Proud to be in love with school

I am pretty much obsessed with college and Westminster itself. I’m one of those people who can’t wait to schedule classes and buy books and get that first homework assignment! Oh I get excited just talking about it. So to choose just a couple of classes that influenced me is quite a challenge. But hey, I’m up for it…

Non-Broadcasting Classes
I have had very few bad classes while at Westminster. But my all time favorite non-broadcasting classes were always political science classes. The best of them—International Politics. This class changed the way I viewed the world. It got me interested in travel and global politics. I was (and am still) fascinated by other cultures, international interaction, the United Nation, etc. It made me want to take more poli-sci classes and it lead me to take Government of Developing Countries, which really is just as much my favorite class as International Politics was. These classes showed me the direction I want to take my broadcasting in. I want to use those skills to raise awareness about people in foreign countries who could really use our help. It’s absolutely incredible to realize just how much we have as Americans—especially compared to most other nations of the world. What good is all of that if we don’t try to use it to help others?

#1 (non BC) Teacher
Easy. Dr. Grove. Without any doubt. I am fascinated by this woman and was totally crushed when she left WC for California. I would be completely satisfied to take all Dr. Grove classes, though she’s not an easy teacher. In fact, I have never done so much work in my entire life than I did in her classes. But I’ve also never been so interested and inspired. She has so much passion on the topic of international politics that I think it’s impossible to not become passionate yourself. Passion about your subject is key to good teachers. I don’t know what else to say about her, because she was just amazing and California is so lucky to have her.

Broadcasting Class
This one was really hard to choose. My BC classes are always my favorite classes of the semester. But since I have to choose, I think I’d pick Broadcast Journalism II. I feel like during this class I worked the most on improving my storytelling. It was all about learning how to choose the right topic, the right angle, get the right vids, and write the best story. It was really beneficial to me to write scripts and have Mr. Weaver rip them up so I could fix them. Eventually, towards the end of the semester, I finally started to feel like I was understanding how to tell a conversational, to-the-point, yet memorable, story. The class was great practice, but I still need a lot more experience. Storytelling is my very favorite part of broadcasting. I can’t wait to get back to it.

And the BC beat goes on...

I’m coming up on weekend 4 of my internship, and I’m dying to blog more about it! However, my bosses have asked me to not blog specifically about what I’m doing, as competition is cut throat in this business! So instead, I’ve decided to write about some things I’m learning personally, without letting on to any fabulous secrets. ;)

With all the celebrity chat in my last blog, I can’t help but name drop. You never know who you might see in 30 Rock. Just last Friday I had quite a star-studded day. Mr. Matt Lauer and Al Roker are two my favorites—it’s great to see people who have made it but are still just as normal as can be. Then of course there was Stacy London from What Not to Wear. She is just as fabulous in real life as you’d think (but as soon as I saw I would be around her for a few hours, I was instantly self-conscious about my outfit! But alas, she was there working and my style, or lack there of, was the least of her concerns. Phew!) I also saw Dr. Keith Ablow and then, my very favorite star sighting of the week: THE Pat Sandora! That’s right everyone. I saw him. Get jealous.

Now on to a little something I learned this week at my internship: Unless you want to look really silly, know your stuff. I don’t want to get specific with why I’m pointing this out, but let me just say that I am so appreciative of everything I’ve learned at WC about the broadcasting world. I was able to converse with Amy Robach, Lester Holt, and some of the news writers about the broadcasting business as if I was one of their contemporaries. It just goes to show that the more education and research you do on your own, the more you can get out of an experience like an internship. Yes, you’ll learn new and valuable things there, but having a broad base of knowledge on the business and the company you’re interning with is definitely helpful.

I’m also learning things I don’t want to do. For example, I’m really starting to learn that, though it might be an easier transition to go right into a behind-the-scenes position, I just don’t want that. I really want to be on-air. I’ve heard many different suggestions about how to get there—from sticking with the network by starting behind the scenes and working my way through the newsroom to eventually get on-air, to heading out to a tiny little market and just starting out right on-air. I definitely feel that the latter is for me. Why waste my time doing something I don’t want to do when I don’t really care about the network status? I want to be on-air and I can’t wait to start doing that again!

The first step is admiting...I am obsessed.

Okay fine! I admit it. I love celebrity gossip. Am I proud? No. Do I try to hide it? Yes. And yet here I am admiting it. It's actually one of my 12 steps to getting un-addicted to celebrity gossip. So naturally, I had to check out the blog that Kirstan and Aidan looked at, http://trent.blogspot.com/. And right there, the latest post, my biggest, yet probably saddest obsession right in front of my eyes: Britney Spears.

I was reading Stevi's latest blog about this site and I agree with her conclusion. The celebrity obsession is like an escape from reality. People who are consumed by the realities of everyday life turn to the fantastic, unreal lives of celebrities and escape into them. It's so much easier to make fun of Britney Spears' lack of shoes in a gas station then to admit that you have to work on some major proposal for your job. It's more fun to talk about the fighting between Paris and Nicole than to talk about our very own troops fighting in Iraq.

But does that make it okay? As much as I understand, a part of me wants to be like, suck it up people! Bad stuff happens and maybe if we all knew more about the bad things in the world and took the time to learn about it, then we could do something to fix it. That's why I would love to report on stuff like that...the unknown struggles in all parts of the world. I feel like if you report it in a way that isn't cold and harsh, just throwing out the facts and leaving it at that, then you really can get people interested. It's about writing it in a way that tells a story, that shows real people and makes it relatable. Celebrities are real people and we see their pictures everyday. If you saw a picture of children from Darfur everyday, don't you think you'd want to know more about their struggle of everyday life?

So basically, the celeb reporters and bloggers might be on to something. Somehow they've caught our attention. Maybe we can follow suit and use their techniques to bring more important things to the public's attention.

Checkin' out the Crystal Ball...

When reading everyone’s blogs about their future email, I realized I had a lot in common with DJ. DJ and I are both really driven to make it and we’ve both set our aims pretty high. I’d be kidding myself if I didn’t admit that ultimately, I’d LOVE to be able to say “This is Today on NBC.” That’d pretty much be amazing. And I know that if I want it, I’m think I could get myself there. But I also realize that there’s a lot of other stuff I want to do, too. I want to have the time in a small market to be able to get to know a little town and report of light stuff that you can really tell a story about, instead of just reporting on shootings in Queens and stuff like that which is generally reported on in large markets. I really want to tell the stories and if that means I have to stay in a lower market, I’m okay with that. One thing I'm sure about, is that me and the gals in the class definitly have the single and fabulous thing in common. 10 years is not enough time to get a career going and a family too. A family in that short period of time would just totally slow me down. No need for that.

Like many others in the class, traveling is top on my list of things to be doing in 10 years. If I’m not in news, I want to work at the discovery channel or something like it. They have some great channels (like say the travel channel!) with shows that are put together much like a package. Whether it be Samantha Brown or Anthony Bourdain traveling across Europe or an educational show on the rainforest, they’re all story telling. I feel like I could really really get into that.

I checked out some other non-capstone blogs too. I like lost remote. It’s very forward thinking and has been around for awhile, since before the new millennium! Wow. The founder of Lost Remote, Cory Bergman, knows his stuff. He’s been around the business. I feel like he tends to be one step ahead of the industry, by writing about stuff that might not be popular yet, but will be in a few years.

I was also interested in the Pixie Wrangler's weblog. He talks about real things he encounters while on the job, which I find interesting and helpful. I especially like it because he writes about stories he covers and business stuff, not about personal stuff. I’m sorry, but if I’m going to read a broadcasting blog, I don’t care about what your 4 year old ate for breakfast. If I want personal stuff, I’ll look elsewhere.

Going for the Goals!

Taking a cue from my fellow capstoners, I decided to put down some solid goals for the near and far future. One of the really great things about doing an internship, I think, is that it helps you decide what you really want to do—or what you really don’t want to do. And that's an extremely helpful thing to find out before you get out into the real world. Now, for the goals.

Short Term Goals:

1.) Get everything I can out of this internship. I want to continue the connections I’ve already made and expand on them. I want to find out my options, like what’s the best way to get hooked up with a job after graduation, and what kind of jobs are an option? I know that some of the interns I worked with last summer are already working in the business, whether it be for Dateline or competing networks, thanks to the connections. I want to find out how to go about getting the job that I want, with the help of the experience I get here.
2.) Decide on my senior project. I want to figure out exactly what I’ll be doing for my senior project. I can’t believe it’s time for me to already be thinking about this. I remember going to the senior capstone presentations back when I was a freshman and thinking, “Man, they are so cool! I wonder what I’ll do for my presentation!” And now, I actually have to figure it out. So I plan on brainstorming a little bit about how I can use this internship as a senior project. 3.) Do some research. With everything that I’ve experienced recently, I’ve realized that I need to be more open-minded about things and trust my gut. If I’m really enjoying one thing, I need to go for it, even if it wasn’t in the original plans. And conversely, if I’m really not feeling something, I need to be okay with letting it go and trying something different. So, I want to spend some time researching what my options are. Putting together the things that I like and the things I don’t like and seeing what I can come up with as a possible future career.


Long Term Goals:

1.) Travel Travel Travel. All I want to do, even right now, is travel. After going to Europe this summer, I have totally gotten the travel bug. I want to take the time to travel before settling down. If possible, I’d love to coordinate that with a great job. Getting paid to travel would pretty much be the ultimate dream realized.
2.) No limits. After I graduate, I don’t want to limit myself at all. I don’t want to keep myself in one area, or even in one country. I want to be as adventurous as possible. If a job comes up that wasn’t in my plans or is different from what I thought I’d be doing, as long as it’s something I want at the moment, I don’t want to be afraid to take it.
3.) Make a difference. This one is pretty vague, but I know that whatever I end up doing, I want to help people. Even if it’s just as small as sharing someone’s story with a public that needs to hear it or spreading the word about an important topic. Ultimately I’d love to raise awareness about various world topics, like AIDS and poverty. I want to bring the important, life-altering topics that are often kept on the back burner right up front to the public’s attention.