Procrastination, Procrastination...

It's been entirely too long since my last blog, so here I am.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot done for my story over Thanksgiving break. Partially because I was busy doing some stuff with my family and mostly because I simply wasn't feeling it.

But now, I'm back to reality and I'm in crunch time. I feel safe in saying that my sidebar piece is done, minus a few changes (hopefully), that way I can put my entire focus on my main piece. Our teacher told us before break it'd be a good idea to turn in a rough draft of our main story on Wednesday, which is fine except for the fact I haven't started!

I know you're probably saying, "Wow, she need's to get moving!" Trust me, I know. Even though I haven't started with my main story, doesn't mean I haven't put any thought behind it, because I have! Woo, go me!

I think I'm going to split my story up into five different sections, but I don't want to tell you what each section will be about, because then it wouldn't be a surprise! So you have to wait a couple weeks for the final piece.

Now, I need to go write my first draft. Ta-ta for now. Wish me luck!

"It's a Journey."

"Wow."

That was the one thing I could say to myself after my interview with the Flint Hills Job Corps student. I went in there not really knowing what to expect, but I came out with a girl's life's story. I'll tell you about the interview in a minute but I just want to make note of something real quick: isn't it fascinating the different stories/lives people have. This interview and my visit to Job Corps made me realize just how much, or I guess how less, I deal with diversity in my life. So, this was a nice way of showing me that I need to put myself out there more often, even if I am uncomfortable at first.

After that quick thought, let me tell you how the interview went. I met with this 17 year-old girl who is a culinary student at the Flint Hills Job Corps. We first started talking about her background, like why she is at Job Corps, why she chose culinary, etc. Then, I asked the simple question, "What has been your best experience at Job Corps?" She excitedly responded by saying, "The state test for the G.E.D." This was the kind of success story I was looking for, but she quickly went on to say, "Well... the journey to taking the state test." Now, I don't want to give away the journey she went on to tell me about, you'll have to wait and read my sidebar for that, but let me tell you, it's going to be worth waiting and reading it. It's really powerful and I was so thankful for her to opening up with me about one of the worst experiences in her life.

After the interview, she asked if I'd send her the final piece and a copy of the video (I recorded the entire interview), and I gladly said, "yes." If she could open up to me about a horrible thing that happened to her, the least I could do was send her the finished piece.

I did finish a first draft of my sidebar and am still waiting to hear what my teacher thought of it. It was so hard to write, which hopefully you all will see when you read it in the future, but after I was done, I felt proud of myself for handling an issue this big.

P.s. Incase you didn't know... Life's a Journey.

Facing the Challenges

Let's start with some good news! I have finished my multimedia for my Job Corps piece. I decided to do a Google map of all the different Job Corps centers in the United States and Puerto Rico. I think it looks really cool now that it's finished, but let me tell ya, it sure took a long time to find all those places on the map and then separate them all into the different Job Corps center regions. My other multimedia piece is a wordle. For this I decided to directly link the wordle with Job Corps Fraud Blog website. It's filled with words that are used the most on their site. It'd be interesting to compare that with a wordle from the official Job Corps website. Maybe I'll do that just for fun and see the differences...

Anyhoo, I still haven't been able to meet with the Job Corps student, but I'm supposed (not getting my hopes up at this point) to be getting a rental car this afternoon and I've scheduled to go to the Flint Hills Job Corps tomorrow afternoon for the interview. Hopefully all goes well for this, because this might be my final interview  I need for my story. Unless, of course, I want more later... but probably not.

Also, I called the guy working at the Department of Labor and had an, uh, interesting interview with him. After about ten minutes of tense conversation, he decided to tell me he doesn't work directly for Job Corps anymore, like I thought he did. Not only did I feel stupid, but I'm sure he saw it as a major waste of his time, too. Oh well, what can you do? I was going to try and call someone who actually works for Job Corps this week, so I'll keep you updated on that.

I'm feeling kind of behind, since I don't even have my sidebar done, but hopefully with my Flint Hills Job Corps student interview, I can get that knocked out of the park and put all my focus on the main piece!

"Iceberg! Straight Ahead!"

The past few days have been a roller coaster, to say the least.

On my way to go interview the Flint Hills Job Corps student, I got in a car accident and am now without a car for a little while. It's weird how one minute you can be super excited for something and then the next your emotions are a complete mess. That's kind of what happened this weekend. That's life though, huh? Now my challenge is trying to find a way over to Job Corps to get this interview I'm supposed to already have. Oy vey!

In happier news, I've heard back from another person I can interview for my story. He's a reporter for a newspaper in New York and has been covering his local Job Corps for a little over six years, so I'm sure he'll have some good things to tell me.

One thing that has surprised me throughout this process is how badly people want their story to be heard. It's funny that people love to talk about themselves and their stories. I personally love it from a journalistic perspective.. it makes my job much easier!

Here's to finishing up my interviews before Thanksgiving!

Good Things Come in Twos!

I can't believe it's been over a week since my last post. I found myself sitting at the computer doing research and remembered I must continue on my blogging adventure! I wouldn't want any of my adoring fans to get upset because my blog stopped, so the show must go on.

Anyways, I received two forms of good news today. First off, I got confirmation from a Flint Hills Job Corps student to go ahead and come interview her tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to hearing about her story and what she thinks of Job Corps. This would be a great way to make a local-connection in my Job Corps story. Not only will it be my first in-person interview with an actual Job Corps student, but it will be my first time ever going inside a Job Corps center. So, hopefully the interview goes well and I get loads of information from her that I can use in my story. Heck, while I'm there, I might even try and meet with the Director of the Flint Hills Job Corps Center while I'm there... you know, if he has spare time for someone like me. We'll see..

My other good news that I received was in the form of an email. In my last post I mentioned that I needed to start getting in contact with experts to interview for my piece. Well, it took a few days and a couple email reminders later, but I got my first response today from Brian Kennedy, the Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Labor. WOOOO! I'm really excited to call him next week (that's the next available time for him to talk) and see if I can get some good responses from him. I have a feeling he'll have a lot to say..

I'll be sure to post a follow-up blog on how these two interviews go and talk about my findings. To be continued...