MY STORY:

All you need to know about Utah men’s basketball player Donnie Tillman

MY BLOG:

I have always been a fan of watching sports and attending games since I was a little kid. My love for sports has just continued to develop as I grew older, and has formed a special place in my heart. When I decided that I wanted to major in communication, my direct interest for an emphasis was in journalism — sports writing to be exact. I read as much of the textbooks, even watched and took notes on many well known commentators for the NBA and NFL.

It was Colin Kaepernick’s story that had inspired me to write a biography on an athlete. With all the commotion going on with him protesting by kneeling for the national anthem, it truly has brought much focused attention on sports entertainment. What I found to be a beautiful intriguing message was the Nike campaign that was made for Kaepernick. The campaign was made to give a brief understanding to the general public of his situation and background. It allowed for them to understand why he was doing what he was doing, and brought insight to the valuable player. And that is what inspired me to write about a student athlete in order for the audience to understand his background better to become more engaged.  

Thankfully we live in a generation where it has become more accessible to communicate and reach out to individuals rather than the past. I used the best source which is the social media platform to reach out to Donnie Tillman and ask if he would like to be interviewed for this story. Tillman so kindly agreed to work with me and set aside some time, despite the fact that he was busy with March Madness approaching. We took the time to meet on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon to be able to conduct an interview to write this story. Tilman brought his teammates to join in for the interview to help out with the process.

Fortunately, I got lucky with an easy interview process and even shared many laughs with the guys. They are great devoted individuals who inspire me with their aspirations. It was easy for me to “make sense” of all the information I had gathered from Tillman, as he and I related on many things in life. We both were raised in lower-economic neighborhoods that challenged us with many adversities. This interview allowed us to be grateful for how far we have come in life and how far we will go.

The process of conducting a story and constructing it to be suitable for the UNews writing page was a bit overwhelming for me at first. But once I just set aside all of the judgments, anxiety, and fear of doing this, I was completely comfortable in my skin. Once I realized how much I enjoyed this and the subject of the matter, it then became easy for me to be motivated to write this story. What had surprised me thoroughly in conducting this story was how much I had felt at ease doing it. I thought this would be a tedious and hard assignment, but it indefinitely ended up being one of my favorites in my college career.

ABOUT ME:

My name is Samira Ibrahim. I was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but came to America to get receive an education and build a career. I’ve lived in Los Angeles, but went to high school in Utah in the city of Saratoga Springs. My hobbies include dancing, working out, and going on lovely hikes. I have been a dancer since middle school, and am self-taught but have been a part of clubs, organizations and teams. I am a communication major with an emphasis in strategic communication. I have a twin sister who comes to school with me here at the University of Utah. I plan to graduate in the Spring of 2020.

MY STORY:

Our campus, your safety, their services

MY BLOG:

As of lately, safety on campus has become one of the main topics here at the University of Utah. Being a university enrolling over 30,000 students and faculty, campus can feel a bit overwhelming at times. It is unfortunate that within my four years studying here, tragic events have occurred on campus. I wanted to research and write about our safety resources that we have on campus that ensure our well-being and feeling safe at all times. I had the opportunity to interview an on-campus police officer who provided me with all the information we need about safety. It was amazing how willing the officer was to answer any questions I had and he directed me to all the resources that we have access to. I was surprised and learned so much from him about all the help and tips the department provides to maintain a safe environment.

I interviewed in-person which allowed me to feel what the officer was saying rather than a phone call, this benefited my writing. I was able to craft more expression because of how passionate he is doing his job. We should all feel safe at all times, especially while we are all together in this learning environment. I was surprised to learn that all security are on-call all hours of the day, every day throughout the year. There are many resources on campus that can range from 24/7 safety escort security, rape advocates, mindfulness and covered therapy. We are lucky to have amazing resources, and I hope my article helps and informs you about our resources well.

ABOUT ME:

Salwa Ibrahim is currently a senior attending the University of Utah. She is earning a bachelor of arts degree in Communication. As a student, she enrolled in CoOMM 1610- Intro to News Writing and gained first-hand experience in news writing and research. Salwa enjoys drawing, music, and the outdoors in her free time.

The idea for my story came to me when I was spending time at home visiting my brother after his torn ACL surgery. My brother is a professional Nordic combined athlete and I knew that with that connection I could get special access to his team of surgeons, coaches and teammates in order to write an in-depth story.

The biggest obstacles when writing my story was to keep it non-personal because I was writing about my brother. I really had to separate the way that I know he feels about his injury and stick to the facts and the interviews, challenging myself. When interviewing everyone it was easy to make sense of all the information into a story. They are all Stephen’s team of doctors and coaches and they all know the same story so all the information from the interviews was cohesive. The focus became on my brother’s recovery as an athlete and how it happens differently being a professional athlete and how it affects the athletes themselves.

The writing process was very straightforward there were clear guidelines to the assignment. The biggest struggle for me with writing is, I love to tell stories but putting them on paper with the correct grammar has always been hard for me. This process has taught me how to properly research and execute a story for publication and pushed me to learn AP style and better my writing. I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed the process of researching and writing this enterprise story and how much I learned.

MY STORY:

• Road to recovery for one USA Nordic athlete

MY BLOG:

The idea for my story came to me when I was spending time at home visiting my brother after his torn ACL surgery. My brother is a professional Nordic combined athlete and I knew that with that connection I could get special access to his team of surgeons, coaches and teammates in order to write an in-depth story.

The biggest obstacles when writing my story was to keep it non-personal because I was writing about my brother. I really had to separate the way that I know he feels about his injury and stick to the facts and the interviews, challenging myself. When interviewing everyone it was easy to make sense of all the information into a story. They are all Stephen’s team of doctors and coaches and they all know the same story so all the information from the interviews was cohesive. The focus became on my brother’s recovery as an athlete and how it happens differently being a professional athlete and how it affects the athletes themselves.

The writing process was very straightforward there were clear guidelines to the assignment. The biggest struggle for me with writing is, I love to tell stories but putting them on paper with the correct grammar has always been hard for me. This process has taught me how to properly research and execute a story for publication and pushed me to learn AP style and better my writing. I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed the process of researching and writing this enterprise story and how much I learned.

ABOUT ME:

Katherine Schumann grew up in Salt Lake City and attended East High School, home of her favorite kids’ movie “High School Musical.” Then she attended the college of her hometown, the University of Utah. While attending college she started as a business major and then found communication to be a better fit for her future.

Katherine enjoys communicating with people around her, including communicating through social media and creative ways. She used her creative abilities in her previous internships with Fuel Marketing and the Utah Sports Commission to create blog posts, social media posts, graphics and promotion. “Communicating in creative ways and creating content to get messages across has truly become my passion.”

In her free time, she spends time with her family and friends and enjoys all that the outdoors has to offer in Utah, including camping, hiking and skiing. Traveling for joy and for service Katherine spent a month in India and in Thailand on humanitarian trips with the programs Youthlinc and YMAD. She also spent a month abroad in Europe during the summer of 2017.

Katherine is looking to finish up her degree from the University of Utah Department of Communication and then getting a certificate from Parsons. Katherine is hopeful for what the future has to offer after college.

MY STORY:

• Come support esports at the University of Utah

MY BLOG:

I came up with the idea for my story by brainstorming topics with my roommates. We were playing League of Legends when the topic of the University of Utah’s esports team came up. After looking up some background information on the topic and seeing that the U was the first university to do this it seemed like an awesome story.

One of the hardest parts was being able to find people to be able to interview. I was able to dig up a lot of information scattered about online, but had some difficulties originally finding people to interview.

When I was first thinking of the topic, I didn’t know what approach I was going to take with this story. I went over to the Entertainment Arts & Engineering building and met with Kenny Green, who is the head coach for the League of Legends team. He was nice enough to let me interview him. It wasn’t until after my interview with him and seeing his passion for the sport that I saw what direction I wanted to take with this story.

When I got home, I gathered all my research and the information from my interviews. I wanted to be able to link this cool story from the U to what was going on with the Worlds competition happening in South Korea. I really wanted to highlight how awesome it is that the U has a program like this and that this is something we should keep supporting.

This is the first article I have written, and I hope it will be able to show some of the great programs the U has to offer. I also hope to be able to watch the U’s esports team this year and cheer them on this spring.

If you want to support or watch the team you can do so by following the U’s esports Twitch channel.

ABOUT ME:

I have always enjoyed hearing the story of people’s lives, the events and struggles that shaped them into the people they are today. This is what has led me to pursue a degree in strategic communication. I am currently finishing my junior year here at the University of Utah and am starting to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

My goal when I finish my degree is to be able to pursue a career in PR and marketing. When I’m not studying at school I work as a service adviser for Microsoft. I have been with the company for close to five years and have high hopes to be able to continue my career with them.

Outside of work and school I try my best to travel when I can and enjoy spending time with friends and family. Over the next few years I hope to be able to continue to develop my skills and live life to its fullest.