This was my first assignment before my beats were assigned. I had to cover the new Athletics director and what his plans were. Personally, I have to say that this is my best and favorite.

101216audio_director_hofman

In one of my classes, my professor who is also my adviser continuously emphasized the usage of a program on the UWRF website called Oracle. I had never heard of it till then and I’m a junior in college, so I knew others wouldn’t know about it and that’s why I did this story.

101216audio_oracle_hofman

The Outdoor Art Installation at the UWRF campus is always an enjoyment during the fall season. Students have to pick out places to put their art, so I wanted to know, among other things, just what went into this process.

[jwplayer config="myplayer" file="http://uwrfjournalism.org/media/2010/12/101213soundslide_hofman.flv"]

UWRF is more a less a suitcase college, so a lot of the students do a lot of driving back and forth between campus and home. A small snow storm had hit and it made me think about what students are doing to prepare for the harsh winter weather.

[jwplayer config="myplayer" file="http://uwrfjournalism.org/media/2010/12/101213movie_hofman2.flv"]

Download my resume

As much as I wish I was some sort of psychic or if that kind of stuff was real, it’ll never become a reality. Like many have said, the future is uncertain. Whether or not I’m part of the Journalism future is unknown and I’d prefer it that way. Makes life more exciting.

However with the education I have so far, I feel like I can say that I will be a part of it in some form or another. I have some experience in three fields of journalism. Print, radio and video and I know there’s a lot more out there, but just the fact that I’m not a ‘just print’ journalist means that I may just stand a chance in getting job in a field that I enjoy.

Journalism will live on, in some form or another. One type may die out as another rises, but it’s a continuous cycle, eventually the one that rose will eventually die as another form takes place. I feel as though my role is to go with the flow and learn as new things arise. I’m not going to simply sit back and complain about how things are changing. No. If I find that there is something else out there to learn that will guarantee a job or make my own career more interesting then I’m willing to take it.

My very first story, like real story, for Practicum. When I got the e-mail that we would start working before our first class started, I was a little upset and confused but when I thought about it, it made more sense since we didn’t start classes till the third week of school.

Never had I been so nervous in my life. I’m a shy girl. I don’t like talking about people’s lives or asking for information when I’ve never met them. So when I got assigned to interview now Athletics Director Roger Ternes, I freaked out a little. I was worried that my H2 would fail. I wouldn’t be asking the right questions. What if I couldn’t get an interview with him? The list goes on, but fortunately, that kind of stuff never happened. He was more than happy to talk about his goals and plans and it boosted my confidence. I didn’t have so much worry anymore and it helped me in my future stories in gathering information and getting interviews with people.

Covering the community. I really didn’t cover the community as a whole. My beats covered the Residential Life and Veteran’s Affairs. Not the easiest, but I will admit that it was not the hardest either. The staff in Resident Life was very cooperative. When I told them that my beats were a weekly assignment, they set me up real quick with a weekly meeting. It was obvious they had this before, most likely from previous Journalism students like me.

I can’t say much for Veteran’s Affairs. When I did manage to get in contact with them, nothing, at all, was going on. The most exciting thing that happened was the Veteran’s Day drive and in the end I didn’t even cover the final results. As the semester came to a close, I fell out of my beats since nothing, literally, was going on.

In my opinion, I didn’t find the drive to write many stories about my beats. The people that do care about what’s happening in the dorms and what’s going on with Veteran’s Affairs already know through e-mail or posters on the back of bathroom stall doors. I questioned what people off campus cared about what happened in the halls. The only thing that was truly community related was Grimm’s Haunted Hall and the trick or treating, but otherwise it had no effect. As for Veteran’s Affairs, like I said, people who cared about it or were involved knew through e-mail about meetings or other things.

Generally, I didn’t find the beats exhilarating nor were there any stories of extreme interest to myself or to the community. I found it hard to find any reason why the community should care about this or that in the dorms and in the veteran’s affairs. In other words, I found these beats to be boring. But maybe that’s just me.