Category Archives: Student-Journalists

Isabella Gentile

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MY STORY

Young Entrepreneur Will Stop at Nothing to Quench his Thirst for Success

MY BLOG

When presented with the freedom of choosing my subject for the Enterprise Piece, someone immediately came to mind. I knew of Ethan Cisneros from mutual friends on campus, and noticed that he had been featured in news stories before. His soda shop, Thirst, was a frequent conversation topic, and I knew he would be a great subject to do a story on.

When determining what sources I wanted, I knew the most important voice would be Cisneros himself. I wanted allow him the opportunity to tell his story in his own words, so I reached out to him first and foremost. I had an idea of what I wanted to cover, but he gave me even more content than I could have hoped for. He provided me with the answer to every single one of my interview questions, as well as answers that gave me additional directions to take. After just one interview, I knew I had my hands full with a fantastic story.

I then moved onto a Thirst employee, Connor Nelson. I had seen Nelson featured on Thirst’s Instagram before, so I knew that would be my outlet to reach him. I chose Nelson because he is someone who sees and observes Cisneros every day in a work environment, so I wanted his insight on Cisneros’ mannerisms throughout a typical work day. Nelson confirmed what I had already expected. Cisneros is just as pleasant to work for as he is hard working.

Thankfully, I encountered no ethical issues or obstacles in my research. Everything I needed was presented to me very easily, and I found the story writing itself before me. The only obstacle was the surprising amount of material that I was granted from my subject. I had original intentions to include several different elements in my story. Kiley Money from ELK Clothing, individuals from Cisneros’ fraternity, reputable members of the Entrepreneurial department here at the University of Utah, etc. But Cisneros provided me with more than enough content to build a riveting story.

Though the continuous theme of my story was Cisneros and his entrepreneurial climb, I found myself unable to pick merely one focus. He balances so many elements in his life, it seemed unfair not to address them all, and give credit where deserved for all of the projects he has devoted and currently devotes his time to.

And so, a great story was born. But after I got it all down on paper, it was nearly triple the required word count. The content flowed in more heavily than I had anticipated. Once I began the writing process, I knew it would be difficult to achieve a clean, newsworthy draft. It took a lot of revising to effectively summarize my story into a layout I was satisfied with. I completely rearranged my entire piece at least three times, and the addition and removal of different elements took a lot of time. As the due date came down to the wire, I dove even further into the editing process. Maybe a better way to put that would be the “hacking away at my story” process. Like previously mentioned, it took a lot of editing and collaboration with Professor Becker in order to achieve the story structure I wanted and determine the relevant pieces of information needed to be featured. I learned one very pertinent lesson about my writing during this process.

What I realized within my craft is that I am a wordy writer, always have been and always will be. I have a tendency to gather a lot of information, and once I put these details into my story, I have a hard time letting go and prioritizing. It’s important to be able to differentiate great details from exceptional details, or as Professor Becker put it, know when to kill your babies. But overall, I am satisfied with my piece, and though it’s still lengthy, I feel it’s important to do Cisneros justice for all the work he is doing. He stands out among everyone else his age, and that’s a story worth telling.

 

ABOUT ME

I am a student living in Salt Lake City, currently enrolled at the University of Utah. I am spending my four years attaining experience and knowledge to someday work as a creative director for a respectable company, ideally. I am majoring in Strategic Communication, so I am learning skills in marketing, advertising, branding, as well as public relations. Though I am not currently pursuing a career in journalism, I do have a piece of work that I am proud of and I believe to be worth reading. 

Jake Phillips

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My Story:

BEYOND THE WATER CYCLE

My Blog:

I initially had a difficult time gaining inspiration for my enterprise story. I am honestly less than passionate about journalism and found it hard to find an interesting topic which I felt capable of tackling as a student journalist.

I wanted to do a story about the environment but didn’t know where to start. That winter had been especially dry and the inversion had trapped a lot of pollutants in the Salt Lake Valley so I thought that now would be a pertinent time to write a story about the environment.

Inspiration for my story came during a class one evening where my journalism class interviewed Patrick Shea, former director of the Bureau of Land Management. The class was interviewing Shea to practice interviewing subjects and writing profile pieces. While the class was interviewing Shea mentioned that he taught a class about water conservation to fourth graders at Rose Park Elementary.

I decided to write about water conservation education in Salt Lake City. I started my search by calling the city’s Department of Public Utilities, but I did not get a lot of information from officials there. I decided to ask my professor for Patrick Shea’s email so I could try to interview him.

When I contacted Shea he invited me to tag along with him when he went to Rose Park Elementary School to teach his class.  I was really excited to be allowed to come and see how Shea was teaching this group of fourth graders about water science and conservation.

Being able to go with Shea to Rose Park Elementary and eventually on a field trip with the class was crucial to me writing my story. Being able to talk to the students in the class and their teacher gave me an interesting perspective on why teaching water conservation to students is important and how the students were reacting.

About Me:

I am originally from Greenville, SC, where I lived for most of my life before moving to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah. I am a sophomore at the U where I am studying strategic communication. I began newswriting while taking a required journalism class in the spring of 2018.

Cali Felts

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My Story:

New Development in Holladay, Utah

My Blog:

For my enterprise story, I chose to write about a possible new development site in my hometown of Holladay, Utah. I was curious to look at all of the different aspects of this new project, which is slated to be built on what has been an empty lot for years. Looking at the benefits and drawbacks of what will come about of Holladay was my goal for the story. I am personally against overdevelopment, which is why this particularly sparked my interest. This lot would be going from an empty lot where nothing occurred to bringing in more than 3,000 extra people into the town.

Finding information about this site was fairly easy considering how many news sources were covering it. I was able to go out and ask citizens of Holladay their opinions of the new development, and I was even put in touch with Cindy Taylor from Ivory Homes. Ivory Homes also has a website specifically for the proposal, including a slideshow attached that explains every little detail of the project. There are signs all over Holladay, an Instagram account against it and a website Holladay citizens created in opposition to the new development proposal. There have been multiple hearings about all the proposals and a time where Holladay citizens have been able to voice their opinion on the development.

After doing this whole project, my vision has shifted about overdevelopment. I still do believe we need to save some forest and not develop everywhere but at the same time, this lot was originally a mall. Holladay was built to accommodate the traffic of the mall and can handle the traffic of this possible new development – not to mention the economic bonus it would bring to Holladay.

About Me: 

I am a freshman at the University of Utah studying communications. I plan to graduate with a major in Strategic Communication and minor in Marketing. Upon graduation, I want to work in public relations for a company.

I grew up in Utah and was lucky enough to attend the University of Utah starting in the fall. In high school, I was part of a service group and held a leadership position in my high school dance company. I am interested in singing, dancing, traveling and boating. I work as a nanny for multiple families and absolutely love it. I am currently a Chi Omega at the University of Utah and I am travelling whenever I can get away.

 

Ryan Finlayson

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My Blog

The research and style of writing were the two biggest issues that I struggled with during the enterprise story. While writing my enterprise paper I found that I possess a tendency to write in a research style and struggle to write in other styles. The assignment also required a lot of planning and critical thinking to acquire the appropriate primary research. The enterprise story required me to think outside of the traditional college paper writing style to apply a narrative that is entertaining and persuades the reader to continue.

The origination of my topic choice comes from my own personal experience with the judicial system during my arrest in Cache County and Salt Lake County. This has been a subject that I wanted to research since I was a teenager. The issues during this process were collecting data for entertainment instead of information resulting from my intrigue into the subject material. My inability to write in a journalistic narrative caught me off guard because I have been efficient at writing research papers during my enrollment at the University of Utah. This turned out to be an Achilles’ Heel for me and it was difficult to switch gears in my writing styles.

The way I located my sources was by telephone and my tactic was to leave a voicemail a day until they called back. Once the interviewee called back it was easy to persuade them to allow me a little bit of their time for my research.  After, I interviewed Pat Kimball, he called Keisa Williams to set up another relevant interview. Once my foot was in the door the primary research was completed surprisingly quickly. They were an enormous advantage for gathering research, being professionals in the subject matter. The two judicial systems determining whether people remain in police custody co-habituating in the same state was intriguing, but disturbing.

I’m also an advocate for judicial reform in the United States, as I volunteered for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, which favored judicial reform. In particular, I’m interested in improving or changing civil forfeiture, municipal violations and the practice of bail bonds. I believe that civil forfeiture is a grotesque practice of the judicial system that stems from a lack of oversight and court procedure. I also believe that municipal violations and the practice of bail bonds are a symbolic revolving door that favors only the wealthy.

About the Author

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Ryan Finlayson directs his efforts to a solid education and planned career path in communications. Before attending the University of Utah, where he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in strategic communication and Business Finance, he earned an associate in Business and a certificate in marketing from Salt Lake Community College. He has also produced more than two hundred college papers during his tenure at the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College. He has been on the Dean’s List twice while attending the University of Utah. He plans to pursue a career in public relations or political communication.

Finlayson has been employed in customer relations for five years and client relations for two years. He has distinguished himself by being able to decipher consumer’s and client’s business needs as well as an ambitious work ethic. He has received awards for customer satisfaction, and customer recruitment and retention in his current position at BiteSize LLC, which produces cell phone applications.

 

 

Emilie Nielsen

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emilie 1My Story:

Is Social Media Reality Ruining our Actual Reality?

 

Blog:

For my enterprise story, I wanted to take on and bring up the issues involving younger generations. For young people, social media is king, queen and court as it literally rules the lives of many.

As this takes on even greater relevance in our lives, particularly with the current focus on Facebook, privacy and what we give up when we share our photos, stories and thoughts, I wanted to talk to some of the people who deal with this issue on a daily basis. I chose the sources whom I knew would have the knowledge of growing up or dealing with the stress of creating the perfect life on Instagram.

I wanted to have both young girls’ thoughts on this and the reflections of administrators and counselors to see what the prevailing view of social media was.

Estelle Andreasen was someone I wanted to bring into this story. I met her in Denmark where, she shared, she would skip class multiple times a week. This piqued my interest so when I decided to write this story I wanted to FaceTime with her and ask her thoughts on why she wasn’t going to school, or what was elevating her anxiety.

Sisters Annie and Emma Black were girls I wanted to talk to, knowing that they are fraternal twins who are different in almost every aspect of life. Annie — the more social media-minded of the two — and  Emma, who could never use social media and be content, each had points of view I wanted to include in the story.

Amber Black is their mother. I wanted to ask her about her most interesting insight into her daughters’ social media use. The girls had just gotten their first smartphones and I thought to ask Amber whether a major shift in  attitude would make a difference in how her kids use social media and its impact on their anxiety and social stress.

Debbie Perry is a counselor at Woods Cross High School. I thought that she would be an interesting person to ask about social media and phone usage at the school and what are the major generational differences that affect the phone usage.

I also wanted to talk to Deanne Kapetanov, the principal at Mueller Park Junior High School, to see how social media has affected the school dynamic and if its use has caused any problems at the school.

 

About Me:

I was born and raised in Utah and am now a senior at the University of Utah majoring in strategic communication.

I love photography, traveling and spending time with friends. I have always loved  Denmark, and was able to travel there for a study abroad year when I was a college junior. While there I was able to meet many different people from all around the world which broadened my love and desire to travel.

I have had many different jobs, including photographer, model, sales representative at Reynolds Car Wash, baby clothing boutique Over the Moon and Pictureline, which is a camera store.  I modeled in Denmark, where I also worked as a photographer for the main newspaper in Aarhus, the country’s second-largest city.

 

 

Kelsey Mae Rathke

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MY STORY:

MY BLOG: 

My desire to write about urban beekeeping came from the many conversations regarding my own experiences with honey bees. My hope was to communicate how safe they are and how easy they are to keep for those who are interested.

Prior to writing this story, I knew Albert Chubak – the designer of the hive that my family uses. He has been a great resource as we have grown into beekeeping. Albert provided additional resources for the story, advising that I reach out to Beth Conrey as an additional expert and advocate for pollinators and Marlene Jacobsen Schnabel for her experiences with novice beekeeping.

Albert and Beth are extremely involved in the bee community in the United States. They both own businesses working with bees, regularly attend honey bee conferences as speakers and create material around beekeeping. Marlene has extensive experience bee keeping on a personal, non-business level, and can speak to her growth in the hobby.

Initially, I wanted the article to be more educational and less fun. However, preparing for the interviews and then consolidating my notes from the interviews redirected me toward highlighting particular opinions and experiences. The interesting pieces of what I had gathered were stories, not lists of facts.

My writing process truly began with preparing for the interviews and brainstorming the direction of those interviews. Once the interviews were complete, I condensed all of my notes into bullet points and sifted through what would be interested to someone with no experience with bees. I then wrote my first draft with only two additional major editing drafts. Through the editing process, I moved pieces of the story around and rewrote the lead. Through this process, I learned how important it is to have another person take a look at your work. Collaboration with multiple voices really helped strengthen the article and moved it in a more interesting direction. It also really keep me in line with what information I needed to explain to the reader that I had originally assumed they would understand.

The biggest surprise that came out of the interview and writing process for me was learning about why honey is so beneficial (antimicrobial, antibacterial, antiseptic, etc.) I was also surprised that Marlene was so successful in beekeeping and learning that she had started multiple hives on her own and helped get hives going for family and friends.

AUTHOR BIO:
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Kelsey Rathke is a Utah native and University of Utah Utes enthusiast. She is a senior associate in Digital Servicing for Discover Financial Services, and a junior at The University of Utah studying strategic communication. Rathke has extensive experience in corporate writing and is currently enrolled in a news-writing course. She is an honors student at The U and will be the Marketing Officer for the Crimson Transfer Honor Society for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Legalizing Medical Cannabis in Utah: Does the LDS Church Get to Decide

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SALT LAKE CITY- The subject of religion influencing politics is a major discussion in Utah particularly concerning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ( LDS) influence in legislation regarding legalizing medical cannabis. The LDS (Mormon) church, last year, made a statement regarding legalizing medical marijuana saying “We urge a cautious approach to legislatures”. Some Utah voters question if religious views should even be involved on the floor, and if the church should be allowed such influence (verbally); especially when it comes to the well-being of the citizens of the state.

According to the most recent census numbers, sixty percent of Utah citizens are Mormon as are 80 percent of Utah legislators.  Medical marijuana (MM) supporters are concerned that LDS legislators are making their decisions based on personal religious views. While the LDS church has made their views regarding the use of cannabis very clear,  75% of Utah voters; still favor medical cannabis and are pushing to have the vote to legalize it on the 2018 ballot. Some argue that the Utah house should be pushing legalization more because the Utah public is expressing interest, and it should be the public choice rather than the senates with possible influence from the church.

“I strongly dispute the narrative regarding poll numbers,” Rep. Brad Daw (R) said when asked about public opinion regarding legalizing medical cannabis.  He discussed how under polls he conducted [not scientific] the question asked was “what level of cannabis legalization do you support” and more people, many of those who are LDS, are in favor of carefully supervised legalization rather than a full allowance of medical cannabis,. This past February, the house passed Daw’s bill (197) that requires the state to grow medical marijuana, and allow chronically ill patients to “try it. They also completely legalized cannabinoid with 10% THC for over the counter sales. “This can benefit the people who need it, and for those who need higher THC, the bill will allow research patients under careful supervision to be allowed access”

When asked if the Church had influenced decisions made by legislatures, Daw responded by saying “Removing religious opinions from politics would be hard to do…. the people on the board are elected by Utahan’s and their belief is their belief” stating that politicians would not be elected into office if the public had an issue with their decisions and personal beliefs. While the church is not opposed to limited and monitored medical use, they do make statements that the church would prefer that there be no use of cannabis; thus possibly affecting the opinion of those in Utah Senate.  Daw explained, that we don’t want to “stifle the voice of public opinion” and the LDS church has the right to freedom of speech and to represent voters just as any other organization or citizen.

Voter Ann Cook, a non-Mormon who has lived in the state for more than 45 years, sees the idea of religion and its influence on the state differently. “The LDS church really does have control, if they just came out in favor of this, the bills would pass,” she said regarding the issue. Cook is in favor of citizens of Utah voting on this rather than the legislature, believing that the church’s opinion would primarily be removed if done in this manner. “ I myself suffer from chronic arthritic pain and had to retire because of it. I’m limited in what I can do and I deserve the right to legally try out cannabis to alleviate my pain.” Cook also added that she could make the effort to get products in states which have legalized them, but she does not feel comfortable obtaining such until they are legalized here in Utah.

“We regard cannabis medicine as a medical, scientific, and sociological matter,” According to TRUCE (Together For Responsible Use and Cannabis Education)  reps said in regard to the influence the church has had on Utah’s position on legalization. “Our LDS TRUCE members are generally of the opinion that medical cannabis use is not a doctrinal issue, and LDS patients in medically legal states are considered members in full good standing… as are members anywhere taking prescribed opioid medications.” TRUCE has been pushing for the decision to be put on the 2018 ballot, rather than putting it the hands of the legislature. This is in belief that voters will support full access to medical marijuana, and will keep religious affiliations away from the decision. TRUCE advocates that the church does not need to be “speaking with representatives” as it grants too much power of the state to the church. They are not advocating for recreational use, and that they simply wish that patients with chronic illnesses have the option to use cannabis to assist with their treatments.

The issue regarding church and state in Utah is easily a debatable subject. While some believe the LDS church has too much influence or control over Utah politics, others see the affiliation only as freedom of speech. With terminally ill patients begging to allow for the public to vote on the subject the legislature is moving slowly towards the idea, and many are concerned if the LDS church’s views regarding cannabis, could be conflicting with progression towards legalizing it for medical purposes.

Ellie Cook

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MY STORY

IMG_1066_preview ABOUT ME: Ellie Cook is a 20-year-old undergrad studying Communications and Psychology at the University of Utah. She also is a writer for the humanitarian fashion magazine “Trend Prive”. She is also an animal and genocide prevention activist, as well as someone who frequently volunteers with children and animals. Ellie enjoys spending her leisure time participating in community theater and works as a model/actress for NIYA management. Ellie aspires to one day put her love of writing to work by publishing pieces aimed for teen audiences in regards to mental health, in hopes of reaching out and contributing to the well being of troubled teens.

Website

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Tanner Kirk

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MY STORY: Utah teen suicide on the rise

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Love yourself.

  • Be the bright spot in someone’s life.

Reflection Blog: Response to my story

ABOUT ME:

Tanner Kirk is a University of Utah student currently studying Strategic Communications, a budding entrepreneur who constantly seeks ways to challenge the status quo. He has various experience in sales, marketing, and photography, and enjoys interacting with people from all walks of life.

Tanner is the ultimate outdoorsman and can often be found on the motocross racetrack, winding down a mountain trail on his bike, or climbing a summit. He believes that you can achieve anything you set your mind to, and, in the words of Conan O’Brien, “If you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

Paula Garcia

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MY STORY: The cruelty-free cosmetics market is booming image1

MY REFLECTION BLOG

ABOUT ME:

I am a journalism student at University of Utah and a cat mom. I am passionate about feminism, social justice, music, makeup, animals, and blogging. I run a blog called Ask Nicely (https://asknicelyblog.wordpress.com) in which I cover music and lifestyle news. I am of Ecuadorean and Spanish descent.

Instagram: daydreamdoom

LinkedIn 

Joe Woolley

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MY STORY:

MY BLOG:

profile picMy story about an exciting new company in Salt Lake City really caught my attention when I saw an advertisement on Instagram. I didn’t know the person who uploaded the advertisement, however, I had a friend who shared it on to my Explore page. After witnessing this advertisement, I knew that this was something that I wanted to share with more people.

I was able to locate my sources through the advertisement. It documented the number of the owners and allowed me to reach out and make contact with them. I was also lucky enough to get some personal accounts from people who have had makeovers by the two owners.

The founders were the best sources for my story. Their insight into what it really takes to create a new business which nobody had ever tried before is something that no one else could have offered. I really hope that everybody can witness from my story how they overcame certain challenges.

Thankfully, I did not encounter any problems that affected my story or the way it was told.

I made sense of all the information I gained by constantly going back over my writing and absorbing all the information. I was making constant little changes to my writing until I saw a pattern which really made the story flow.

I would say the biggest challenge I encountered during this story was the writing process. It took a lot of time and stress to figure out how I wanted to portray the company, however, after learning how I wanted to write the story it became much more efficient and free-flowing.

I couldn’t have added more detail to the story without it becoming too much for the reader.

I surprised myself with how well I was able to adapt when an interview wasn’t going according to plan. In my first interview I came across some trouble when I wasn’t getting the information I wanted out of my source, but instead of settling for what he gave me I asked a few more questions which gave me some much-needed answers.

ABOUT ME:

I am a 20-year-old junior studying Journalism at the University of Utah. I have enjoyed my time here at the U, but I am excited to pursue my dreams in sports broadcasting. I am a proud member of the Utah men’s tennis team and I love giving back to the university community. I also plan on joining the U athletics council next year.

Sports has always been a massive part of my life and being able to incorporate that with my Journalism major is a dream come true for me. I would be thrilled to use my knowledge of sports and inform people about it through the form of broadcasting. I have an internship at the BBC next summer and I plan to take full advantage of the experience I gain to further knowledge on reporting.

When I am not in class you will find me on a tennis court, at a dog park, or sitting at home watching sports. I am currently writing an article about my time as a University student-athlete and plan to publish it when I graduate.

 

Andrea Becerra

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MY STORY:

MY BLOG:

I originally developed my story ideas by beginning to think about how important it would be to let the readers know about small businesses in Utah. The reason why I wanted to focus on that was because I wanted a way to encourage University of Utah students to start their business and capture the unique experiences of several business owners.

I located one of my sources through one of my fellow classmates. A student heard my story idea and provided me the contact information for another University of Utah student who has started her own business. As for my other two sources, I was able to get in touch with them due to one of my good friends.

I found the best sources for my story because each one had a unique story to tell and each had unique advice for U students. Luckily, I did not encounter any obstacles, ethical issues or moral dilemmas. All sources were very open to answering questions and sharing their stories.

I decided my focus would be to highlight experiences of business owners. How I made sense of all the information I gathered was to revise my interview notes and highlight the most fitting information that fit my focus.

The writing process taught me a lot about my craft. I learned that I took useful notes while interviewing my sources and that recording the interview allowed me to not miss out on any important details.

What surprised me in the interviewing process was that all of my sources were happy to share their struggles, successes and what they would do differently if they could do it over again.

The overall lesson I learned from my interviews was to not let fear get in the way of what one wants to accomplish, and that being a student at the U comes with a lot of great benefits to help you every step of the way in starting a business.

ABOUT ME:

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I always had a hard time figuring out exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I have always been interested in just about everything, which made it hard to narrow down what I wanted to do as a career. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a veterinarian, due to my love for animals. I changed my mind on that career as soon as I realized that I would be seeing many animals sick and injured.

I was raised having a business mindset. I grew up observing my dad run his business and teaching me many lessons. When I was around 7 years old, I began coming up with new ways to make some money. One of the ways I made money was that I asked my parents to buy me a bulk package of handmade greeting cards, and I went around my neighborhood and sold them individually. I quickly realized that I was not afraid to talk to anyone and that I wanted to have my own business someday.

When I was deciding what I exactly wanted to go to school for, it was a pretty easy choice. I am now a junior at the University of Utah and will be finishing in Spring 2019 with a BA in strategic communication. I am enjoying this major because it is setting up a great foundation for my MBA I plan to work hard for.

I am glad I have a great family that not only supports me but encourages me. I am thankful my dad taught me from a young age to be business-driven. He pushes me to be the best that I can be.

I enjoy a lot of activities in my free time. I love spending time outdoors, whether it is jogging at a park, walking my dogs, or hiking with friends. I really enjoy traveling to new places as often as I can, with my friends and family as well.

Katya Wagstaff

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MY STORY: 

MY BLOG: 

I love the performing arts and community outreach. The benefits of being involved in the performing arts (including developing confidence, talent and creativity) shouldn’t be restricted only to individuals in higher socioeconomic classes with lots of discretionary income. Everyone should have opportunities, especially children.

My roommate is a piano performance major and during our freshman year, she was a volunteer in the Piano Outreach Program. I didn’t know a lot about it, but it sounded interesting. Fast forward to last semester when I was heavily involved in researching how to overcome socioeconomic boundaries in extracurricular arts programs. One night I was in a rut with my research, so I talked through it with this same roommate. She reminded me of the Piano Outreach Program.

It ended up not fitting in my research project that semester, but I was determined to learn more about it.

At the beginning of this semester, Professor Mangun asked each of us to think about a topic to explore for our enterprise story. I immediately thought about the Piano Outreach Program. I finally get to learn more about it!

One of my sources, Mio Cowden, the coordinator of the Piano Outreach Program, has been a tremendous help. She is very passionate about the program and its effect on students. Although she is very busy with administrative and teaching duties, she took time to answer all my emails and meet in person to chat. She has also been the key to finding other sources willing to share their experiences and insights as teachers in the program.

Another benefit of meeting Mio was getting to practice my Japanese again! She was born in Japan and I lived there for a while, but don’t get many chances to speak anymore. Part of the interview was Japanese (especially when she got excited) and the rest in English. Though all of the quotes in the story are her words, not a translation.

While thinking about a focus for this story, I was interested in how the Piano Outreach Program helps refugees and other lower socioeconomic class students. However, when talking to my sources, I heard a unified message: Who cares about their background? Music unites students because during this time, labels fall away and they are just children learning music.

headshot ABOUT ME:

 Musical theater holds my heart.

I grew up singing, dancing, acting and keeping my sights set on Broadway. Along the way, I loved thinking and writing about shows. At the University of Utah, I started as a musical theater major, then made my way to the Department of Communication because I love strategizing and writing. I now major in communication with an emphasis in strategic communication and a minor in theater.

In a world where the arts can make a significant impact but get rampantly cut from budgets, I want to persuade decision-makers to understand the importance of arts and make opportunities available to everyone, particularly young students, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Someday I dream of being a marketing/communications director for a fine arts organization, preferably a theater company!

Morgan Stewart

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MY STORY:

MY BLOG:

With the society that we live in it is becoming more and more common to compare ourselves to others. Media in all forms are extremely present in society even for young children. My entire life I have struggled with self-image and low self-esteem as many others have too. But what is different now than when I was a child is the easy access to social media, a platform designed specifically to show other people what you want them to see about your life.

Recently while scrolling through Instagram I came across a profile of someone who was discussing the harmful effects of social media. The profile described the connection between social media and comparison, depression and even increased suicide rates. This was terrifying to me. I know that when I get on social media it is easy to feel all of those effects and emotions but I have been able to turn it off and forget about it. However, others are not.

Originally this is the story I wanted to tell. The damaging effects of social media and how it is affecting us as adults and our youth. How easy these platforms make it for us to compare our lives, beauty and worth to others. This was until I learned of the Kite sisters. Lindsay and Lexie Kite are graduates of the University of Utah and creators of the nonprofit Beauty Redefined.

These women are some of the most knowledgeable women I have learned about. And they have created a message that should be shared with all young girls and adults around the world. The women portray everything that it means to be strong, healthy and beautiful from the inside out. Instead of discussing the damage that can come from social media these women discuss the importance of positive body image and how we can learn to deal with the harmful ideologies portrayed in the media. The identical twins travel the world teaching women how to redefine what beauty means and that our looks do not define us.

IMG-3927.JPGThis is now the story that I want to share. The story of these two incredible sisters who have an even more incredible message to share with the world about the importance of body image positivity.

ABOUT ME: 

I am currently a strategic communication major at the University of Utah and will be graduating in the spring of 2019. Currently I run my own business as a hair stylist, which allows me to show my creativity while forming relationships with each client who sits in my chair. But what I love most about my job is the ability it gives me to make others feel confident about themselves.

Keaton Shirk

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MY STORY: 

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MY BLOG:

Contemplation leaves my mind a little confused given too much time. I felt I had so many topics to write about that choosing just one felt impossible. OK, maybe not impossible, but certainly difficult.

Actually, I didn’t even come up with the idea to write about Best Friends Animal Society. Any guess as to who did? Well, just like a lot of other decisions in my life, my parents suggested the topic.

Every initial idea I had seemed great, but I couldn’t find enough information to highlight that would make a story interesting. It was one of those necessary breakups with my ideas that ended in a, “It’s not you, it’s me.” Luckily there weren’t too many hearts broken.

It wasn’t the people or businesses involved in my potential stories, but it was me. I couldn’t seem to create ideas that deserved at least 850 words. My professor, Kimberley Mangun, told the class our first ideas were probably not going to be what we ended up writing about. I didn’t think much of this. I thought my ideas were great.

What I thought then is different than what I think now. I feel more humble about my approach to writing, like story ideas that present themselves in subtle ways are the ones that are worth further exploration.

After the mention of Best Friends from my mother, my first thought was, “Wow! I can go on a trip to Kanab and spend all day with dogs!” That didn’t seem like a bad idea at all.

I admit the idea of visiting 1,700 animals was persuasive, but all throughout my life I have volunteered with animal organizations and grown up in a family that raised what we called “muts” from the pound; otherwise known as rescue dogs from animal shelters. The topic was one I related to and felt compassion for.

To clarify, I wasn’t the “mut” nor was I from the pound, but ask a family member and they might say vice versa.

I began my story as any millennial might do. I went straight to social media. I made a post on Facebook in the Best Friends volunteer Facebook group.

My post gained a lot of interest. Employees and volunteers reached out to offer any help they could with my story.

I was shocked. I was pleased. And I was ready to start writing.

I direct messaged the individuals on Facebook who I was interested in interviewing. We exchanged our schedules and then coordinated a time to meet while I was volunteering at the Best Friend’s sanctuary.

I was inspired by everyone I talked to. I learned a lot of interesting facts as well. One woman I met began volunteering at Best Friends after she watched a TV show called “Dogtown,” which was filmed at the sanctuary in Kanab. She’s also from Wisconsin and has been volunteering for eight years now. She flies to Kanab three times a year.

I managed to interview her on one out of three times she will be in Kanab this year. You could say it wasn’t mere luck, but destiny. 

I knew No-Kill Utah was a significant movement, but I was unaware of the resources available for community members to become involved.

NKUT was my focus for a couple reasons. One being that Best Friends hopes to reach no-kill status by 2019, so proximity of time worked out great for me. Another reason being the work of Best Friends, made possible by employees and volunteers, in my opinion deserved recognition.

During my researching process, I was completely overwhelmed by the information available to me. I couldn’t find a starting point. There was so much to be written about and after my first rough draft I felt I had brain dumped a lot of information into a Word document that wasn’t cohesive.

It look a lot of editing before I was pleased with my work. Most importantly, I wanted Best Friends to be pleased by my work.

I had a rewarding experience writing about Best Friends. Writing profiles as I did showed me that journalism can be symbiotic for both the writer and the subject.

It’s personal experiences like this that make all efforts seem beneficial to my success as a professional and individual.

ABOUT ME:

Keaton Shirk grew up in Dallas, Texas, until moving away to attend Santa Barbara Community College in Santa Barbara, California, after she graduated high school. While taking in the sunshine and sea breeze, she took courses to complete her associate degree and decide what career she found herself most passionate about.

In her free time, she volunteered at the Santa Barbara Food Bank, where she gleaned fruits from community members’ trees. The gleaned fruit was then distributed to fellow community members who relied on the support of the food bank. It was an uplifting experience for her. Many of the people she volunteered with are still great friends to her now.

After completing her general academic requirements in Santa Barbara, Keaton transferred to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Before officially transferring, she did not go to school for one semester. She did this so she could spend time exploring Utah.

Everywhere Keaton travels she seeks out businesses and nonprofit organizations that are helping local communities. She enjoys supporting those that strive to support others on a daily basis. This passion led her to eventually becoming a board member for the Sugar House Farmer’s Market. She assisted with social media and website management.

Once university classes started, Keaton began exploring the resources offered at the U. She found the opportunity to take an internship position in Barcelona, Spain. The internship taught Keaton valuable skills that are only acquired in real-life experience. Keaton wrote for the company’s blog and enjoyed building a portfolio with creative content inspired by her life in Spain. Due to the exposure Keaton received working at a touristic company, she found an interest in the travel industry.

Since Keaton has returned to Utah, she values the knowledge she gained from her internship and is therefore exploring other internship opportunities in Utah and abroad. Currently, Keaton is majoring in communication with an emphasis in journalism and minoring in parks, recreation and tourism with an emphasis in sustainable tourism. Keaton hopes to graduate the U by 2020 and find a career that combines her appreciation for communication and tourism.

Katherine Rogers

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MY STORY:

MY BLOG:biopic

I have always been a reader. Even before I could read I would beg my parents to read everything to me. Naturally, when I learned that I would need to write a story my thoughts leapt to books.

My thoughts also went to my friend Sinai Valero. I’ve known Valero since elementary school. In that time, I have managed to interview her for almost every project like this that I have had.

Since Valero owns a comic bookstore and is my favorite interviewee of past projects, I started to formulate a plan to write a feature on local bookstores.

Finding resources for my story was much easier than I expected.

Getting hold of Valero was no problem, seeing as we have been friends for so long. I got in contact with Anne Holman and Ken Sanders through family. My uncle has worked with both of them. He was kind enough to put me in touch with them.

These people were perfect for my story. Since each of them run a local bookstore, they know a lot about the industry.

Making sense of my information wasn’t hard. Each of my interviewees talked a lot about the communities surrounding his/her store and the threat of online shopping. So, when I sat down to go through my notes the focus was obvious.

The actual writing was harder. The most difficult part of writing was getting started. There were many times when I sat down in front of my laptop, opened a Word document, and then immediately shut down my laptop. But eventually I told myself that I needed to get something done. So, I wrote an outline. Seeing my story laid out made it feel much more doable. Suddenly, the writing came easily.

What surprised me about this whole experience is how much I enjoyed interviewing. As I mentioned, I have already done a few interviews, but it was only with friends. The idea of interviewing strangers was daunting. But I loved it. I’m excited to see where this newfound love of interviewing will take me.

ABOUT ME:

I am a communications major at the University of Utah. My intention is to graduate in the spring of 2020 with an emphasis in journalism. I grew up around the news, spending my childhood as a “backseat listener” of NPR. I’ve always been fascinated by world events and politics. As a result, I have grown to love hearing and telling others’ stories.

Journalism wasn’t my first choice for a career. Along with an interest in news and politics, I also have a fascination with plants and animals. My plan was to go into biology. However, I quickly discovered this was not what I needed to be doing. After some introspection, I realized that writing is more suited to my talents.

I look forward to getting further into the journalism field and to learning more about what is going on in my world.

Elizabeth Nygaard

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IMG_8862MY STORY: 

MY BLOG:

When thinking of what to write about for my story, I had many ideas in my mind. I thought about writing on service dogs, cheap airline flights and local coffee shops.

One idea stuck out though, dessert.

I am in love with dessert; it is my favorite meal of the day. Ever since I could eat sweets, I was a dessert girl!

I knew I wanted my story to be fun — there is nothing about a dessert that’s not fun! I didn’t want to write about anything serious or of a hot topic because that’s just not me.

I wrote my story on three local dessert shops in Salt Lake City. I wanted to focus on different styles of dessert. Ranging from edible cookie dough, incredible ice cream, and gourmet desserts I hit all the dessert bases.

It was hard to pick only three dessert shops; I had people giving me recommendations left and right.

I thought it was so interesting how relatable dessert is and how no one talks about it. It is always an afterthought. Maybe that’s why dessert comes after dinners. If you want me to be honest though, dessert comes before dinner for me.

To begin my story I had to hit up the dessert spots and get the best desserts

To no one’s surprise my boyfriend was ecstatic to get out and try all the desserts in Salt Lake. My original plan was to go to one shop every weekend, but we ended up going every night. It was just too much fun trying different sweets!

The first shop we went to was Dough Co. For a Tuesday night this place was insanely busy. We got delicious cookie dough recommended by the employees and talked to this awesome family who was out for family night.

This family gave me another excuse to go out for dessert! Family time!

On Wednesday night we went to Last Course in Salt Lake City. Last Course is the reason I wanted to write about dessert. This place takes dessert to the next level.

Last Course offers ice cream and gourmet treats. The workers push newcomers to taste test all the ice cream options.

We ended up with two desserts and two ice cream scoops. For two people this was more than enough dessert. We chose the Glaming S’mores and the Upside Down Caramel Apple Pie based on a recommendation of the employees.

For our last and final dessert stop we hit up Normal Ice Cream. This is a food truck but is in Trolley Square for the winter.

It features a good deal of diverse ice cream options. After reading through the menu we ended up getting the signature White Out and London Fog ice cream cones.

These aren’t like normal ice cream cones. The only word I can think of to explain these cones is: beautiful.

Going through this experience of having dessert every night for a week was amazing. I would recommend anyone to do it. I loved all the different options available in Salt Lake City.

Dessert should be everyone’s favorite meal of the day. Dessert makes everyone happy and everyone deserves to be happy!

ABOUT ME:

Growing up I never knew what I wanted to do. My friends wanted to be firefighters, veterinarians and doctors. I still had no idea what I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to. My whole life I’ve been surrounded by marketing. My dad’s been working with the same company since I was born. I’ve been surrounded by catch phrases and commercials.

Throughout high school I was interesting in psychology and how people work. Going into college psychology was going to be my specialty, and I was excited. Like many other college students I took my first biology class and figured out science wasn’t my thing. To be successful in psychology, it is recommended to head for a pre-med route. I knew I couldn’t do that since science and math just aren’t my thing. My second idea was to head to business school and go into marketing. When I talked to advisors they recommended strategic communication, because this would let me be creative but still work for a marketing company. I am currently a sophomore and starting my major. I am so happy to be starting what I want to do.

On top of studying and working I’ve been training service dogs for military veterans. This has to be the most rewarding thing I’ve done in my lifetime. Working with veterans and seeing first hand how my efforts can change someone’s life is amazing.

 

Eric Jerome

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MY STORY:

MY BLOG:

As a member of the climbing team, the idea to highlight the team and its success seemed very appealing. I chose a variety of sources, the first, Danny Popowski, was an easy choice as he had started the team himself a few years ago. His perspective seemed invaluable to the story, and his comments really communicated to the reader how successful the team has been.

For my other sources, Monica Barnes and Sam Enright, I wanted to highlight that the team is made up of both seasoned climbers as well as newer, less experienced climbers. Barnes, having only recently begun climbing, provided us with a fresh and genuine perspective. Enright was able to provide readers the perspective of a very accomplished, goal-oriented climber.

During the course of writing this story I was pleased to not be met with many obstacles. My interviews went smoothly and my sources were very helpful. I gathered quite a bit of information from my interviews, but I wanted to keep my focus on the experience level of the climbers, how the team has helped them, and how they are preparing for nationals.

rookieThe actual act of writing this story was pretty easy for me. I simply decided on what kind of lead I wanted, what tone I wanted to set, and how I wanted to portray my sources. I really enjoyed this story and I hope the audience is captivated by my narrative and intrigued by the climbing team and storytelling.

ABOUT ME:

Eric Jerome is a student at the University of Utah studying strategic communication. Born in Finksburg, Maryland, Eric only recently moved to Utah to pursue his love of rock climbing. Aside from climbing, Eric also enjoys making art and eating copious amounts of food.

Maddy Howard

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MY STORY: 

MY BLOG: bio photo revised

Finding a topic for my enterprise story was exciting for me. I knew I wanted to choose a topic that would bring positivity to a world that sometimes seems dark. Beta Theta Pi’s relationship with the Rape Recovery Center was a story I felt needed to be told. The Beta members show that there are still many great people in the world wanting change. I located sources through some of my fellow Greek community members. I wanted to make sure I focused on how driven these men are. Therefore, I chose to interview sources who were putting the most effort into these events. They were the best sources for me because they were able to tell me their vision and motivation for why they work so hard with the RRC.

During my interviews, I never ran into any moral dilemmas because sexual assault is something everybody can relate to. This helped me choose my focus. I chose to focus strictly on Beta’s relationship with the RRC and the fundraising efforts. Writing this story was extremely humbling. I have watched young adults take a lot of backlash lately. Society believes all young people are careless and selfish. Writing about men my age who are out there making a huge difference is so amazing. I am so glad that I chose to highlight the men of Beta. I truly believe these men have started a movement that can change campuses across the country. It was a privilege to get to know the members of Beta Theta Pi. They pride themselves on being “men of principle” and it shows.

ABOUT ME: 

I am a 21-year-old junior at the University of Utah. After debating between marketing and communication, I decided to major in strategic communication. I have always been very outgoing and personable. I love expressing myself in anyway I can.

Some of my hobbies include tennis, golf and traveling. I am passionate about seeing new places and experiencing different cultures. My favorite place I have been so far is Costa Rica. I am constantly striving to explore opportunities and to grow as an individual.

Writing has always been something I have been interested in. It allows me to say how I am feeling in a creative way. I love being able to write about issues that are often misunderstood. In the future, I hope to find a career that allows me to be creative while also letting me meet new people.

Spencer Gray

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MY STORY:

MY BLOG:

For my enterprise story, I went through an entire process to develop an idea that would draw my audience in from the very start.

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In the beginning, I started thinking too big. I wanted to do interviews with people I’d have no way of getting in contact with. So, I really had to narrow down my thoughts on something more obtainable.

For my story, my sources were very easy to obtain. The Village Baker is a family company, with my uncle being the CEO. For my other sources, I interviewed the managers of both the original location and a new location. My cousin was one of the managers so it was also easy to contact him.

They provided very good insight into what happens behind closed doors. Especially for my uncle, it was easy to see how things worked before they finally franchised the stores because he is the original owner. The manager of the Salt Lake store has also been with the company for years so he has also seen the growth before and after.

My focus was unclear at the beginning, so I started with the interview questions. When I started to develop these questions, I could see a direction that my story could head. I thought it would be fascinating to shed light on how the Village Baker has grown over 25 years running.

While I was writing, I would think back to documentaries I’ve watched or other profile pieces I’ve written, and tried to mimic that style of organization and professionalism. It made my process clear and easy to write after finishing an outline that organized my thoughts.

I want to know more about the Village Baker’s past before they opened. I know that my uncle had a partner who helped start this with him, but he eventually left. I want to know more about him and why he left.

I was surprised by how easy it was to get motivated by a story. Most writing I’ve done in college has always been dry and boring. But my enterprise story was one of the most exciting stories I’ve written.

ABOUT ME:

Spencer Gray, a student at the University of Utah, is heading into his junior year studying strategic communication. His passion for writing has branched to multiple sources including film and directing. Gray hopes to hold a creative team-oriented position after he is graduated from the U in 2020.

Bailey Caldwell

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MY STORY: 

MY BLOG: bio photo

For my story, I wanted to write about something that has to do with students. My first idea was writing about full-time working dads and my second idea was to write about the one thing all students do, and that is note taking. I thought the working dads idea was a fun twist on all the articles about working moms. However, I chose to write about students taking notes in class because that topic hits closer to home.

When I decided to write about note taking in school, I wanted to make it geared more toward communication majors. I chose to use one major because there is such a vast number of majors there would have been too much information to write about. By sticking to one major, I was able to eliminate several obstacles of trying to use different majors.

I chose to interview two students and a professor. Each student attends a different university in the state of Utah and the professor teaches at the University of Utah. I chose to interview students from different schools so that I could eliminate a bias. The bias would have been that all of my sources came from the U and I wanted different viewpoints. I was able to interview students I knew from Utah State University and Southern Utah University. Both of these students came to Salt Lake at different times and I was able to interview them while they were here. For the professor, I had the opportunity to take her class last semester and thought she would be the perfect source for a story on note taking. I chose her because she does not allow electronic devices during her class times.

My focus was on the different ways of note taking and how one type is better than the other, according to research. I wanted to explore whether taking notes by hand is better for students compared to taking notes with a laptop or electronic device. I gathered a lot of information about note taking from the students and chose to use only the parts that they said why they chose the way they do and how it impacted their grades. For the professor, I chose to ask why she doesn’t allow electronic devices and what advice she would give to students about taking notes and studying.

I found this story interesting to write. I have never taken a newswriting class, so I was only used to writing papers/essays in APA style. This was definitely a learning process for me. I found that once I started writing, it became easier for me to write according to news style. Overall, I was able to broaden my writing style and thoroughly enjoyed this assignment.

ABOUT ME:

Bailey Caldwell is a senior strategic communication major at the University of Utah. She started at the U in 2016 after receiving her associate degree from Southern Utah University. Although Bailey loved going to SUU, she chose to move closer to home to finish her schooling. Graduating from the U was always a dream of hers and now she will be able to.

Bailey has worked two part-time jobs throughout college while still being a full-time student. Balancing work and school has been tough at times but Bailey has become a well rounded person because of the time management she had to learn. Keeping busy has always been a lifestyle for Bailey.

After graduation, Bailey plans to start a career in event planning and social media marketing. She has always wanted to plan large-scale events along with learning about social media marketing and advertising.