A true Life Long Learner

Imagine going to college for twenty years? Thats about how long Ive been alive ! Well one Ohio State student named Marohane Hawkins did just that. iI was sitting in my political science class when my profesor asked Ms. Hawkins to give her opinion on a topic we were discussing. I knew she was older than most of the students in class, however when she announced she was 85 years old you could hear gasp from everyone in the course. It was as if a story had flown right into my lap. I knew I had to find out more about Ms. Hawkins, and tell her story to the world, or at least to the OSU Community.
I found out that at 85 years old Ms. Hawkins was vibrant , and as eager as ever to learn. She explained the journey that her life entailed, and why education was so important to her, and her family. I also learned that through an OSU program called Program 60 she had been coming to classes for twenty years. Program 60 is a program where senior citizens can attend classes , but not for credit, depending on avaliable seats and approval from a professor. She was not ashamed to show her OSU pride either. Several interviews you could find Ms. hawkins decked out in buckeye necklaces, with an OSU hate, swaetshirt, and lunch box to match.
Spending time with Ms. Hawkins made me realize how valueable getting an education was. She spoke about how when she was young African Americans were not encouraged to go to college and further their education, which is one of the reasons she did not attend college immediately.
Howevre, seeing how interested she was in the subject matter, and learning more made me realize that education is something that I should take a lot more seriously. I was honored to get to speak with her and hear her story, she was very pleasant to converse with. I do not know if I could attend school for 20 years so I commend Ms. Hawkins on her abilty to do so! This story should be an interesting read.

New Things .....

I was feeling rather upset abotu some unfortunate turns in this course. Among all the chaos, I was begining to doubt my ability as a writer but I am feeling great as of now. I am begining to really look into what I am doing incorrect as a writer, and making an honest effort to correct these mistkes. I am in the middle of writing three great profile stories that I feel will be great. Wish me luck...

Exhausted...

Well its about that mid point during the quarter where I am just so over worked. Like most of my peers I am a full-time student and have two part-time jobs. I am pulling in a lot oh hours for each, which leaves little room for sleep these days. Even among all the chaos of such a hectic life I am still finding a away to incorporate journalism. Its weird that about 70 percent of my day is spent writing a story, thinking of an idea about a story or interviewing for a story. I am currently working on three projects at the moment, which include two profile stories , and the issue story that is due for Comm 422. I am doing all of this while constantly thinking about not only a feature story idea , but how Im going to incorporate multimedia. I know its a lot , but someone has to do it!!!

Issue Story has finally come....

I usually don't have much problem coming up with a story ideas, but with this issue idea I found that I was simply stumped. I eventually got my idea thorough examining the problems that I face as a college student. One issue that stuck out like a sore thumb in my academic life,and other students have expressed the same concern is Free Printing. Printing papers becomes a hassle for me personally as a journalism student because I have papers due usually every week.Unfortunately, this can become a serious financial burden when there are few to no free printing resources on campus, and I am forced to put money on my buck id, or find another avenues. I also found that several stuents were dishearted when they looked to find the annual $5 that is put on each student's buck id was not given this year. So, I feel that this is a serious issue, that needs to be addressed.

Not in a good Mood......

The last profile story I think was OK. I do not think that I deserved the grade I received, but I guess I'll just have to do better next time. I do believe that writing can be very subjective, and at times I do not agree with most edits because the way I write may not be one person's style and vice versa.
So obviously my grade and some of the unnecessary tedious work that I feel we have to do for this course at times bothers me, and I wonder how would I handle this when I get an actual job as a journalist.
However, no matter how upset I may be right now or in the future I always try to stay grounded in the fact that I must become a great journalist. So no matter how many tiny mistakes I feel do not validate a particuliar grade , or how I may disagree with some of the assignments and their relevance I know that eventually I will become better for it.

Meeting Story blah blah blah..

Well unfortuntely I am not too enthusiastic about writng my meeting story. Hopefully I can get more excited about soon. I am writing my meeting story about The Black Student Association meeting, which will take place this Thursday Oct.14 from 7-9pm. I think the problem that I am having is how to make this story interesting without simply telling exatly what occured at the meeting. I think that because meetings arent really all that fun , and can sometimes be tedious and boring that this will be a challenge.However, I plan to do my best and produce an excellent story.

Profile Story

Well with the help of my classmates I chose to do my profile story on Erin Johnson.
I enjoyed writing the article but of course I am my biggest critic and before I could put the final period on my last statement I could already see problematic issues with my article.
I must have read it over a thousand times becuase before I ever check grammar, punctuation or AP style I want to make sure that my article has a flow.
You know when you read an article and every paragragh seems to so seamlessly trail the last .
I think that is crucial in any article you read because even if everything else is perfect , without a flow, no one will be able to understand your paper.
I had a hard time doing that with this article. I found that I rearranged paragraghs several times, yet I could not be satisfied.
I am slowly but surely getting over my fear of editing so I really am hoping that the four other eyes could see what I missed.
I also think that I needed to be a lot more descriptive of Erin in my profile piece this would help grasp my readers attention more.
I hope I did okay with grammar and AP style because it seems like no matter what I always miss something.
Overall I am pretty happy with my article, but I know that it can reach its full potential through a lot more editing.

In between two Stories for Profile Idea

There is always news going on, and I guess now I have fallen victim to this truth because I am torn between two very great profile stories, that I think are both important.
The first profile if I chose to write about it would be a story about a young lady named Erin Johnson. Johnson iis asenior at Ohio State ,who has single-handedly been able to launch her own accredited news magazine that is targeted to young adults in Central Ohio. The title of this magazine is called Back Talk. She is essentially the editor in chief, the writer, the reporter, the accountant, etc. At such a young age, and also jiggling school and work this is a great acomplishment.
The other story that I feel is just as important is about an organization that has just begun activity on campus this quarter. I do not have the exact name as of yet, but this organization collects books from OSU and surrounding areas and sends them to Africa .