Lauren Hanley
“Rise and Shine!” My mom says in a zealous voice, eager to drop me off at the High School for departure. It is four in the morning and my weary eyes will only open half way, but I am very excited to begin my adventure to the New York City Convention. Driving to Columbia is all a blur to me because I did not have my coffee yet and was still drained from waking up uncharacteristically early.
We arrived to Columbia soaking wet from the down falling rain outside, just walking from the bus into the Convention. Since we were extremely late, me and my two friends were shut out of the first class. Due to the embarrassment of having the doors shut on our faces, we vowed to be at least five minutes early for the following class.
I decided to take a session entitled, “I don’t know what to write about! Now you do!” with professor Violet Turner. This was by far the most eye-opening and influential lesson of all the classes. The teacher was very sincere and provided us with the most random ways to get a topic to write about. For example, she said that we use conversations we had with our parents and turn it into a masterpiece. Inspired by her words, I wrote a poem between classes. It was pretty lame but I am hoping to use more of her techniques to improve it.
The next class I attended was Jobs, Jobs, Jobs with Steve Butler. The professor had a remarkable life story, being hard of hearing as an infant and used writing to express his emotions. However, unlike his life, the class was a bore. He basically repeated over and over that writing has countless opportunities but he failed to name any occupations. He struggled to maintain control over the class due to disrespectful and obnoxious girls sitting behind me.
Take it from the Times was a compelling class, which focused on writing creative stories using techniques from the New York Times. I was given free pens, pamphlets, and a notebook to keep track of his advice. This material was very resourceful because the teacher had valid and constructive instruction that was applicable to both our newspaper and writing essays for school.
After class me and my friend Ali, rushed to the other side of the campus, in order to make the 10 o’clock class called “The Zen of writing well”. Unfortunately, we have no sense of direction and ended up running late for class, despite our good intentions. To our disappointment, we were again shut out of class. To lighten our heavy hearts, Ali and I decided to go out for an extravagant lunch.
When I returned from a long lunch break, I attended a seminar about strong women. It was a video that followed independent women who refused to conform to society’s uniform
figure. It advocated women’s rights and praised “tomboys”. The film was very interesting but to be honest I was so tired from the long day that I helplessly feel asleep.
When Friday came, I went to a public relations class, which entailed directions on how to create press packets and how a journalist should deal with executives. This class was enlightening because I am thinking about going into public relations as a career. Karen Thompson, the professor, brought in press packets from world renowned companies like Disney television. It was surreal looking at packets from such prestigious businesses.
Lastly, in the auditorium, I met with fellow journalism students from Pembroke high and other students from all the country. This was a very educating class that provided constructive criticism and presented new ideas for our product. In addition, the advisor commended 2008 CSPA Crown finalists.
Altogether, the CSPA convention was a hit. I loved running around the collage campus and interacting with students from all over the nation. The classes were very resourceful and taught me little things that could help our Pembroke Sentinel. For example, we could add a page to our paper in order to make each page look less wordy. The sentinel was considered a very text-heavy paper. Therefore, we would be able to appeal to a wide audience but still contain a lot of information. Also, it would be a good idea to have a online picture source. Here, Pembroke residents, younger students, and pretty much anyone can upload photos that we can use for the Sentinel. Finally, I would suggest trying to add at least one color to the front page. This would attract more people and create a larger circulation.
“Rise and Shine!” My mom says in a zealous voice, eager to drop me off at the High School for departure. It is four in the morning and my weary eyes will only open half way, but I am very excited to begin my adventure to the New York City Convention. Driving to Columbia is all a blur to me because I did not have my coffee yet and was still drained from waking up uncharacteristically early.
We arrived to Columbia soaking wet from the down falling rain outside, just walking from the bus into the Convention. Since we were extremely late, me and my two friends were shut out of the first class. Due to the embarrassment of having the doors shut on our faces, we vowed to be at least five minutes early for the following class.
I decided to take a session entitled, “I don’t know what to write about! Now you do!” with professor Violet Turner. This was by far the most eye-opening and influential lesson of all the classes. The teacher was very sincere and provided us with the most random ways to get a topic to write about. For example, she said that we use conversations we had with our parents and turn it into a masterpiece. Inspired by her words, I wrote a poem between classes. It was pretty lame but I am hoping to use more of her techniques to improve it.
The next class I attended was Jobs, Jobs, Jobs with Steve Butler. The professor had a remarkable life story, being hard of hearing as an infant and used writing to express his emotions. However, unlike his life, the class was a bore. He basically repeated over and over that writing has countless opportunities but he failed to name any occupations. He struggled to maintain control over the class due to disrespectful and obnoxious girls sitting behind me.
Take it from the Times was a compelling class, which focused on writing creative stories using techniques from the New York Times. I was given free pens, pamphlets, and a notebook to keep track of his advice. This material was very resourceful because the teacher had valid and constructive instruction that was applicable to both our newspaper and writing essays for school.
After class me and my friend Ali, rushed to the other side of the campus, in order to make the 10 o’clock class called “The Zen of writing well”. Unfortunately, we have no sense of direction and ended up running late for class, despite our good intentions. To our disappointment, we were again shut out of class. To lighten our heavy hearts, Ali and I decided to go out for an extravagant lunch.
When I returned from a long lunch break, I attended a seminar about strong women. It was a video that followed independent women who refused to conform to society’s uniform
figure. It advocated women’s rights and praised “tomboys”. The film was very interesting but to be honest I was so tired from the long day that I helplessly feel asleep.
When Friday came, I went to a public relations class, which entailed directions on how to create press packets and how a journalist should deal with executives. This class was enlightening because I am thinking about going into public relations as a career. Karen Thompson, the professor, brought in press packets from world renowned companies like Disney television. It was surreal looking at packets from such prestigious businesses.
Lastly, in the auditorium, I met with fellow journalism students from Pembroke high and other students from all the country. This was a very educating class that provided constructive criticism and presented new ideas for our product. In addition, the advisor commended 2008 CSPA Crown finalists.
Altogether, the CSPA convention was a hit. I loved running around the collage campus and interacting with students from all over the nation. The classes were very resourceful and taught me little things that could help our Pembroke Sentinel. For example, we could add a page to our paper in order to make each page look less wordy. The sentinel was considered a very text-heavy paper. Therefore, we would be able to appeal to a wide audience but still contain a lot of information. Also, it would be a good idea to have a online picture source. Here, Pembroke residents, younger students, and pretty much anyone can upload photos that we can use for the Sentinel. Finally, I would suggest trying to add at least one color to the front page. This would attract more people and create a larger circulation.
No comments:
Post a Comment