Starting on Sunday night, I was feeling an abundance of emotions. Excited, happy, and a little nervous. I was not sure what to expect, but moments after tuning into the Zoom call I knew I would be having a great time during Greene week.
We started off by making sure our profiles were done. Mine was completed. When reflecting upon my work with the profile, I was really proud of myself. I started off with a piece that I felt was solid. However, through the editing process my piece became even better. Through the edits of my profile I was left with not just a better piece of writing, but with better editing and writing skills that I can integrate into future writing.
Monday, the first official day of Greene week, was pretty action-packed. Although there were many elements of this day, my favorite part of the day was setting up our recording materials. Recording and broadcast journalism is the part of the field that I am not extremely familiar with. I gained much knowledge of some equipment that I will be using throughout this week to conduct interviews. This will allow me to gain more experience that I wouldn’t normally have access to.
I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of the week!
Things are finally starting to click! My group and I are working extremely hard trying to pull our story together! Earlier on in the day, my group and I barely had a story. We had sent dozens of emails and there was either no answer or a decline toward participating in a virtual interview. I was extremely stressed out because other groups seemed to have interviews lined up and my group and I had nothing, despite the fact we were all working hard and staying on Zoom meets collaborating and brainstorming together.
I then found two contacts that would be willing be be recorded. So, I hopped on my computer and did two virtual sit-down interviews. I was prepared with my questions and felt like a real journalist. Although I had questions prepared, I read the mood of the meeting and adjusted accordingly. It was a terrific experience. This whole experience made me realize how much work journalists and media companies have to deal with. Sometimes people don’t want to participate and there is a time crunch! I always had a profound respect for journalists, however this just made me admire them even more.
Team 5 picture at our 6:30 meeting
My group and I have a lot of material to work with today. I am really excited to start editing to pull this project together. The team I am working with is filled with strong and motivated young women. I am so thankful for the relationships we have been able to build through a screen! I was not expecting it to be easy to connect with people over Zoom but I was pleasantly surprised. This morning I enjoyed a lecture by Chrissy Sampson, which was about F.O.I.L. laws.
This morning we got a pep talk from Chrissy Sampson, who gave us a presentation on the Freedom of Information Law. I found the law pretty fascinating, and I see how it’s useful to journalists. Investigative journalism is appealing to me, so I’m glad I now understand what’s public information and how I can get it.
This afternoon, we listened to an incredible story from Sarah Kazadi who was so inspirational and honestly just cool. Her hard work, dedication, and refusal to quit got her to her successful career in journalism. Listening to her story, along with other pep talks we’ve heard this week, gave me more confidence that I’ll be able to make it in this field.
Wasim Ahmad spoke to us about the important of our online presence as journalists. He stressed how we have to maintain professionalism on all platforms. I don’t currently have any social media, but after today’s lesson, that might have to change.
Finally, we were able to break into our groups to work on our project. After encountering some technical issues, my role changed from video editing to writing. I enjoy writing, so this wasn’t a problem for me. The writing went pretty smoothly for my teammate, T’Neil, and me. We have a little bit more editing to do, but we’re mostly done. The video needed a little more work. It’s supposed to be 1:30 long, but we had 14:00 of footage to begin with. My teammates, Liliana, Moriah, and Jada, did a great job trimming that and getting most of the editing done. We stayed on Zoom until 7:30, but it was worth it.
Whew.. I’m exhausted! Today was a lot of reaching out to people, doing interviews, putting together our story and creating our video. I’m so grateful to have such a hard-working team! Everyone was doing their part and helping each other so I’m so glad for that. We are now just putting the finishing touches on everything so tomorrow shouldn’t be too much of a struggle. Tomorrow is also the last day on Zoom! I can’t believe our time at Greene is coming to an end… I’m excited for this last day and I’m even more excited for Saturday because it’s going to be in-person!
I also just wanted to mention how amazing our guest speaker Sarah M. Kazadi was. She was so transparent about her experiences being a black female journalist. It was so inspiring as I too am a black female interested in the field. She talked about how she overcame the challenges of being someone like herself in this field by viewing her background and identity as an angle to write from. There have been some truly inspirational speakers that have come to be with us this week and I’m so looking forward to what tomorrow has to offer.
Day 4 at Greene! It’s going by a lot quicker than I’d like to admit but I’m loving every second of it! My team leader, Chrissy Sampson started off the day with a talk on F.O.I.L. (Freedom of Information Law), F.O.I.A. (Freedom of Information Act), or the Sunshine Law. This allows people to gain access to public records, which is incredibly helpful for journalists. We had a game of trying to figure out what is counted as a public record and what isn’t.
We went into team breakouts before Professor Ricioppo gave us video editing tips. I can’t wait to use them for my team’s video! We then had a talk about social media from Wasim Ahmad, who shared how important it is to have social media and to stay consistent with the names on different mediums. I learned that we can use social media to crowdsource people since they may have access to things others don’t. Professor Altiere then made sure everyone was in the clipchamp team, which we will be using to make the video stories. Sarah M. Kazadi, a Stony Brook graduate who currently works as an ESPN journalist, came on Zoom to share her very inspirational story of how she made her own luck and created her own opportunities in her life.
At the end of the day, my team met once again to discuss progress. I was able to finish a draft of the script for the video along with a general layout. I’m excited to finally put the video together and edit it tomorrow!
One brave kitten shyly scopes out a potential forever family. (Photo by Oona Montandon)
During the lonesome isolation of quarantine, many people welcomed new pets to fill their quiet homes. But as restrictions are lifted and many return to offices, some of those owners are finding the commitment and responsibility of having a “pandemic pet” too much to handle.
A May survey by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of people who acquired pets over the pandemic found that 13 percent are considering rehoming their animals. The majority of people who considered this suffered financial trouble and saw no other option other than to give up their pet, according to the survey.
Megan Hanken, a veterinarian at Los Gatos Dog & Cat Hospital in Los Gatos, Calif., said her practice experienced a major increase in clients over quarantine — so vast that it had to stop accepting new patients for a brief period.
Hanken said she was glad so many animals found homes, but she worried that owners had not considered all the possibilities of having pets, especially dogs.
“I don’t think a lot of people anticipated the difficulty of properly socializing and training your puppy,” she said. The window in which a puppy can be socialized is short, therefore the owner must be proactive about behavioral training.
Hanken is also concerned that pets adopted over the pandemic would develop separation anxiety. “People are just starting to leave the house and realize that there may be an issue with leaving their pet at home,” she said.
Hanken’s pet hospital noticed that most of the pets were more afraid than usual to be at the vet when they were away from their owners. For some owners, obstacles like these were too difficult to conquer.
A few of Hanken’s clients encountered especially hard times during quarantine or found that the difficulty of a pet was too much, resulting in a slight increase in pet surrenders.
“We haven’t had a lot of people who had been in so much hardship that they had to give them up,” Hanken said.
“I think everyone needs to do what is right for themselves,” said Jordana Sobey, an attorney, and owner of a pet adopted over quarantine.
Prior to the pandemic, Sobey, 41, adopted and subsequently gave up a pet. She understood the responsibilities that came with a pet, so she was ready to welcome one into the family. Since she had made long-term considerations and preparations, Sobey has happily lived with her dog, Tiki, since quarantine. But those without this knowledge may not have had such a happy ending.
“What do you say to someone who makes a commitment and can no longer take on that responsibility? It’s not the nicest thing in the world, but everybody has to do what’s right for themselves, their families and hopefully the pet as well.”
Today wasn’t scheduled to start ’til 11, but I started my day early with a 9 a.m. interview with Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming! Now, this may have been one of the most interesting interviews I’ve conducted as a student journalist, since I took her phone call in a parking lot in Riverhead. Yes, you read that right. But when you get an opportunity to get the interview you need, it’s all about making it work. Luckily, Legislator Fleming gave me some great answers and we had a lovely conversation! My first draft of my article is finished so now I’m working on editing. My team has been working hard and I’m quite excited to see the end result!
The week is almost over and everyone is making progress with their project. We had Chrissy Sampson, Wasim Ahmad, and Sarah M. Kazadi. Ms. Kazadi showed an emotional video that she made after the passing of the great Kobe Bryant. All of my work is moving smoothly as the week is coming to a close. One thing that I learned from today was that if you’re curious, you will always bump into stories.
Today, was basically an intro into everything and a small glimpse into the life of an actual journalist. The two most fun, interesting and informative parts of today were the informal lecture from Stephanie Brumsey and when we had to find the lede to the story of Red Riding Hood.
Stephanie Brumsey gave us a blunt, yet real glimpse into the life of journalism from her perspective coming from a troubling background and being a woman of color. It gave me hope and an actuality of what I have in store.
The Red Riding Hood lede was fun and hard. I remember many people throwing ledes in the chat of all sorts of scenarios, which I am victim to, as well. Though, it was fun battling through all the headlines we thought were ledes and figuring out how easy and simple it is to create a lede, especially off of a story we all know so well. Lastly, we got into our groups and were immediately beginning off well, with everything figured out.
Today started off well. Stephanie Brumsey was an amazing speaker and I really enjoyed hearing her story! However, I was sad because my camera would not turn on at all, but I stayed engaged and tried to participate when I could.
I also finalized my profile with Paul Schreiber and made it sound more concise. I also got my group. Arielle seems like a very fun coach. I also worked on my paint with diamonds project throughout the day. I will share a picture of it soon.
Hopefully, by the end of the week it’ll be done! Kind of like a Greene side project!
