Hopefully this intern will help me deside.
ReplyDeleteBy the way your intern sounds really cool. I did newspaper for the school for a while and I can see the deadline pressure you can have. It is impressive how u can manage to come up with a new way to handle your article deadline.
So far Mr. Detwiler has proven thoroughly elusive. I hope that Elaine has better tracking methods than mine.
ReplyDeleteToday I called his classroom and got no answer. I went down to guidance and looked around a little bit. This seems almost futile because I've never seen the guy in my life; every passing man could be the one in question. Still, I asked Ms. Batt if she knew where he was, and alas.
I headed over to his classroom just in case he was hanging out in a neighboring one, but Mrs. Hogue's was empty, as was his.
I know I can write a draft of the article in an hour or so if I get the information. I'm hoping Elaine won't mind waiting for Friday.
Wow it sounds like it's becoming a bit of a hassle to track down Mr. Detwiler! i bet you did think it would be so difficult to contact him when you started writing this prom article.im really excited to hear that you are enjoying your internship. I hope it's not like more work than you asked for though.
ReplyDeleteI finally got in touch with Mr. Detwiler on Friday. He told me over the phone that Elaine had already talked to him and he directed me toward Ms. Tiger.
ReplyDeleteI had already emailed Ms. Tiger after hearing her talk about prom in the PAC during advisory. I called her and she told me that there was a prom committee meeting on Monday and I could get my information there. Of course the problem with that is that the deadline for the article was Friday.
I emailed Elaine to tell her what was going on. She didn't really email me back. I planned to stop by the prom committee meeting on Monday and leave by 3:00 to volunteer at the Suncoast Humane Society Thrift Store.
I got an email from Elaine today. She wants me to interview a man who is turning 100 in April. The best time to do it, she says, is 3:00 today. I thought about it and emailed her back saying that I would try to get it in. I can rearrange my volunteering since I have two days off of school.
ReplyDeleteNow I have to start thinking of questions. I have no idea what to ask him.
I ended up pushing the interview with the 100 year old back to Tuesday because I was thoroughly unprepared and overstressed. I had to rearrange my volunteer hours to Wednesday, but it all worked out.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday at 2:30 I arrived at North Port Pines and looked for Marcella, who would take me to Fuller Kline. In the halls and the dimly lit rooms, eyes that have seen so many things were now fixed, blank and dark, in loose sockets. I felt like every one of them was locked on me. I asked a woman at a desk for Marcella and was told that she was gone. I told the woman my mission. She told me that Fuller Kline was at a doctor's appointment.
Perturbed, I left the building and called Elaine. She told me that Marcella was definitely coming; I had to wait. Sure enough, Marcella arrived ten minutes later. She took me to Fuller and Ethel Kline's room. I have no idea if the desk woman was lying or just uninformed.
I shouted my first question, aware that I was speaking to aged ears. Fuller appeared increasingly confused each time I repeated myself and, as has always been so, I became quieter as my discomfort increased. I skipped the first question.
I asked the things Elaine had told me to. Did he have advice for a long life? How long has he been married? What's the secret? Kids? Grandkids? Great-grandkids? What does he enjoy doing now? In what fields has he worked? How long has he lived in North Port? Almost everything I said was repeated more than twice.
After much pushing I recieved some information about Fuller's jobs. He owned several businesses. That's good, I thought, but what were they called? Fuller's voice crackled when he told me. I asked again. I ended up getting the names of two businesses. By that time I was so uncomfortable that I wasn't thinking straight -- I still have no idea where those businesses are/were or when he owned them. I didn't even ask it.
The only other piece of information I extracted in my fluster was that Fuller and Ethel have been married for 68 years. I was impressed with that, but according to Marcella, Ethel had an even harder time hearing than Fuller, although her voice was much clearer. I never asked her age.
Once I had made an attempt at all of my written questions -- I never attempted any of the new ones that arose after I got some answers -- I stood up to take a photo.
I'm supposed to take multiple photos... but I took only one. I thought for the longest time about getting Ethel in it, but when it came down to it I was too afraid to make her lean in toward him over the arm of the chair. It would have been uncomfortable even for a fit person because of the size of the chair. I wasn't going to ask him to stand up either, because I wasn't sure if he walked well.
After I had taken the photo I said thank you as loud as I could, backing toward the door.
Fuller spoke up then. He asked what the interview was for (facepalm). I explained to him that I'm interning for the North Port Sun. Ethel and I explained that I was going to write an article for the newspaper, although I wasn't sure if I could scrounge one up from the tidbits of information I had.
I left, started down the hall and then turned back. I needed the spelling of Ethel's name. I heard them talking, yelling to outmatch the age of their ears. They talked about how they couldn't hear a word I had said. Quietly, I left.
On Tuesday, right after talking to Fuller and Ethel, I went in to the Sun office. Elaine asked me about what I got from Fuller. I think she was disappointed. Well, I was too. I just hope I won't have to go back there. Elaine said that I might be able to call Marcella and fill in the blanks.
ReplyDeleteI talked to Elaine about my prom story too. After looking at what I had, she suggested making it and "umbrella'd" story, which means that it would have two related stories underneath one large heading. The first story would be about the prom being planned at NPHS and the second would be about Cinderella's Closet.
I started writing the article with the program that they use in the office for newsprinting. It was basically a notepad type of document, which I suppose will easily convert the text to the newspaper format.
When I was done with the first story, Elaine came over and rearranged it. I hadn't had a good hook in the beginning so she moved Jessica Valle's quote up toward the top to add a human element right away. That meant I would have to do a second interview with Jessica.
After she rearranged some things I read it over and edited again. Then I started outlining the second article about Cinderella's Closet using information from a flyer and from Miss Tiger.
Having far too little information and no quotes, I called Christine Mayer, the creator of Cinderella's Closet. She spoke long and passionately about the program and answered all of the questions that Elaine wanted me to answer.
I left the office after that, planning to come in Wednesday after volunteering to finish up.
On Wednesday I filled out the Cinderella's Closet article. I started out with an interesting hook this time -- the fact that people had donated from as far away as New York and Maryland. I finished the article, and Elaine had a happy little reaction to the hook. However, what Ms. Mayer hadn't told me about those far-away donations was what exactly they had donated. Elaine said that she would call her and figure that out.
ReplyDeleteI edited the article with Elaine's suggestions. She said that I should try to interview people who are going to use Cinderella's Closet. Also, she gave me two other assignments. One is to interview the volunteers at the thrift store where I volunteer. I will have to take pictures at the volunteer appreciation party on the 22nd and write an article about it. The other assignment is to go to a Challenge meeting, which is a program for women. I have to talk to some of them and figure out what they're doing now.
That's cool that you actually get to write articles for the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteI think its pretty cool that you interview other students then you take that and write an article for the newspaper. You seem to like it there alot. :)
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, the paper on Coach C class sounds like it was very stressful like one of the situations that I would freak out about. I find it hard to keep my cool when things aren"t going as plan. But, wow thats great that you could at least it seems as you did. I think you handled it very well and did what you could. What did Mrs. Emirch say, was she okay with the finished product?
ReplyDeleteOn Monday the 16th I went to talk to Miss Tiger in the morning. She had several people who had signed up for Cinderella's Closet but she wouldn't have all of the names until the next day. She gave me the name of a person who I didn't know. I wasn't sure if I would be able to find her in time.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday during forth block I went back to see her and she gave me Erin Powell's name. I had already heard from Mrs. Del Castillo that I could talk to her the next day.
On Wednesday I talked to Erin about Cinderella's Closet. I got a good addition to the story from her.
ReplyDeleteI had to finish up the two prom articles, get together questions for the thrift store article, contact North Port Pines to finish up my article on the 100-year-old and contact Marie Zolot for the Challenge article.
On Thursday, the 19th, I called up Mrs. Zolot. She hadn't answered the night before. She told me that rather than coming to an actual Challenge class, I should come to the graduation, which is in April. She wanted to make sure that none of the participants felt uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteI called Marcella at NP Pines, who told me to come in on Monday to talk to the Klines again.
On Saturday I went to the thrift store to volunteer. I interviewed several of the people I volunteer with for an article about the store.
ReplyDeleteAfter volunteering I stopped in to the Sun office to pick up my Cinderella's Closet article. I had already finished the other prom article but I didn't have a copy of the CC one at home. I quickly finished it up and emailed it to Elaine.
On Sunday I went to the Volunteer Appreciation Party in Englewood. While I was taking pictures for the article, my camera's batteries ran out. I only had about six pictures.
On Monday I took pictures of Anne while volunteering. When I got home I sent them to Elaine.
ReplyDeleteShe had emailed me on Sunday asking me to talk to Dr. Kenney's secretary about a kid who had won an award. That is my next assignment. I got a packet of information from Diane. The kid was accepted into a highly selective forum for talented high school students who are interested in medicine.
I started a draft of the thrift store article during fourth block.
I finished the thrift store article during forth block on Tuesday and sent it to Elaine.
ReplyDeleteI went back to NP Pines. I followed Marcella around while she finished up some things and then we went to talk to the Klines. Marcella is much better at shouting at them than I am, but Ethel seemed to hear a little bit better than Fuller. She talked a lot about Fuller's businesses and I got enough info to write a short article.
After that and volunteering I went home and called Elaine. I told her about the kid who had won the honor and she told me that my prom article would be on the front page.
On Wednesday I started writing the article about Fuller Kline during forth block. Since I don't have a lot of quotes from him, but many from Ethel, I had to limit Ethel's quotes to two so that she wouldn't be talking more than him in the article.
ReplyDeleteI managed to write out a rough draft that is fairly informative.
On Thursday I made an appointment with Dr. Kenney to talk about the kid who won the honor. I also typed out the Kline article. I'm not as happy with it as I was with some of my others, but it is complete and makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI sent it to Elaine. She hasn't really gotten back to me on it so I hope it's okay.
I called Alan Bryant on Monday to talk about the Forum on Medicine. He was pretty nice.
ReplyDeleteAfter that I called Elaine to fill her in on everything. She didn't assign a deadline for the article on Bryant so I'm pretty sure she has enough by now, so I can relax for a little while.
Mary from the Challenge program called me on Tuesday. I wasn't home so my mom talked to her to get directions to the Challenge graduation. I have to go there on Thursday and interview people about how the program helped them. I called her back to see if there was anything else and she told me that she just had to check with the participants and make sure they were okay with it.
ReplyDeleteShe called me back on Wednesday to say I was good to go.
I called Marcella on Wed. to confirm Fuller Kline's birthday. April 22, 1909. Very impressive. I emailed Elaine with that info.
Holy cow!! Boy are you busy!! I read all your blogs about the 100 year old man and the prom article and your patience is really impressive. I really hope you are enjoying your internship because from all the updates it seems extrememly difficult. It seems like its paying off though since your article was put on the front page. thats really awesome! :D
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work!! You are showing how very dedicated you are and thats really great! :)
It seems like you are very busy. Even though you have alot of work to do it seems like you get all of the work done. I likes the Prom article in the newspaper. Thats great I bet you were proud of your article on the front page. You are getting good practice for your future career.
ReplyDeleteI went to the Challenge Graduation. It was kind of a small meeting, but I could tell it was important to a lot of them. All they really did was give out flowers, beads and paperwork to each graduate and then they did some little activities to sum up their experience. They wrote a letter to themselves six months in the future as a motivation tool so that they would feel obligated to get their goals accomplished. I think many of them were really helped.
ReplyDeleteThe need for a tape recorder became very apparent during my interview with them. I wanted to talk to a few of them individually but Marie thought it would be more comfortable if I just asked the room at large. So I had several people answering questions, I was trying to write as fast as they could speak and making sure to note who said what, it all became a bit of a mess.
Now I have notes for two articles, the one on Bryant and the Challenge graduation.
I got a bit of a break from my internship over spring break. I was able to catch up on homework and think about new things to report on.
ReplyDeleteElaine saw my mom at work, a restaurant, and told her that she wants to "put me to work again." So I've emailed her and I'm going to call her later.
I still don't know what's happening with my thrift store story or the Fuller Kline one. She didn't ask me about challenge or Alan Bryant but she told me to think about new things to write about.
i hope you enjoy all the time you spend with my aunt. I know she can be a little annoying sometimes but ill let you in on a secret she told me when u covered the Challenge thingy. She wants you to open up more and be a little more comefortable in your ability to talk to others and in your writing. she said your a great writer but you need to be more personable.
ReplyDeleteI finished writing the challenge article. I sent it to Elaine.
ReplyDeleteShe gave me a new story to work on. It'll be about the schedule change happening next year. I have to figure out why the district is doing it, how it will effect lunches and whether it saves money. I also have to get the opinions of students and teachers.
I talked to several students and teachers about the schedule change next year. It seems that the students are united against it and the teachers are united for it.
ReplyDeleteThe general teacher opinion is that it will take adjustment but it will overall be better for the students and the budget of the school.
The student opinion is that there will be less class time and therefore it will be harder to concentrate and get things done. Maybe it's because all of my classes are advanced, but the biggest argument students had was the depletion of class time.
I made an appointment with Dr. Kenny for Monday to talk about why the district is changing things.
This morning I went to talk to Dr. Kenny.
ReplyDeleteI asked him why the district is changing the schedule. He said that it would cut the budget by dropping teachers. A total of 70 will be lost in the district and 16 at NPHS.
How will it effect lunches? Students will have the same lunch every day, and they will be the same length as they are now.
Money? He got out a calculator. After a quick calculation he told me the district would save 5 million dollars. That was eye-opening to me.
I have to start writing the article now because the deadline is today.
Oh yeah, and thanks Brittany for the little secret. I kind of figured she thought that. I'm really working on it.
ReplyDeleteI wrote almost the entire schedule change article on Monday, but I neglected to email it to myself, so I couldn't finish at home and then send it in to Elaine.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday I finished the couple of sentences I needed to, edited it, and then sent it out with a pathetic apology sentence.
I'm planning on heading in to the Sun sometime soon. I haven't been there in awhile and I fear I'm a little bit alienated.
I went in to the thrift store to volunteer on Tuesday or so. Matt immediately showed me the thrift store article I wrote, which has finally been printed.
ReplyDeleteEven after all of this time, I could remember the original words enough to see evidence of editing. It's a small blow every time, but for most of the changes I could see where they were coming from. And there was absolutely nothing huge. It was more like changes from prose-like style to reporter-like style.
This was my first article that was placed on two separate pages with a "see HUMANE, page C4" or whatever it was. So they used two pictures.
Matt seemed pretty appreciative of the article. Every bit of publicity helps.
I forgot to say something about the pictures for the thrift store story.
ReplyDeleteLorraine, an editor at the Sun who I don't really know, called me sometime this week to get names to go with the pictures, (and so when the article came out I was actually expecting it).
As for the names though, most of my pictures were taken at the volunteer appreciation party when people were getting their awards. You understand that asking for names in that environment is virtually impossible. I ended up getting some of them from Matt but some of them he didn't have. I literally had to zoom in with a picture editor to the awards clutched in the volunteer's hands. The names were blurred and practically indecipherable, but after recruiting my mother for aid I was able to get them. One of them ended up getting used in the paper.
I hope it was right.
Elaine gave me another assignment. I have to inverview graduates about their college and career goals. I'm getting on with it, although I'm not sure how I should plan on writing it. I think it would be more interesting to do an entire story on one especially interesting person, but I'm not sure I'll find someone I could do an entire article about.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, doing a story on grads in general and including three or four people might end up sounding boring or confusing. I'm afraid saying "so and so plans on going to this college," and "this person wants to do this" is dividing the interest far too much. It isn't as interesting when you eliminate the personal element. So I kind of hope I find somebody who has very specific and unique goals who will tell me a lot about them.
Anne from the paper emailed me with an additional assignment. The embracing our differences opening is tomorrow and they want me to cover it. I can do that since its at 1:00, during 4th block.
ReplyDeleteI still have to get in touch with Elaine and see when she's getting back to the office. I need to go in to get my evaluation and some time sheets done.
I have been intertwining my article assignments with my AP testing. Elaine didn't give me a deadline for the graduates story so I'm just going to try to have it done by Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteThe Embracing Our Differences assignment wasn't too bad, except that I didn't get to talk to a lot of people because they left after ten minutes. I finished it on Thursday and it was published on Saturday.
On Sunday my grandmother found my schedule change article in the paper. So two back to back - pretty cool.
I keep forgetting my camera. I need it to get a picture of some of the people I interview for the graduates article.
Hey, you interviewed me for the graduate article thing! haha that's awesome. You should let me see it when it's in the paper :) But ya know, if you have other ideas about articles like just interviewing one person, you should talk to Elaine about it.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like this internship has helped you alot. So I'm assuming writing is the career for you?