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Rewind three weeks.
That’s when I graduated. Part of the graduation festivities was a Journalism Day, the day honors are awarded. On that day, Michael Paulson, of The Boston Globe, won the Mike Berger award for his series, “Ma Siss’s place,” about a woman, her church (located in a repair shop) and her neighborhood.
The award, named for Pulitzer Prize winner Meyer “Mike” Berger, who’s New York Times column “About New York” set the standard for thought-provoking human-interest reporting about the lives of ordinary people.
Hearing about Paulson’s work and a refresher biography of Berger, I decided that I would read more of his stuff. I read “The Eight Million” last summer. (It was the best book on the J-School summer reading list.)
The next day, I got my chance.
Fast forward to now. I am only 17 pages into New York, A Great Reporter’s Love Affair with a City, but I am hooked. I’ve already learned about the New York of the 1950s (or, “before [my] time,” as a former employer would say it) through Berger’s columns about leeches, liquor licenses on trains passing through Penn. Station and the storage spaces withing the Brooklyn Bridge.
Many of Berger’s columns look back into the city’s history, showing a very different region than known today.
Anyone who is interested in city history should check this book out. Anyone who’s interested in reading really well-written, short stories should check this book out.
I got a bit of a wake-up call at a job fair this weekend. Altogether it was a good experience for me, as I now know what I need to work on and what my best employment prospects are. So, thanks everyone for helping me figure things out.
This morning, I received an e-mail from a former boss. This boss saw a link to the transcript of Friday’s radio piece on the Brownfield tax credit cap proposed in the New York State budget in a Google Alert e-mail. This person liked the piece. Knowing that an insider insider appreciates my work is very nice. (And yes, I think this person would have called me out if I had gotten something wrong in the story.)
Be proud of me.
In college, I finished both Senior Theses in the wee hours of the morning they were due. The result? A History thesis with embarrassing typos and both repeated and omitted words (fixed now, however). My parents pointed these out to me over my spring break that year. My adviser pointed them out to me in a meeting when I returned to school … of course he was kind enough to wait to tell me about these until after I had opened the envelope containing my marked thesis, which I had with me for the duration of the meeting but had not opened. The meeting was about my job prospects. (Curious reader, I did very well on the thesis. The Environmental Studies thesis was fine, too.)
So, yesterday, I made two changes to a draft my current adviser had okay’d. He said they were fine…so I hurried to school, printed my thesis and handed it in. The thesis is not due until Monday. Oh, the change! But really, I have to go home this weekend and did not want to have to print the three copies for submission on Monday along with many of my classmates or run the risk of missing the 10 a.m. deadline as I hurried to my 10:30 a.m. class.
I still have work to do this week for my radio workshop, but I feel like I am on vacation.
It’s that time again…no classes! Having spent the last two years at a 9-5 job, I forgot that things like … vacations in March … existed!
The last spring break I had was in 2005. My Senior Thesis was due something like the day we left school, so it really was a break.
That spring break I took the GRE. I had a fever that day. I visited a friend at school and watched her Senior Thesis play. I met somebody I liked. I worked. I totaled an electric-blue Pontiac Grand Am. (My parents still are uncomfortable letting me drive, even though the accident was caused by ice on the road.) I had an interview for a summer internship.
This spring break I have to work, too…but on school assignments. Spitzer’s resignation set me back on a policy story and now I have to change direction. My masters article is due in exactly one week. While the J-School library and J-School cafe are not open, I am working in the J-School student center. At least the building and equipment room are open.
So to everyone who left their school for spring break, whether your destination is warm, exotic or just “home”, enjoy it.
With school ending in just a few weeks, I am in search of a job. I have a few ideas of where I want to end up, but whether I get there depends on many things. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Wish me luck!
I’ve finally decided that I want a blog separate from my works site.
You’ve missed me, I know.
Second semester could not be more different than first, and I am so happy. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the law class and ethics and history class I took in the fall. But the radio workshop, news editing and deadline classes I’m in now are fantastic. I have been blessed with great professors and adjuncts who take time to explain why something is right or wrong and who do it with patience and understanding that you’re a student and are there to learn. Nice.
So now I get it.
Part of this school experiment is about me learning how to do this with little or no help, to see what / if I can generate on my own.
Right now I’m waiting to hear back from some more schools and parents for my story.
As for my problem with my class, I’m over it. I just need to get this one and the next one done. And we will see how it goes. I’m slow on the uptake but that will change eventually.
Enough about me, on to the work!
NOTE: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan has cleared up some of my questions and issues held over from when I worked for the government and felt wronged by sloppy reporters.
I guess I am stressed out.
Why? I’m not really up to all that much. I have not started my Masters Project, although my adviser for that endeavor was MIA for so long that I had to email the dean about it. I have not started my Profile (for Art of the Profile), although I gave my subject choice some serious thought.
Basically this week I have to read for Friday, fix a mini-profile of a classmate and get a secondary source list for my big profile for Monday, work on this blog and possibly buy a webpage and write a story on education in Brighton Beach for Tuesday.
Hm, maybe this is the problem. I don’t know what to write about. I have contacted one possible subject and have just not been able to pick up the phone and call the other… …because I keep getting distracted. I have so many little things to do, like the source list and the various readings, that I almost don’t have time to get to the big assignment. My last for that class tanked for a number of reasons, which I will not get into here. If you know me, you know what’s up.
I should go running to help diffuse myself, but I have very little energy, too, and that’s time I could, in theory, be spending on my school work. It was a stretch to get myself to last night’s Annual Poliak First Amendment lecture, given by Ron Suskind (I’m glad I did). Suskind has a wonderful stage presence, is a very engaging speaker and gave just a great speech. More on him later.
You would think that after two years of essentially answering cold phone calls I would be able to make them, but no. I’m still working on it. As I’ve said, I am slowly becoming a reporter.
Oh, and I did think the sale of woodcarvings made by Christians in Bethlehem to Christians in Brooklyn was a better story than how a church now uses light bulb votive candles instead of real flames.
UPDATE 7:31 p.m.: COMING SOON…my very own website! It might not be up and running for a few days, but with some work and the help of an elf, I might have it ready. I’m waiting for WordPress to load right now. Now if only I could get some more good stories written!
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, spoke yesterday at Columbia University’s Alfred Lerner Hall. Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at the School of International and Public Affairs’ World Leaders Forum by Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger.
Hundreds of protesters — denouncing the invitation and Ahmadinejad himself — lined Broadway near the school. The demonstration continued through Ahmadinejad’s speech at the school.
Inside the campus gates, gatherers were slightly less loud than the crowd on assembled on Broadway. They played anti-war music, held signs, shouted their opinions and entered into debate with each other, finally sitting on a large patch of lawn to watch the forum on a jumbo screen. More screens were set up for Columbia students, faculty and staff in the Journalism School.
A small, but vocal minority of those assembled in and around the school thought that Bollinger’s invitation was appropriate, as it offered a chance for the United States and students at Columbia to hear what Ahmadinejad had to say and opened topic of a nuclear Iran up to debate.
On both sides on the campus gates President Bush was targeted along side President Ahmadinejad.
To read more detailed stories, written by my writing class, visit The Columbia Journalist.
A visit by President Ahmadinejad brought Columbia students and faculty out onto the campus lawn.
For more pictures Read the rest of this entry »
