MY STORY:

• A glimpse into online college learning at the University of Utah

MY BLOG:

When we were deciding what we were going to be writing about, I knew I wanted to give students a voice. I wanted their woes to be heard. As I was continuing my research about the many issues students seem to be having, learning in a pandemic was one I simply couldn’t ignore. It was an issue many seemed eager to talk about. Students were frustrated and so, it seemed, professors were as well. By using them as my sources, I was able to learn how education was truly being affected by the COVID-19 virus. Firsthand accounts were perfect for this story, no one else knows a student’s struggles better than the students and educators themselves. For the story, I did have to set aside my own perspective as a student. 

This story wasn’t about my opinion but the ones of others. Very few times did opinions differ. When it came down to it the majority of the students interviewed agreed with each other. This made my angle easy to find and utilize. When I was interviewing educators, however, it was a different story. Some agreed with the frustration of students and some seemed to make their online classroom as normal and efficient as possible. I was surprised by this, though the students were collectively doing similar to past years; the teachers too were struggling to make sure information was retained and students could be engaged. By the end of the article, part of me had hoped, with online learning continuing, our ability to utilize it as a better tool is growing.

ABOUT ME:

Reede Nasser is a second-year full-time student at the University of Utah. She was raised in a small town in Southern California and moved to Park City, Utah, before her high school years. This allowed her to meet people from every walk of life and gave her a better understanding of how a range of economic resources can shape a town.

She is a hopeful future journalist studying political science and communication who has found a passion for advocating for those who can’t in her writing. Nasser has had a love for reading and poetry from a young age, something she attributes to her mother who was an AP Literature teacher when she was growing up. 

As naive as it may sound to her, Nasser’s aspiration of working with the New York Times has been as prevalent as it was when she first saw the building at the age of 10. This goal of hers has not wavered — maybe this was due to her father buying her a subscription when she turned 15 or aunts and uncles allowing her to visit the building every year since she was 10, but she believes she will make it. 

At the University of Utah, Reede found her place within the Greek community. She belongs to Alpha Phi the Beta Sigma chapter. Within the community, she has found empowerment and support from her fellow Greek women. Joining this community has opened her up to leadership and community service opportunities. This has provided her access to stories of other amazing women, which have truly shaped her for the better.

MY STORY:

• Utah business, Burgess Orchards, remains family-owned and -operated since its inception

MY BLOG:

When tasked with finding a subject to write about, I had a hard time. I immediately turned inward and began asking myself questions like: what do I think is interesting? Surely if I am interested in what I write about, others will be too.

I received some peaches from an orchard where my mom buys peaches every year and then the idea hit me like a ton of bricks! I could write about this orchard. I was easily able to get the contact information of the man in charge, Clark Burgess, and from there, was able to find people to talk to.

I did not have any specific ideas about what direction I wanted to take my story in. When I would think about it, I just assumed I would write about the orchard and the history of it.

When it came to my interviews, I made the conscious decision to ask questions but not steer the interviews in any certain direction. Since I had no clear direction to take my story, I figured letting them steer the interview was the best tactic.

After the interviews were done, I noticed that they must have subconsciously steered the interview toward the future of the orchard. I thought, hey, that is perfect! Instead of focusing on right now, I will keep the readers focused on the future of the orchard.

Once I had decided how to focus my story, it seemed as though everything came together. Writing the actual story was not hard. The work I had to put in before the writing was the difficult part.

ABOUT ME:

Devin is currently a part-time student at the University of Utah. With the love of cinema that he has, Devin aspires to use his knowledge of writing and journalism to be a film critic or film reviewer. He also has a passion for live theater. As such, he would love to do reviewing and critiquing in the world of theater or live art.

Coming of age in Arizona and Utah, Devin decided to change his world entirely and move to Laie, Hawaii, to attend Brigham Young University–Hawaii Campus after high school. 

After being there just six months, Devin was diagnosed with an astrocytoma, a cancerous brain tumor that required immediate surgery to excise. Leaving him with the basic functioning abilities, the next eight years of Devin’s life were dedicated to doing the therapies and things necessary to regain any lost abilities.

MY STORY:

• The experience of the coronavirus through three immunocompromised young adults

MY BLOG:

I am a young adult woman born and raised in Salt Lake City. I attend the University of Utah and am majoring in photojournalism. I am a sister, a daughter, a friend. My intersectional identity has always been pretty basic, but what can I say? I’m a white woman from Utah. There’s nothing special about me; I don’t stand out in most crowds. I’m not saying that in a pitiful way, but rather as a matter of fact. I have never experienced a struggle due to a part of my identity. Unlike millions of other individuals around me, I’ve never experienced racism or discrimination for the way I look. And while this is and will continue to be true for the rest of my life, this past year resurfaced a part of my identity I thought I had grown out of years ago.

When I was 11 years old, I died in a hospital bed in the early summer morning of June. It was quick and unexpected.

Six days prior, I walked into the emergency room hand in hand with my dad. Four months from that day, I rolled out of the hospital doors in a wheelchair, a paper-thin body covered in eight new deep-tissue scars, with one new heart pumping the blood inside my small chest. For at least six years after that, I fought to shake the new identity that had been shoved down my throat. The girl with the heart transplant.

My school was small. Really small. The kind of small that you knew everyone down to their grandma and their grandma’s dog. I wanted to return to the person I was. I wanted to go back to before. Before the floor was slept out from under my feet and before my story was broadcasted around Salt Lake City via a blog my parents made.

But the truth was, I would never be that girl again. And I knew it; I just didn’t want to accept it at first. Slowly, I rebuilt my public identity into a young, smart, strong, creative, interesting young woman. Not the small girl with the transplant.

Most people don’t know about the lifestyle change that must happen post-transplant. In the months and years following one’s transplant, they are placed on strict house arrest and are very slowly re-introduced back into their social life. Fresh transplant patients are dosed on high levels of steroids and immunosuppressant drugs, making the patient extremely vulnerable to even just the common cold. While steroids and blood thinners are weaned, and eventually struck, from one’s medical chart, a transplant patient will take immunosuppressant anti-rejection medication twice daily for the rest of their lives.

In reflection of this year and the arrival of the virus that caused COVID-19, any transplant patient is considered at high risk of infection with fatal outcomes. This reality means I am at high risk. For the first time in years, a part of my identity had resurfaced that I had once worked so hard to outshine. Now, my health safety must take a priority over social interactions once more.

With my experience as an immunocompromised individual, I feel confident stating that this community of people is underrepresented. I wanted to write this story to spread awareness around this community of people and what our lives look like now. Most people don’t understand due to a lack of awareness and education. I hope that this story brings more awareness around the adversities most immunocompromised people face today as the coronavirus threatens our lives.

I know a handful of people my age that are immunocompromised, so I figured the best way to collect sources was through a call to action on my Instagram account. I asked for the participation of immunocompromised people between ages 18-25 for an interview covering their experiences as immunocompromised young adults during COVID-19. All of the sources who participated were incredibly insightful and well-spoken on their experiences throughout the pandemic. I made sure the call to action I posted was available to everyone on my following list, so no biases existed before the interview.

Writing the story, I had to be sure that I wasn’t writing a biased story from my perspective as an immunocompromised individual. I took the same restraint while conducting my interviews and with my sources as well. Since I have my own opinions and frustrations, I had to ensure that my frustrations weren’t being communicated via my sources and that what my sources were saying was genuine.

ABOUT ME:

MiaBella Brickey was born and raised in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City. She is currently attending the University of Utah for her bachelor’s degree in photojournalism. Besides styling and directing photo-shoots, MiaBella enjoys spending her time dancing to loud music, road tripping to the nearest campsite, walking her dog around her neighborhood, and hanging out with friends and family. She is passionate about her creativity and is always looking for the next project to work on. Her goal in life is to live as presently as possible, protect and defend the rights of all human beings and animals, and to create a positive impact on all who come into her life.

MY STORY:

• COVID-19 and its mental effects

MY BLOG:

The most interesting stories to me are the ones where I learn about people. I noticed in my freshman year of college that I had a fascination with hearing personal stories and insider perspectives. I enjoy them because it gives me an opportunity to learn and become more aware of what is around me. This is why I decided to write a story about the perspective and experience others are facing mentally in COVID-19. I chose the mental component because usually, emotions are the hardest perspective to share because it takes a level of vulnerability, and therefore is less common, but questionably the most important topic for individuals. 

I decided to find individuals who I knew felt comfortable enough sharing personal information and in addition, were going to be completely honest in the interviewing process. I also wanted a source who had some credibility to give the readers a different perspective on the effects of COVID-19, which is why I chose a therapist in addition to a student in her 20s and a business owner in his 50s. I wanted to make this article relatable to better allow the reader to absorb and engage with the information. I figured that two ages and two different types of genders would allow for more people to relate as well as be provided the best outcome a source could give for this story. 

There were a couple of interesting obstacles in the process of making this story. I found it difficult to keep the topic in focus. There was so much information that was valuable and I would have loved to include, but it, unfortunately, steered too far away from the topic at hand. I also found it difficult to be fully engaged and remember what I wanted to ask next; perhaps a better memory could improve that obstacle. As far as currently being in a pandemic, I didn’t have an issue talking and reaching out to my sources. 

As I had mentioned previously, one of the things I struggled most with was handling the information that I had received. The best way I was able to choose what to put into the story was keeping what I wanted the audience to take out of it in mind. If the information gave a different lesson or perspective than what the nut graph described then I refrained from including it. As for what the nut graph consisted of, I asked myself what I would want to gain out of this article and what would benefit me; from there I was able to decide what the nut graph consisted of and what the focus of the story would be. 

After gathering all the information, I quickly found that I needed a more organized format to be able to write about what I had learned. I also discovered that if I could make a whole story out of quotes I would and that I needed to find a way to insert my creativity into the story to prevent myself from using too many quotes. Most importantly, however, I learned that I have a love for creative leads and that I want to work on those skills more. 

If I had more time, and endless words to write this story with, I would have included Gideon Harris’ information about COVID-19 in the future and personal development. I would have also included Mark Raleigh’s more vulnerable words of his life growing up with depression. Despite the desire to to include more information, I was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable my sources were at opening up. I knew they would be reliable but I was extremely impressed with the vulnerability and openness they presented while sharing. I am shocked every day by the amazing people that I am surrounded by and all that they are capable of, and this story validates the strength individuals have when times are less than ideal.  

ABOUT ME:

Makayla Harris is a University of Utah student who is studying to be a broadcast journalist. Previously Makayla has worked as a teacher assistant for business classes and has also partaken in helping develop start-up companies. She has skills working with Excel, Adobe Premier, and WordPress but considers her best skills to be time management, organization, and getting personal stories from individuals. 

Some of Makayla’s favorite things to do is talk with new people, hike, and read. Before Makayla knew she wanted to be a writer and broadcast journalist she once submitted a piece of creative writing into a contest for extra credit and was later announced the winner in an assembly. She says it was “an embarrassing but pleasant surprise.”

Makayla’s dream is to host her own show that consists of conversations with individuals who shed light on particular areas in their life that they believe will benefit others going through a similar situation. She hopes to accomplish this by allowing the guest to share experiences and tools learned in their most natural, authentic state of being.

MY STORY:

• The new coronavirus shaves years off school communication growth

MY BLOG:

I developed my story from the new communication options that both of my sons’ schools have taken part in due to the coronavirus pandemic. As the story developed, the perspective broadened into a comparison of past and present communication. When I realized that I was not receiving information from one school, but overwhelming information from another, it had me questioning why. In this day and age, it is important to have parents informed and there are ways to make sure they receive updates through one or multiple channels of their choosing. 

My sources were located through close friends of mine. 

Richard Miller, chief executive officer of Carrier SI Inc., has been such an asset to the story as he is currently making the communication market increasingly more valuable every day. From my interview with Miller, I could sense that he isn’t quitting any time soon, and has what’s best for the clients at heart. Sharing his knowledge of what communication was, what it is now, and where it is going has me excited for schools across our nation. 

As the story developed, I became aware it would need to shift to be told effectively. Once I shifted, it became more clear what the focus would be, which made any further obstacle easier to approach and deal with. 

Larry and Florence Weir have advanced degrees and years of teaching experience. Through the interview process, I was wishful that I’d had them as teachers myself. They were vital to my enterprise story to help contrast the way communication with the way it is today.

COVID-19 didn’t pose any major problems with my story. With Miller, I met with him through a Zoom meeting, which I think for his busy schedule was probably much easier than trying to meet in person. Larry and Florence were gracious and willing to have me to their home, masked, and socially distant to go through the interview. 

Making sense of all the information gathered took longer than anticipated. It helped that I was allowed by all interviewees to record our interviews, which I did through Otter. This was an amazing option because I was able to search words, listen to the interviews again, find the focus, and supporting information. 

The writing process was a little harder than anticipated. It didn’t line up with what I originally had planned writing about. The craft of writing for me is a process of write, review, read out loud, re-write, and repeat. I enjoy writing this way because I am able to get feedback (whether I agree or disagree) and get an outside perspective on what I’m writing. 

I was surprised by how the story changed in certain areas but also how the story ultimately turned out. Also, I was surprised by the willingness of my sources to answer questions and be recorded. They are the necessary glue throughout the story. 

ABOUT ME:

Rebecca Hale has lived in Utah her whole life. While working in the dental field, she realized that she had a dream outside of dentistry, and started on her educational path. Being married with two kids, Rebecca has chosen to only do school part-time until this semester, but she has gleaned perspectives and experiences that she couldn’t have had if she had taken a different route.  

Dabbling a little in artistic venues, Rebecca became a hobbyist photographer. Eventually, for her own fulfillment, she would enjoy combining her love for traveling, photography, and amazing food into one collaboration as gratification for her soul. Rebecca is currently finishing up her senior year at the University of Utah where she is expected to graduate in the Spring of 2021. Having started so long ago on her educational journey, she is eager to be finishing this chapter of her life and is ready to start the next chapter.

MY STORY:

• Misrepresentation of Soul food at the University of Utah

MY BLOG:

My Enterprise story idea actually came as a surprise. I was not aware of the situation, and neither was anyone else — including my sources. I first went up to Miller Cafe in Lassonde Studios to interview former Chef Mark Jacson about how the menus are chosen there and he revealed the issue to me. Because I am a Black woman and advocate for Black issues, this topic sounded like a no-brainer to me. I also spoke with Chef Francine Kahindo.

Next, I thought to talk to the staff in the Dining Services. I ended up only briefly talking to Jamie Denker, the director of marketing and guest experience. I tried to talk to Mark Morrison, the director of Resident Dining, but he declined an interview and referred me back to Denker. I attempted to reach out to Andrew Fuchs, director of Union Food Operations, but he never got back to me.

From there, I decided to talk to the Black organizations on campus. I went to the Black Cultural Center and spoke with Meligha Garfield and Jatara Smith who then referred me to Cha McNeil, a social justice advocate at the Office of Equity and Diversity. They also advised that I seek out an advocate to help me with talking to the Dining Services on campus, preferably Tawanda Owens. I was able to meet with Owens, who worked with me on my story. 

I encountered so many issues. First, people failed to get back to me while I was on deadline. Second, Denker did not give me any useful information for my article. Last, the information that I acquired from Jacson that birthed my story was not entirely true. With the help of my sources and an extension from my professor, I was able to obtain the true information and change the outline of my story for the better. 

My focus was handed to me when Jacson told me about the issue. I knew right then and there that I had to write a story about why Soul food was not being served anymore at Miller Cafe. Bits and pieces of my story were missing until I talked to Cha McNeil who flipped the script. She gave me all the information I needed to write a story, which ended up being more about what Soul food is and cultural awareness for the chefs instead of a potential aggressor renouncing Black History Month and Soul food and getting away with it. 

The writing process of this story was difficult, seeing as though I ran into multiple obstacles during the stage of gathering information. I learned that it can sometimes feel like the world is trying to stop you from writing whatever story you are on. Things will come up, people will cancel on you, mislead you, and ignore your calls for help. Regardless of what happens, though, I learned that you must power through — or the show must go on, as people say. You have to find a way to complete your story, even if that means going off the original path to make it flow and make sense. 

There is no more information that did not make it in my story — that I know about. I wish I would have been able to contact Chef Jacson again after all of the information was presented to me. I would have liked to see what he thought of the whole thing, and to have him involved in the 2020 Black History Month celebration at the U. I wish I would have been able to meet and talk with the students who filed the original complaint on the chicken and waffles fiasco. I think it would have been very interesting to see the faces of the students and hear what they felt when they saw the food. 

It did and did not surprise me that Black students were the ones who complained about the food. With the timing of the blatant racism on campus, I was thinking that a racist student had complained instead. But, I was relieved to hear that it was Black students who posed the question of cultural awareness. There was no ill intent behind the truth of the story, and that was more satisfying to me than my original idea being completely true. 

I am proud of my story, even though it did not turn out how I expected it to at all. But, I am very excited to see the impact that my story makes for the U, and hopefully shine a light on other issues hiding in the dark.

ABOUT ME:

I am a full-time student currently at the University of Utah, and in spring 2020 will continue my academic career at Rutgers University-Camden until graduation. I am a poet, mentor, and future journalist. I aspire to use my platform to spread awareness for various issues regarding race, gender, and class, inspire people of all ages, and mentor the younger generations. Some of my hobbies include working with young poets, writing various forms of poetry, movie plots, and lyrics, cooking and creating new recipes, reading magazines and books, and analyzing films. 

MY STORY:

• Careful of The Birds, the electric scooters might hurt you

MY BLOG:

I developed my story idea because I was in a moderately severe electric scooter accident in the past. The injuries I sustained were due to the newly modified electric brakes which improperly engaged, causing the scooter to suddenly stop. The front wheel of the scooter locked up and sent me flying face first over the handlebars. A couple months later my roommate, Elan Maj, also fell on a scooter and that’s when I became very skeptical of the electric scooters and their safety.

I started to notice the lack of maintenance to the electric scooters as many of them around the city and campus have flat tires or missing components. I have also seen a number of students fall off the scooters on campus grounds and I figured this may be a larger issue. 

Locating my sources was fairly easy. I reached out on Instagram and received a lot of input from friends and family who have either crashed an electric scooter or knew someone who has. After talking to both nurses and injured riders, I decided to reach out to the University of Utah Department of Public Safety to see if this was a large issue on campus.

I went to the Public Safety office and spoke with the woman at the front desk to put me in touch with Officer Ryan Speers. The employees at Public Safety were extremely helpful and gave me a lot of great information. This was probably my best resource in regards to information pertaining to scooter accidents on campus because it included actual figures and evidence.

Initially I thought the story would consist of sources and information providing only negative feedback around electric scooters. With that said, Public Safety provided a lot of positive feedback around the scooters. This really helped my enterprise story by giving me opposing viewpoints which helped me to remain more objective. 

I encountered a couple obstacles while trying to locate my sources. It was very difficult to get in touch with Speers due to his busy schedule. I also learned a very valuable lesson regarding note taking after receiving great information from another source within Public Safety. Since I did not think I was conducting an interview, I did not collect her information nor did I record any of the information that she provided. This would have been an issue if I was unable to conduct an interview with Speers. 

The hardest part of the writing process for this piece was deciding how to organize the sections and interviews in my story. I wanted the story to be structured properly in order to keep a linear direction so it was easier to follow. Remaining objective and keeping my experiences and viewpoints out of the story was also difficult.

I was most surprised with the amount of advocates for electric scooters both on and off campus. I was shocked there have not been any reported scooter accidents on campus since they were activated in 2018. The interview took a very interesting turn due to the fact that most of my questions were positioned as if the scooters were an issue on campus. I had to think quickly to come up with new questions to take advantage of the interview with the Speers.

ABOUT ME:

Busy is my standard!

I moved to Salt Lake City in 2017 with a car full of clothes and a couple hundred dollars. I was unemployed for five months as snowboarding was my only priority. The fun halted when $97 was all that remained in my bank account. I was poor and I did not have a job nor did I have any connections outside of my fellow ski bums. My back was against the wall and I was forced to make drastic changes in order to survive.

I began working odd jobs until I found a sales position at a local tech startup company, PillPack Pharmacy. After months of excelling in a sales position, I progressed to become the corporate sales trainer. As the first sales trainer, I created and optimized the sales training program to help the company grow to 300 times larger in just over a year. 

After taking three years off of school, I realized how much I needed to finish my college degree. PillPack Pharmacy eventually sold to Amazon and I decided it was the perfect time to finish my collegiate career. I began attending classes at the University of Utah in the fall of 2018 and will be graduating in the fall of 2020.

I am a third-generation business owner and I truly enjoy the art of arbitrage. I have been buying and selling antiques, clothes, and cars for most of my adult life in order to pay for the unbearable cost of tuition.

Being an entrepreneur and a college student is extremely tough because school often keeps me from embarking on my dreams as a creator and business owner. All of my extracurricular profits help to pay for school and my living expenses; however, I find it hard to strive when the confines of the educational system keep me tethered financially.

As a 25-year-old senior I see the value in education but not at the cost of financial freedom. My eldest sister graduated from college in the fall of 2008 with nearly $60,000 in student loans. I witnessed her as she embarked on her professional journey during the midst of the recession. Debt became such a burden and I promised myself I would not make the same mistake. My plan is to finish school without accruing debt along the way.

As a communication student and journalist, I want to help other students to be their own part-time boss in order to create their own financial freedom. With my experiences, I truly feel like I can help students by making sound financial decisions and embracing the part-time hustle. I also want to help students to understand money as they enter the adult stages of their lives. I am fascinated by the global and local economy and I would love to report to students how they can leverage their money to make multiple sources of income. I would also like to share the importance of credit, loans, savings, and other financial nuances. I want to fix the way students look at money by providing entertaining and educational messages that are useful for a broad audience.

MY STORY:

• The Brighton Resort gears up for the 2019-20 ski season

MY BLOG:

This story developed from a hobby that I recently picked up: skiing.

I met somebody in 2018 who is very passionate about skiing, and he told me I should give it a try, so I did. I instantly loved it. This story idea developed as I was making goals and thinking about this upcoming ski season. I thought it would be interesting to focus on a ski resort, and learn more about the behind-the-scenes aspects of it and culture that has come out of it. My story had two main focuses: Brighton Ski Resort’s preparation for the ski season, and ski culture in Utah. I tried to connect these two ideas because I didn’t want the whole story to be focused on just one part of it. The skeleton of this story is Brighton’s preparations, and the heart is the ski culture.

When it comes to writing, I like to write as much as I can to begin with. I like to trust my gut at first, and write in the style that I keep hearing the story being told in my head. Usually that ends up being a big pile of words and random sentences, but that’s when the revising comes in.

Through this project I’ve come to make peace with revising. It’s now something I can get lost in and find myself doing for hours, which I’ve never really done before. I always thought that what I first said was good enough. I still believe in “spilling your heart” in writing, or free-writing as much as you can, but polishing is good and necessary. You always want your message to be clear.  

My sources came from people I thought would give me good insight into the different aspects of what skiing is in Utah, at different levels. The biggest obstacle I faced was scheduling time with my sources. When I think about it now, it’s actually very reflective of my experience learning how to ski for the first time. At times I felt frustrated because I thought it would be much simpler than it was. I wanted to scrap the whole thing and find something else to do. However, in writing and in skiing, persistence is key. Even if you lose your balance, you’ve got to just get back up, because it’s the only way to get down the mountain.

ABOUT ME:

I am a communication major with an emphasis in strategic communication at the University of Utah. I grew up with a love for the performing arts, film, and photography. I also enjoy writing, and took COMM 1610: Intro to News Writing to gain a different kind of writing experience. After graduation I hope to travel to new places and work in a communications field, either marketing or public relations. I plan to graduate Spring 2021.

MY STORY:

• Expansion of the Rice-Eccles Stadium

MY BLOG:

The way I developed my enterprise story was by finding a topic I thought I could relate to and also have it be an interesting topic for the people reading my story. While doing research on some of the ongoing things happening in the Salt Lake area I stumbled across the stadium expansion of Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The way I located my sources was by asking my football coach to be interviewed along with the former head coach of the University of Utah, Ron McBride. I have a previous relationship with both coaches considering the fact my dad played for both of them during his collegiate career, so it was fairly easy getting in contact with him.

I felt like these two sources primarily were the best sources because they are the face of Utah Athletics. Although there are other coaches and teams I personally feel like they are the most well-known people in the state of Utah. I enjoyed the writing process throughout the whole assignment.

I feel like if I struggled on anything it would be the AP style which I am getting better at. Another thing I ran into was I wanted to interview the new athletic director but he never got back to me until the assignment was due. He was in California dealing with PAC12 issues.

I really enjoyed learning about the history behind the stadium. Growing up always attending the games and then eventually playing in that stadium it blew me away the amount of rebuilds that have been done and how old the stadium actually is. Overall it was an awesome experience and I really enjoyed becoming a journalist. 

ABOUT ME:

I am a former student athlete at the University of Utah. I played football there for two years until getting a career-ending injury. I started to follow my other passion for photography and videography and decided to stick around the team and help out with creating content and helping run the different social media platforms.

Over the summer I interned at STANCE at the corporate office in San Clemente, California, helping create content and also helping run the social media. Now back at school I currently do a lot of freelance work for a variety of different companies.

Throughout this journey I have learned a lot of new things with working with people. I have had to produce work in a timely manner in order to make deadlines. I have learned to work as a team and learn to have patience with some of the companies that I work for.

I also do real estate photography for a specific team in Salt Lake City. My goal is to end up doing commercial photography for large corporations and eventually one day run my own business. 

MY STORY:

• Students in the University of Utah’s Greek life

MY BLOG:

While developing a topic for my enterprise story, I tried to think of topics that would stand out here at the University of Utah. Due to my current affiliations with Greek life on campus, I decided to address the concerns around how Greek life affects students. In order to develop a story idea, I talked with my classmates and they helped me on my decision. I chose to write about how Greek life allows students to become more successful on and off campus.

Due to the popularity of Greek life, I felt that my story will help explain a little bit more of what Greek life entails. I started off by visiting the University of Utah’s Fraternity and Sorority Life website and reaching out to potential interviewees. Without much time I had many members from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life staff and Interfraternity Council reaching out to me.

Prior to interviewing my sources, I thought that I had already known a good amount about Greek life but I was wrong. I had constructed a long list of questions for the individuals whom I was interviewing in hopes to gather information on every topic I wanted to write about. During the interviewing process I quickly found out that there was a lot of information that I didn’t know about. While interviewing Walker Nasser, it made me think of a plethora of new questions that I was able to use on my next interview. This then led me down different topic paths that added more information to my story than I had ever imagined.

As a result of this experience, I have pushed myself to always dig deeper even when I feel content with my knowledge.

ABOUT ME: 

Action sports are what make me.

I grew up in a small surf town in Southern California and spent most of my time surfing, skateboarding, riding dirt bikes, and snowboarding. Growing up I was always busy running around the small town of San Clemente trying to make the most of every hour of sunlight. I was always motivated to be the best at every sport I took part in and competed as much as I could to test my skills. Once it had become time to graduate high school, I decided it was time to try something new.

I decided to ditch sunny California weather for the frigid snowstorms Utah has to offer. I decided to try something new and enroll in the strategic communication major here at the U. Ever since I have been improving upon my writing skills in hopes to become the best at what I do here at school. Growing up I have become aware of the importance of trying your hardest at everything you do, and I have transferred that over to my studies.  

MY STORY:

• Electric scooters and skateboards on campus  

MY BLOG:

When I heard about this assignment in the beginning of the year, I was very nervous because I have never written a story in an attempt to have it published. I was inspired to write about the electric skateboards and scooters on the University of Utah’s campus because I often ride the electric scooters on campus to get to class when short on time. I also have many friends who have the electric skateboards and ride them every day on campus for transportation. These personal transporters are unique and are improving constantly and help students and faculty get around campus, especially when they’re in a rush.  

However, I do believe these personal transporters are not creating the best image for the U. The electric scooters are being ditched all over campus and not in designated locations like bicycle racks. I think hub locations would really help solve this image. If all the scooters were to have a central or a few spread out smaller hubs on campus, the bad image would disappear and they would actually look more organized. 

Another problem with the electric scooters and skateboards that I believe needs to be discussed is the speed of these devices and the hazard they create when students are walking to class. The sidewalks get crowded on campus and it makes it difficult for these skateboard and scooter riders. People can get seriously injured with these devices going up to 20 mph, when the U’s policy is to not exceed 10 mph. This also applies to bicycles and non-electrically scooters and skateboards. I don’t think I really encountered any problems with writing about this topic, but was surprised with what I learned from my sources on campus. 

I interviewed a few students on campus and was actually surprised with how the people who do not ride these scooters or skateboards don’t really have serious issues with them being on campus, but do agree that hub locations would be very helpful. Lt.  Terry Fritz of the U’s police department was very helpful to interview as he really cares about the U’s students and joined the department right after the tragic deaths of students we had on campus the last two years. He showed a lot of concern for the scooters and skateboards as well as bicyclists and pedestrians. Ginger Cannon, active transportation manager at the U, seems to be on track to have the hubs in the future. In the meantime, we have to be very careful with these devices and those who ride them on campus should try to stay in the bike paths and not the walking sidewalks, including myself.

ABOUT ME:

I have wanted to become a real estate agent and sell homes since I was in high school.

My mother was previously a real estate agent in Pennsylvania before my family moved to Utah in 2017, when my twin brother and I graduated high school. I would often help my mother set up open houses or stage homes and would feel a strong connection to real estate when seeing different unique homes and their interior layouts.   

I grew up in Philadelphia for most of my childhood and was able to see 100-year-old homes as well as 1-month-old homes and saw the different styles of interiors. Whether the house was old, new, large, or small, each house has its own unique feature to it. The difference in the types of houses really intrigued me and made me more interested in real estate as I saw more houses. 

When I am driving around Salt Lake City, I pay attention to the small details of homes I drive past for sale and brainstorm ideas of how they could be improved. It’s important to pay attention to the small details in and out of homes and not just the large ones because it could deter a buyer.  

Currently, I am finishing up the first half of my junior year at the University of Utah. When I came to the U, I started off as pre-business and found myself struggling constantly with my classes and started to lose interest. I found my way to the Department of Communication from a friend who was in the same situation a year ago. I couldn’t be any happier to now be studying strategic communication and to actually enjoy my classes.  

I hope to obtain my real estate license in the next year and to start building my reputation as a licensed agent for future clients or buyers all around the state of Utah. 

MY STORY:

• The startup of Simply Açaí at the University of Utah 

MY BLOG: 

Before I started writing about Simply Açaí, my class was given an assignment to walk around campus and find a topic for a story. I made my way to the Lassonde Studios on campus at the U, and had never seen the açaí trailer before. I decided to ask one of the workers some questions about the business and knew I had found a topic for the assignment. After pitching two separate story ideas to the class, I chose Simply Açaí and the company employees to be the topic and sources for my story. 

Locating my sources didn’t come with much difficulty. The first time I visited Simply Açaí, Reid Lanigan and Seth Neelman were the two employees working. I asked the two if they would be willing to go on record. Through a reference from Lanigan, I was also able to connect with another employee named Grayson Goodyear to be my final source.

I wanted to interview Neelman because he could give me the best information for my story. As the owner of Simply Açaí, he started the company and had all of these experiences to guide him toward that accomplishment. Lanigan and Goodyear were both qualifying candidates because they answered my questions that I had about business tactics. The process of finding the best sources came straight from the employees at this new company. 

From the beginning I wanted my topic and theme for the story to be focused on the startup of Simply Açaí. What happened before opening and the early stages after opening. This made it easier to focus my interview questions on the company and how it started. This helped me greatly in the writing process.  

My writing process was different for this story. I feel that I usually excel in formatting, but the AP style formatting proved difficult for me. I also have a tendency to write a lot without reading back over what was written. This requires me to make plenty of simple corrections forcing me to give myself extra time to write the material. 

Although my process changed, I truly enjoyed writing this story and experiencing what it is like to write an article. I am glad that I got to write about Simply Açaí and meet some amazing new people. 

ABOUT ME:

I grew up and lived my whole young life in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Participating in as much physical activity as possible was typical for me when I was younger. I started skiing at the age of 3, playing lacrosse at the age of 7, and snowboarding at the age of 8. 

Since the day I watched my first NCAA Lacrosse game, I always dreamed of playing lacrosse at the collegiate level. I was able to make that dream a reality in the spring of 2018 when I signed a letter of intent to play lacrosse at the University of Utah. I played only my freshman year, but I had to take an entire ski season off. Even though I no longer play for the school, it was an amazing experience. 

Although I only knew that I was playing lacrosse freshman year, I had no clue what I wanted to major in. The spring 2019 semester is where I decided I would pursue a major in strategic communication and a minor in business.  

I am currently finishing the first semester of my sophomore year at the U. The knowledge and experiences that I am gaining will hopefully continue to guide me toward graduation and my career in life. I cannot wait to see where these upcoming years take me!

MY STORY:

• Utah musicians discuss struggles for work and appreciation from residents

MY BLOG:

When considering topics for my enterprise story, I was inspired by my car radio. In search of a good song on my way home from class, I was led to a classical music station. Listening to the genius of the professional musicians brought peace to my mind after a stressful day. It was then that I realized I wanted to write about professional musicians in the state of Utah and their careers.

Research was tricky as I needed to find high demand professionals around the state of Utah. With the help of friends and family, I was led to three sources. One source was a performer in the Tabernacle Orchestra at Temple Square and private violin teacher. The other was the owner of her own after-school music program and studio. The last source was a world-famous violinist in the Utah Symphony.

The interview I was most excited about was the Utah Symphony musician. But difficult encounters came up during my interviewing process. The world-famous musician from the Utah Symphony became suddenly unavailable due to travel demands of the orchestra at that time. Although this came as a surprise, I did find a third source. Instead of interviewing another professional musician, a Utah mother of six musical children agreed to speak with me. I would discover later that she played a crucial role in my final article.

As I started to gather information and quotes, I quickly realized that my story seemed to be writing itself. Each individual I interviewed had such a different opinion and voice that my story became a discussion between each of the sources. I was worried at first that my piece would turn into an argumentative piece, but the voices fit together perfectly to construct a final article.

I was surprised that my final story didn’t turn out the way I had first envisioned. I had walked into this assignment with a very specific idea and process for my story. But the people I interviewed seemed to write the story for me and lead me along a journey of discovery and curiosity.

ABOUT ME:

Music has always filled Natalie’s heart.

Natalie Zullo was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a deep appreciation for the violin. She is a Spring 2020 University of Utah graduate studying strategic communication and violin performance. She currently is the owner of N-Z Violin String Studio and works as a dental assistant in Murray. In June 2019, Natalie married the love of her life in the Salt Lake City Temple and currently lives in Draper.

In her spare time, Natalie can be found on the nearest running trial, skiing with her husband and baking sweets in the kitchen. She writes and arranges music in her spare time and loves gatherings with her friends, family and sweet husband.

Natalie plans to continue developing her violin studio in the future and work as an event planner.

MY STORY: 

• How being involved in college can help shape one’s leadership journey and future outlooks   

MY BLOG:

As I was looking into the different topics for my enterprise story, I decided that I wanted to write about something I knew I was passionate about. Since I have been highly involved on the University of Utah’s campus and have seen the benefits of doing so, I felt that diving deeper into campus involvement would be a prudent topic.  

After thinking about what specific area I wanted to focus on for my piece, I gathered my sources according to who I thought would be the best fit. I originally wanted to target three students, all of different ages and who were all a part of different organizations. However, after receiving feedback on my topic, I thought it would be a good idea to include an alumnus from the U who was also highly involved during their undergraduate career as well.  

I was particularly interested in how being involved could impact one’s leadership journey and future outlooks, so I interviewed individuals who hold high leadership positions on campus. This led me to interview the executive director of the Union Programming Council (UPC), the student body president, and the student programs manager of the Bennion Center.   

Austin Matsuura, the executive director of UPC, was a great resource in my story because he showed how being involved can help one to discover their true passions. He was able to give a positive insight on how to create future goals through involvement as well.  

I also interviewed Anna Barnes, the current student body president, because she plays a crucial role in ensuring that student voices are being heard. She was able to express how not all leadership journeys are the same and how unexpected challenges can rise along the way.  

Bryce Williams, the student programs manager, was deeply involved in campus activities throughout his undergraduate career. By being involved as much as he was on campus and in the Bennion Center, it led him to his current job. He was able to show how being involved could help you to achieve future jobs and careers.  

After gathering all the pieces that I needed for my story, I was eager to begin writing. I wrote about the two U students and then concluded it with Bryce Williams’s comments. By writing my piece in this format, it shows the audience what the outcome of being involved could potentially lead to. 

ABOUT ME:

I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the year 2000 along with my sister and brother, making me one of the unusual triplet births of that year. I attended Salt Lake City public schools and graduated from Skyline High School in 2018.  

My strong determined personality led me to decide to pursue a major in strategic communication and minors in leadership studies and business management. I have been highly involved on campus and have found a true passion in wanting to grow myself through leadership opportunities at the U. 

Some of the student organizations I have been a part of include the Union Programming Council, the Associated Students of the University of Utah, Greek life and the University Ambassador Program. I have been able to meet excellent student and adult leaders and have gained a variety of essential skills along the way.  

I hope to one day be able to take what I have learned in communication and pursue my dreams of going into a significant leadership role. I believe a successful leader is someone who is inspiring and is able to reach a common goal with the support and ideas of others.  

When I’m not at school, I enjoy spending my time with friends, family and eating as many dark chocolate desserts as possible.  

MY STORY:

• The importance of student access to sexual and reproductive health services

MY BLOG: 

I began research for my story under the impression that I’d be able to execute a hard-hitting expose on Planned Parenthood’s decision to reject Title X funds. This decision was made in opposition to the Trump administration rule that doctors at centers accepting these funds would be prohibited from referring patients to doctors who provide abortions. It could have any number of negative consequences: understaffed centers, undersupplied offices, the inability to keep many of their services free of charge, etc. I hoped that during my research and interviews, I’d be able to understand just how much of an effect this decision might have nationwide by analyzing its effects on the two centers in Salt Lake City. If there weren’t so many far-reaching effects, I’d have taken my idea in a bit of a different direction by evaluating the decision through the lens of a social and political advocate. This approach, however, never came to fruition. 

As I researched sources, I figured that my best options were the managers of the centers, the media/press hotline, and people using Planned Parenthood’s services, which of course would be their prerogative. Unfortunately, after many visits to both centers and various inquiries, I discovered that Planned Parenthood employees aren’t permitted to give interviews, which is understandable given the current conservative attitudes toward Planned Parenthood and the protests that happen daily at centers around the country. This proved particularly fatal for my original story idea. 

How could I write a full story about Planned Parenthood and how a significant decision impacts its centers without input from Planned Parenthood? It was then that I chose to shift my focus to the accessibility of sexual and reproductive health resources for students, which was always going to be a part of my story. Instead of making it the main event, I decided to use Planned Parenthood as an example of a sexual health resource in my new story. 

For this new idea, I found my sources quite easily. I went to the Center for Student Wellness and talked to one of the educators there about my story. She referred me to the sexual wellness educator, Maya Jolley, and told me about the ACES Peer Health Education Program. In my interview with Jolley, I learned more about the program and got in contact with two of the students involved with the program, Elnaz Tahmassebi and Linda Derhak. I interviewed both students and got their take on sexual health education for students and their roles in the program. Once I had all three interviews done, it was relatively easy to work them into my story and make sense of the narrative I was trying to write.

 It was important to me that anyone could read my story and understand why sexual and reproductive health resources are incredibly important for students, so I made sure to write clearly and explain the issue in depth. Even though the topic is relatively taboo and negative, I wanted to make sure that it was something people could talk about with hope, so I ended the story on a positive note.

ABOUT ME:

My first story was a retelling of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” My first favorite book series was Nancy Drew. And my first favorite magazine was National Geographic. I fell in love with the written word at a young age. I’ve never wanted to do anything with my life that didn’t involve writing. Initially, my heart was set on becoming a novelist, though, as I aged I grew to appreciate other types of writing and I broadened my horizons. In high school, writing for the school newspaper coaxed out a love for journalism that I didn’t know existed and prompted me to consider it as a possible career, switching gears from my aspirations in criminal law, which in all honesty mainly stemmed from years of watching “Law and Order: SVU.” 

In my first year at the U, I decided to combine my international interests with my journalistic interest and tack on an international studies major with an environment and sustainability emphasis. Now in my sophomore year, I’ve gleaned more information on possible career paths and as of right now, I hope to use my international studies degree to build a more solid world view so that I can write more effectively about international and environmental issues and maybe even pursue a career abroad. 

MY STORY:

• LGBTQ+U: The community at the University of Utah

MY BLOG:

When taking this class I already expected some big assignment that would require us to work on it throughout the semester. I had thought of the things I wanted to talk about already ahead of time, waiting for confirmation on what was approved. I had an idea for the LGBTQ+ community but nothing really planned out until our professor mentioned she’d want something to do with Utah or the U. So I decided upon the LGBTQ+ community at the U, as I figured it’s an ongoing topic that is talked about daily throughout our lives, especially in the U.S. where we strive to solve LGBTQ+ issues.

I located my first source through a friend’s professor at Westminster College. The instructor backed out but recommended I talk to Clare Lemke, the director of the LGBTQ+ resource center at the U. I already planned on speaking with her but didn’t know how to go about it. After that Lemke referred me to Whit Hollis, the director of the Union, who happens to be gay himself. 

My friend referred me to another friend of hers who was attending the U while also being a part of the LGBTQ+. However, she wanted to go unnamed, which I respect and would probably do as well. I felt as if they were the best sources because one is the director of the resource center at the University of Utah, and the second is the director of the Union. He has been here since 2001 and knows more about the history of the resource center. The third source shared personal experiences.

I encountered some obstacles with sourcing, because people backed out at the last minute, causing me to do my interviews pretty late in the story. It was also hard to get hold of Hollis because his schedule is busy. I was able to fix everything and address these obstacles, it just took me a while to find new sources. 

I tried to let the reader understand the history of the resource center, first with Hollis and what it was like to be someone who was LGBTQ+ then compared to now. I then decided it was appropriate to fit in experience from the resource center’s director and try to go over what the resource center is and why it is there. Finally, I thought it was a good idea to end on a personal experience from someone to show what it was really like to be here at the U as an LGBTQ+ student with no filter or bias. 

I found it pretty surprising that there is such a big presence here at the U for LGBTQ+ acceptance and that I was able to actually become friends with the unnamed person I interviewed and we’ve hung out a few times. I’ve learned that I really am pretty shy until I start talking to someone, especially if it’s something I care about. I had great conversations with my sources during and after the interviews, and I remembered why I used to get in trouble all the time in class as a kid, since I really do run my mouth and won’t stop talking about something I’m passionate about. 

I hope this contributes positively to my ongoing future as a journalist and I really hope to continue writing about the things I am passionate about for future writings such as this. It felt nice to finally go out and do something that made me feel like I was writing an actual news article instead of just the same required essay for every class. I enjoyed what I did and this just further fuels my ambition to become a journalist.

ABOUT ME:

I don’t think I could ever permanently leave Utah and I didn’t think I’d ever say that.

I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, thinking this city was boring as a kid. I saw myself as an artist, writer, cosplayer, video game fanatic, music enthusiast, collector, etc. all the while continuing to think I’d go nowhere if I continued to live here. I constantly sought out traveling to different states in recent years to find some sort of “inner peace” and to finally answer the question of “where do I want to be” soon learning that many of the places I traveled to made me homesick. I started to make traveling a side hobby, but only if I have the money to do so, while still retaining this mindset that the corny line of “there’s no place like home” was true in my case. I found this out in the recent years of my life that Utah was my place to be and if I wanted to go anywhere else it’d only be temporary. 

I made it my goal to become a better writer when I started college. I had attended Catholic school up until college constantly criticizing my own work and never thinking I could make a career out of it. I used to hate writing papers in school after it felt like a task to write about things I had no interest in. College has changed my mindset, especially the University of Utah. I found classes giving me the option to write while incorporating my own interests. My passion has become writing about video games or music. I love writing articles on these two favorite hobbies of mine. With that being said, they have become so ingrained in my life that I want to make some sort of career out of it.

Video games and art in general are a big part of my life. If I’m not working or doing school work, I’ll usually find myself playing a game, drawing, listening to music, or somehow trying to do all three at the same time if it’s possible. I plan to always make time for my hobbies no matter how busy I get in the near future. At least I know that when I’ll be able to retire, I’ll have plenty of free time to do so, but only if I’m able to retire. I never really thought of making writing a hobby of mine but when I incorporate these other interests of mine, I feel as if writing has become so much fun that if I can, I’ll try to write about a recent piece of news or game. 

With knowing all this, I plan on staying in Utah for as long as I need to, unless somewhere down the line I figure I want to find a new place to reside in. Making writing my career in Utah is my main goal while trying my best to make my hobbies a part of it. There’s nothing wrong with having fun in my career and if it’s something I plan to stick with for the rest of my life, I might as well find the joy in it instead of dread each day walking into a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job that I don’t find any interest in, rather I’d love to have passion in what I do.

MY STORY: 

• Park City locals discuss Epic and Icon Passes’ impact on the community

MY BLOG:

When I began to write my enterprise story, choosing a topic was difficult. Most of the topics I had chosen were too broad and vague. I needed to focus in on “a piece of the pie.” Originally, the most appealing topic I wanted to write about was the ski culture in Park City and how it has changed over the years. You can image how complex this story would have been, so I narrowed it down. I chose to write about the newest development in the Park City ski industry, the Epic and Icon passes.

The Epic and Icon passes interest me because of the way they are changing Park City. This new development has impacted local life in Park City immensely. I am also involved in the Park City ski culture and have many connections to people with strong opinions about the matter. Therefore, finding people to interview wasn’t difficult.

One challenge I ran into while interviewing and photographing for this story, was the fact that it is off season for the resorts. Many people are out of the office or on vacation, so I was not able to interview in person. Luckily, I got hold of a couple contacts and interviewed over email.

I got great information and many different points of view from these email interviews. The thing I was lacking was the personal face-to-face interactions. I find it is the best way to interview and write a story. Many of the people involved in the ski industry are out of the office or on vacation before the season starts, so it was hard to organize face-to-face interviews.

I learned so much from not only this writing exercise but also how Park City locals are reacting and adapting to the Icon and Epic passes. Park City is my home and is close to my heart. Therefore, it is something I am protective of and care to learn about. This is a story I am going to continue to research and learn more about.

ABOUT ME:

Ashleigh Thomas was born and bred in Park City, Utah. Ashleigh loves to laugh and enjoys children’s movies. She has lived in Utah her whole life and has a passion for skiing and the outdoors. Ashleigh has traveled all over the world and enjoys experiencing new cultures and ways of life.   

She is a senior studying strategic communication at the University of Utah. Her love for skiing and the Utah mountains kept her in Salt Lake for her undergraduate degree. She has done internships at Cole Sport, HEAD sportswear, and Park City Municipal working in communications, merchandising, special events and economic development. 

After graduating from the U she hopes to move to New York and pursue a second degree in fashion business management at the Fashion Institute of Technology. With a degree in communication and fashion business management she hopes to move to Europe and start her career!

MY STORY:

• Bears Ears under threat of destruction after drastic reduction in size

MY BLOG:

I could say that my story started when I first traveled to Peru with my dad. He is a health and safety auditor for mines all over the world. When I was with him I saw massive environmental damage being done. At the time I just internalized it. However, when I heard about the reduction to Bears Ears, I immediately thought of a similar thing happening to Peru. This piqued my interest in the conservation effort of Bears Ears National Monument. 

Two of my sources came about because of my research into the area. I reached out to both organizations for their input on the topic. My third interviewee was Daniel Tso. I met Tso through my grandma. She lived very close to the Four Corners National Park and Tso was a friend of a friend of hers. I met him at a gathering near Four Corners about a year and a half ago. Recently, I thought he would be a perfect person to interview regarding the harms of industrialization of sacred lands. 

The biggest moral dilemma I faced was bias. I wanted to create a story that outlines the entire political happening of Bears Ears National Monument. However, it was very hard to find facts and quotes that were not slanted one way or the other. Many times, I had to break down the information and then interpret it myself.

At first, I was overwhelmed by the information. There was a ton of it and it all said a million different things. I decided to focus on the political argument going on around the Monument as that seemed to be what most people were interested in. I decided to do a sort of back and forth between the two arguments as there is truth in both sides. I started simple with a hard news lead. Once I got past the initial information I began to lay out the controversy in a more spelled out manner.  

One thing I was surprised about was the validity of arguments for reduction to the monument. I still believe we should favor the environment over the economy. However, the benefits that these operations bring are undisputable. Power and electricity are provided to many more homes than before. Mines and other operations bring jobs and work to the local economies. There is an honest and good argument as to how the reduction can help thousands of people. 

I found myself questioning my predispositions toward this monument controversy. My ideals were challenged. I wanted to translate that for everybody to read and experience. Like many issues nowadays, there is often truth in every argument, it is just a matter of bringing it out.

ABOUT ME: 

Tanner Faust grew up in Johnstown, Colorado, a small farming community in the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Before moving to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah, he took an interest in business. He started to create small businesses in his small town selling anything from painting services to programming help. 

After moving to Salt Lake, Tanner took an interest in entrepreneurship. He pitched business ideas all over campus to different organizations. Some were sponsored by the U, such as GetSeeded, while others were private and nationwide. 

Tanner also took an interest in marketing. After leaving the business school due to a distaste in its degree, he transferred to the Department of Communication. Strategic communication provided him with a more sound degree in the topics that interested him. 

He began to create marketing campaigns for fellow entrepreneurs in Utah and back home in Colorado. This was the beginning of his professional career. He always found passion in helping others create their dream while also creating the dream for himself. 

MY STORY:

• Zions Bank Real Academy 

MY BLOG:

I was inspired to write about Zions Bank Real Academy because of the soccer culture that surrounds Utah. I wanted people to read my article, and be able to open their minds more than they have before and really see how much soccer means to Utah. 

I was born and raised in Utah, and I was on a few youth soccer teams when I was younger. That was one of the key elements that also inspired me to write this story. 

Dell Loy Hansen, the owner of Real Salt Lake, spent over $60 million on soccer facilities to ensure that Utah could become one of the greatest places in the country to develop soccer talent for the future. It’s been in Herriman, Utah, for less than two years, yet I still don’t see enough people giving it acknowledgment.  

The writing process for my piece was extremely simple since I follow Real Salt Lake heavily already. I already had an idea for what I wanted to tell my readers, I just needed the sources to help add credibility and accuracy to what I said in the article. 

I emailed Taran Meyer, senior manager of communications for Real Salt Lake, and he helped me find the other two people I interviewed for my article. 

Academy Goalkeeper Coach Mirza Harambasic and Zions Bank Real Academy President Jacob Haueter were the other two people I chose to interview. I feel like I did a very good job at finding credible people to interview for this article. My second option that I had in mind if I couldn’t find three people who worked or were associated with the academy was to ask somebody from a Real Salt Lake supporters group about how they felt about the soccer academy. However, this unfortunately never ended up being implemented into my story, but could’ve been useful since it gave a point of view from a fan. 

I encountered zero obstacles when putting my article together and I credit this a lot to the people I was interviewing. They cooperated very nicely and made the experience have no stress whatsoever. Gaining access to the facilities to take photos for my article came easy since they gave me a tour around the facilities. 

There is definitely a lot of information that I gave to the reader in my article, and it might be really confusing at first. However, my goal was to help everybody understand what the soccer academy does and what its purpose is. I feel like I truly did my best when it came to explaining everything. I admit that I covered a lot of themes but this is because I wanted people to fully be informed. 

I had recorded over 22 minutes of interview audio, and it was really difficult for me at first to choose what quotes I would use. But after time passed and I gave things more thought, I eventually found what quotes deserved to be in my article over others. 

What surprised me was how successful my article ended up being. I don’t mean this in a bad way, either. I just thought that it would be much more difficult to get people to interview when it comes to covering a story on professional sports. I definitely feel like I was very fortunate in this aspect of my experience, and the fact that I’m a diehard soccer fan made it even better. 

I personally hope that the Zions Bank Real Academy continues to develop the best soccer talent in North America and that one day there will be more people who will give the academy the credit it rightfully deserves. The academy is definitely taking the right procedures to become one of the best going forward. 

ABOUT ME:

Taneon Steven Rood is an aspiring young writer, looking to make a significant impact on how we view soccer in the United States through his storytelling. He was born and raised in Salt Lake City and grew up playing soccer and basketball. His interest in writing grew when he would stay up late at night and write poetry and diaries based on how he was feeling during his high school years.

He enjoys traveling to other countries around the world as a form of leisure and his favorite place to go is Mexico. Taneon has been learning the Spanish language since he was 6 years old and has been practicing the language ever since, although he says he isn’t fluent yet. In 2015, Taneon became an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.

After becoming the youngest person to graduate from Salt Lake Community College in 2019 at the age of 17, Taneon decided to transfer to the University of Utah for his bachelor’s degree.  In the summer of 2019, Taneon did a one-month internship with the Harvard Business School start up company called Zubale in Mexico City. One day he wants to open youth soccer leagues for children in communities that are underdeveloped around the world.

MY STORY:

• Art with a cause: artwork from cancer patients, caregivers, and staff at the Huntsman Cancer Institute

MY BLOG:

This story was initially very intimidating. When I started thinking of topics for my enterprise story, I first spoke with my friends, classmates, and professors to get an idea for what to write on. After speaking with one of my classmates, I quickly found a great, and somewhat shocking, story idea. However, the day before story pitches were due, my main source decided she did not necessarily want her name attached to this story and backed out. I really needed to find an alternative, and fast. I began browsing local events on the University of Utah campus to get started. Shortly into this endeavor I found a link to an event called, “Inspired!”

At first, I did not think much of the event. The description only mentioned artwork on display at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. It caught my eye and, through research, I found out how truly incredible the staff and artists are at HCI. The event turned out to be much more than artwork. The Artists-in-Residence program aims to heal patients, caregivers, and staff members through expressive painting, drawing, and many other creative projects.

Following the link on the events page, I found the email for Donna Beluchi who is one of the staff members on the project. She referred me to my main source, Shelly White, the program director. White then suggested going to one of the art sessions to meet the current artist and speak with the attendees.

I was inspired by White’s passion for the program and dedication to continue these programs. It did not take long for me to find a patient, Caren Pinson, at the art session who was very excited to share her experience on attending this program. These three sources gave me detailed perspectives on what it takes to implement a large program like this, continue to run it, and what it feels like to experience it.

During this project, I was able to meet with so many creative and caring individuals who truly helped my story progress. Once I had completed interviews, an article that was very challenging at first become rewarding and fun to finish. I was so inspired by this experience that I did not need to do an outline to start writing. My sources really guided my writing as I tried my best to stay true to their experiences, feedback, and hopes for the program. They also became my motivation to make my story excellent — to do justice to the wonderful people and programs I was lucky enough to experience.

ABOUT ME:

I am a storyteller.

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed telling, reading, and writing stories. Originally from Ogden, Utah, I eventually moved to San Diego, where I graduated high school and entered the International Baccalaureate or IB program.

During my time in California, I really began my journey as a writer. The IB program helped me develop my own writing style by studying authors such as Toni Morrison, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Naguib Mahfouz, and many more.

In addition to this, the beautiful scenery and the diverse environment of people made me much more inspired to create stories. I remember lying on the beach, laughing with my friends, experiencing so many different things that inspired at least a hundred stories.

My journey continues in Utah where I am a Strategic Communication major expecting to graduate in Spring 2021. I hope to then help build businesses with my technical writing skills and creative perspectives. Most of all, my greatest hope is to one day grace the “New York Times Best Sellers” list.

MY STORY:

• Hearing loss affects more than just your grandparents

MY BLOG:

When I began searching for topics to write my enterprise story on, I was greatly inspired by an acquaintance of mine, Dallin Wilkins. Wilkins suffers from severe hearing loss and has worn hearing aids since he was 18. From what I knew before interviewing him, he had lost a significant amount of hearing due to not using ear protection. At the time, I had never spoken to Wilkins about his hearing loss. After reaching out to him, he was more than happy to let me interview him and learn more about his hearing journey.

Wilkins was truly the driving force in my story. He shared with me how his hearing loss journey began, what his daily struggles entail, and how he advocates to other young people how devastating hearing loss is, and how it can happen to anyone. Not just your grandparents.

After I learned more about Wilkins’ story, it was like I fell down a rabbit hole. I spent hours researching hearing loss and how many young people it affects. I learned more about the topic than I would have ever imagined. But I was still missing my other sources. It was then that I reached out to my grandpa’s audiologist, Dr. Liz Hankins.

Luckily, she was quick to accept an interview with me. It was through her that I got most of the factual information used in my story. She gave me statistics that would do a great deal in my story. She also told me a plethora of ways that people damage their hearing and warned others that it isn’t just older people who are affected.

She was also kind enough to connect me to another source, her husband and hearing care specialist, Josh Hankins. He provided me with all the final information my story needed. He gave his advice on what people should and should not be doing when it comes to protecting their ears. He was also the person who informed me about the new Apple iOS 13 update, which includes the Health app having a new hearing health section. This became a large part of my story.

I would be lying if I said that I was not immediately overwhelmed with the information I had retained from my interviews. However, when I began writing, it all started to piece itself together. I guess it is true what they say, starting is the hardest part.

I quickly realized my story was becoming more of a service piece than I had originally thought. The focus of my story went from being about Wilkins and his personal hearing loss journey, to being a piece about warning and informing others about what they can do to protect their ears and hearing health. Through writing this story I learned a lot, and I can only hope that readers will too.

ABOUT ME:

I’m a Utah girl, born and raised. My entire family, extended and all, have always resided here. I grew up closer to my family than most. They are my everything, and up until a few years ago, I could get to any of them in a five-minute drive. Then, my life changed.

Everything I knew was uprooted when most of my family moved to North Carolina. Originally, I was going to head out there too, that was until I got accepted at the University of Utah.

Making the decision to stay in Utah, when most of my heart moved across the country, was one of the hardest choices I have ever made. I make the trip out there as frequently as I can.

Utah also has some of my heart. Everything I grew up loving is here. Including the University of Utah. Currently, I am a junior and am majoring in strategic communication. 

After graduation, whether it be here or on the East Coast, I hope to go into a career in marketing or public relations. 

MY STORY: The Writing Center at the University of Utah

MY BLOG:

I became interested in the Writing Center because I was recently brought on as a new tutor there. During my training, a lot of questions started to come to mind. Why don’t a lot of students at the University of Utah make use of this free resource?

I had to start looking inward, and I realized that I never wanted to visit the center because I was afraid that people would think that I was a bad writer. So I wanted to know if other people shared this fear and if there was some sort of a stigma against visiting the Writing Center.

So I decided to start my story by asking some fellow students about their thoughts on the Writing Center. To my surprise, the students I interviewed didn’t feel that there was a stigma per se, but rather there couldn’t even be a stigma because not enough students even knew that the university had a writing center.

I had to shift gears, I went to the director and coordinator of the center to ask them about what they believe that the student body thinks about the center. Anne McMurtrey and Abby Christensen were great sources because they had first-hand details about how they market the center and data that I could get on student visits.

But during my writing and interviewing, I did find some moral and ethical hurdles when it came to the fact that I am a paid tutor at the Writing Center. I had trouble ensuring that no bias came through in the article. In the end, I think I was able to keep a level head while I was writing, without adding in my own opinions and thoughts.

As I began writing, I found it difficult to make sense of all the information that I had gathered, I just wrote everything down in the way that my mind made sense of the order, answering the questions that came to my mind in the order that they appeared to make the story come across the most logically. But it is true that that style mostly relies on the basis that everyone else’s brain functions the same way mine does, which is a bit of a gamble.

At first, I had no idea what I was doing. But after a few very rough drafts, the flow of the paper really started to come to me. Suddenly I was writing, paragraph after paragraph, in a voice that was true to me, while also making the points I wanted to make.

I suppose what I learned from this story is that even if you are struggling don’t stop writing, because as long as you persevere, the story will come to you eventually. I learned a lot about my writing throughout this process. I had to separate the English major part of my brain and explore the journalist part. I ended up really enjoying writing this piece, even though it was incredibly difficult. The voice that I discovered within myself was very exciting, and I’m very proud of all the growth that I have made while working on this project.

ABOUT ME:

Hailey Danielson was born in Pocatello, Idaho, and moved around the state a lot in her childhood. When she was 13 she moved to Santa Barbara, California, where she finished off high school at San Marcos Senior High. When she started college she came to the University of Utah to pursue a degree in English with the Honors College. Danielson is a photojournalist for the University of Utah Daily Utah Chronicle and is debating whether or not to pursue a double major in journalism.

Danielson just completed her first course in journalism — Comm 1610, Introduction to News Writing — with her very first journalistic piece, “The Writing Center at the University of Utah.”

She wants to pursue a career in publishing, either books or print journalism and is considering a career in television news as well. Danielson is planning on graduating from the University of Utah in the spring of 2022.

MY STORY:

Millennials are complaining about low pay but favor perks over high compensation

MY BLOG:

After I read the syllabus for this news writing class, I was super intimidated. I had never written in a news format before, and the task of pitching, writing, and publishing a story of my own seemed very daunting. I attended Park City High School where the only format you are permitted to use throughout those four years is strictly MLA for all of your assignments. Learning AP style with all the abbreviations, dashes, and short sentences was all new to me and was definitely a challenge

When I began to think of ideas for my story I was right in the middle of my internship with Backcountry, which also happened to be my first time in a human resources role. I was loving it and immersed myself in all things HR. As someone who’s about to enter the adult world and get a 9-to-5 compensation, perks and benefits packages are fresh in my mind and my peers’. It only made sense to take my professional day-to-day and merge it with the perspective of an emerging young professional.

Finding sources for this was relatively easy since I was reporting directly to the manager of perks and benefits for Backcountry at my internship. This did end up making things more intimidating because I had to ask my boss in a formal interview how she felt about compensating for lower pay with flashy perks and how that was affecting my generation. She was very cool about it and it ended up being my best interview for this project.

Overall, this project has really helped me grow as a professional hoping to enter this sometimes complicated field known as human resources, and I’m excited to apply what I’ve learned from it to my own life as my job search begins. Incorporating multiple perspectives into one article is no easy task and I have a lot of respect for those who make it look easy every single day on the job.

ABOUT ME:

Saige Hawkins is a senior at the University of Utah studying communication. She will be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Summer 2019. She hopes to begin a career in human resources preferably with an entertainment or hospitality company.

Saige was a participant in the Disney College Program for the Spring advantage 2018 term (January-August) as a cashier for the busiest and most profitable restaurant at the Disneyland Resort. Once she graduates she plans to return to California as an HR professional for The Walt Disney Company.