J.A.C.C.

Hello to all. This weekend was the Journalism Association of Community Colleges event in SoCal. Here's how it went down, for me at least.

Friday:

12:00 p.m: Drive and park at Marriott. Agnes, Cami, and Liz arrived at the same time. At this point, everyone else is wrapping up breakfast at Denny's (I didn't get the memo, but it's OK. I don't have money to spend on 99% grease).

12:30 p.m: Register for the event. Received credentials from Toni, our motivating adviser, and hung around like a monkey.

1 p.m: Team Feature orientation. It was crowded as heck. Ron Fu ended up being my partner instead of Raul, which was cool with me because I think both of them are awesome photographers.

Team Feature is a competition that requires both a writer (me) and photographer (Ron) to go out and find a features story, one that generates human interest or something that could be an in-depth profile.

We had until 7 p.m. to have a story and the next morning I would have to write the story, using only my notes.

1-2 p.m: Me and Ron are frantically trying to find a story. Our first story we had in mind was a Pastor that was at CSU Fullerton that day. The pastor, along with a couple of other advisers and students, were having a social gathering called "Bible over Hambugers." If it isn't obvious, they were bbquing some good smellin' hamburgers while going over bible passages.

I ended up discovering another, more interesting person that was there. He was a suicide counselor who ended up saving the lives of 25 students. Unfortunately, with journalism being a dog-eat-dog world, someone swooped my story while I was interviewing the pastor. I was mad because it was so obvious that Ron and I were there first, but some mother umfer ended up Cawk blockin' my story. I got over it though.

Ron found something else. A student mother playing with her daughter at the Campus Quad. Not only did it make for a good story, but the picture that Ron took was nice because the mom and daughter were playing in a pile of leaves. Luckily, Ron talked her into the interview because she was really hesitant.

2 p.m: We search for more sources. Perhaps another student who knows someone else who is a mother and who could share how they view their friends' experience being a student mother. We wanted to find a social science professor who might provide insight on what a student mother is going through. We wanted to find a counselor who could tell us how they help counsel student mothers.

Mission failed.

With it being a Friday, no one was really on campus. So yeah, I was bummed out because I wanted more sources to make my story more credible. Plus the students there were really young or really ANTI social that day. I guess I scare them or something =/

3 p.m: Ran into a grandfather pushing his grand daughter's stroller around the campus while his daughter was taking a graduate exam. Asked him if he wanted an interview. He declined. Asked him if his daughter would give me a call. She never called.

3:32 p.m: Ran into a bummed out James Choy, our sports editor. He was wandering around trying to scope some workshops. He informed us that everyone was at the Off-Campus Pub. The three of us walk back to the Marriott.

4:00 p.m: We are tired, but morale was high. Hung out with the rest of the Mounties at the pub while watching them play pool. It was refreshing to see everyone and have them encourage us =D Me and Ron ended up grabbin' a bite before we went back to school.

5:00 p.m: Went back to the Marriott to park and walked on the campus. Walked to the student center. Hopefully, we can find sources.

Ran into an alumni who recently got her master's in finance. She was playing with her daughter. SCORE! I got a few good quotes from her and we were done.

6 p.m: After walking about two blocks, we are now at the communications building waiting outside and mingling amongst the other students.

7 p.m: Ron drops in the photo to the computer after his edits. Gave each other a high five and left.

That night, after hanging out with my roomies, I started to write the lead of the story. I was feeling good about it.

----the next day.
5:50 a.m: wake up!

6:45 a.m: started to drive to the Marriott so I could go to my writing lab.

7:05 a.m: Running to the student center because I was late!!! Yeeep. Then finally, I get there. Ron informs me that we have a problem. Our picture didn't print!!! Yeeep. No need to panic. I sat down and wrote my story for a good hour. Got an encouraging smile from Toni, who was also proctering. Then headed to watch Huell Howser speak for the news/opinion/cartoon/news photo competition. Went back home to sleep.

12:55 p.m: Get a wake up call from Watchara. Tells me to get ready so we could go back to the event. I wasn't planning on going back because I was beat, but he told me Karen Tapia Anderson from the L.A. Times had a workshop so I wanted to go.

It was a motivating workshop. That woman has some awesome photos.

At this point, I lost track of time. We went to BJ's to meet with the rest of the crew who was of course supportive and HAPPY to see Watchara.

So the event was a real good experience. I wish I got to hang out with the rest of the crew more, but since we were walking around the whole time trying to find a story, I didn't get to hang out.

Me and Ron ended up winning second place for our feature story/photo and I was so happy because it showed that all the walking we did and rejection we took paid off in the end!

Here's an example of another feature story I wrote for our campus newspaper. Click the link below:

Norma Vazquez