JMC at UNC

Less than a month away from graduation, and I feel like I'm just finally getting into my education. I've spent the last four years at the University of Northern Colorado studying to get a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications. 

When I look back at the time I spent here, though, I can't help but wonder how much of that time was actually put to good use. 

I spent the first two years of my education completing the required gen-ed courses. I took classes like chemistry, bowling, women's studies, calculus, sociology, cultural studies, and even stress management -- and for what? Some of these classes were interesting, some I took just because they sounded like an easy A, and some for no reason at all. 

It wasn't really until my junior year that I even began taking courses relevant to journalism. Finally I was taking classes like newswriting and magazine writing, and finally learning the skills I really needed. My junior and senior years were filled with interesting and exciting journalism courses. I found myself looking forward to going to class and interested in assignments and reading. Now, in my final month of studies, I feel that I am just in the middle of learning. 

I feel that there is still more for me to learn about journalism, and I find myself disappointed that it took me four years to get to this point -- and now, it seems to be coming to an abrupt end.

I know that those gen-ed courses served some purpose... I'm just failing to see what it was. I cant help but feel that I had only started these courses four years ago instead of two, I could have had time to learn so much more, and I would be much more confident as I attempt to enter the work force. 

I write this post as an assignment for my senior capstone class, Advanced News and Feature Writing, the first class in which I truly knew I was learning skills I would use. This class has been a great experience. The practice I got from writing news stories and features for this class makes me confident that I can write stories worthy of publishing in the future. The other benefit of this class is that we are working to create a website designed to showcase our work. It is great that all of our hard work in this class will be published in a public place so that I can share it with friends, family, and even future employers. 

In three weeks when I receive my diploma, I will be able to honestly say that I received a great education in journalism, as for the rest of it, though, I'm not so sure... 

A Day in the Life

Continuing with my snowboarding beat, I recently wrote a "Day in the Life" story about Winter Park Resort in Colorado. For those of you that have never skied WP, it's a sweet resort. Divided into two separate parks, Winter Park and Mary Jane, the resort stretches across four peaks. Both sides of the mountain, affectionately known as the Park side and the Jane side, offer great skiing and riding. The Jane side is known for it's bumps however, so there are noticeably fewer snowboarders going down that side. If you can find your way around the bumps though, there's a lot of great terrain waiting to be torn up. 

I spent Saturday, Feb. 28 at Winter Park meeting new people, observing, taking notes and of course, I couldn't resist doing a little riding of my own. It was a great day to be in the mountains -a fresh dusting of powder and sunshine all day. That weekend also happened to be the 34th annual Wells Fargo Cup. I watched a few pro-am races and met a few cool people. 

I was surprised to realize how much I don't notice on a normal day of snowboarding. When I was there for the specific purpose of observing, I noticed so many details that I had looked past before. It was a great day. 

A Snowboarder Profile

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently wrote a profile on snowboarder Nate Giska for my JMC 410 class, Advanced News and Feature Writing. I had a lot of fun writing this story, I love to learn new things about snowboarding and meet cool people. 

Nate is such an impressive guy, the hardest part about writing this story was trying to fit in everything he's done into a tight space. Through talking to Nate and researching I learned a lot about him. Nate was born in Indiana and learned to snowboard there in a small man made snow park. He developed his own line of snowboarding gear and other active wear when he was only 16. He moved to Colorado to attend the University of Northern Colorado and to be closer to real mountains. When he got here though, he was disappointed by the lack of snowboarding involvement, so he started Northern Colorado Riders, which is now one of the most active clubs on campus. A junior Business Management major, Nate is putting his education to work even before graduating and opening up Blacklist Boardshop, a skate/snowboard shop right here in Greeley, CO. 

I learned a lot about writing and rewriting from doing this assignment. I found that what I write the first time around is good, but is likely to change before I'm finished. I also learned that while I may write an interesting story, I definitely need to work on my preparation and review some AP style. I think that what I learned in writing this profile will be helpful in future stories and assignments, and I'm grateful to have met Nate. 

So far in JMC 410...

So far in my Advanced News and Feature Writing class (JMC 410) we have completed two articles. The first assignment was to write a profile story on someone relevant to our beat. Covering a snowboarding beat, I chose to write mine on Nate Giska, a UNC student, snowboarder, and entrepreneur. Nate is an awesome guy who has done some amazing things already in his life. 

The second assignment was to write a day in the life article, again, about something in our beat. I wrote mine about a day in the life at Winter Park. Even though I had been to Winter Park dozens of times, I noticed that when I was there specifically to observe the people and the park, I noticed so much more. A day in Winter Park takes you to a different world...