MY STORIES:

• Ski programs molding better lives for those living in Salt Lake City’s west-side communities
• Food is as diverse as people in Salt Lake City’s west side
• Some businesses remain closed while others attempt to brave the COVID-19 storm in Salt Lake City’s west side

MY BLOG:

A few things that I can really take away from my community involvement this semester is the level of passion that I’ve discovered that members of the west-side community hold in regards for others, as well as my own developing passion for reporting. One of the people I interviewed and probably my favorite person I’ve ever interviewed was Juan Gilberto Rejon, also known as “Coach Juan.”

Coach Juan has a level of passion for children of the community like none I’ve ever seen. The man spends every waking minute of his life working to better the lives of the underserved on the west side of Salt Lake City. His programs aimed at getting children involved in the outdoors and ultimately graduating from high school and moving on to college are his life’s work. He’s even bankrupted himself several times giving resources to people who needed it most, always putting others before himself. I had a really fun time interviewing him and learned a lot about what he does. I also learned much about myself as a reporter.

I realized that I’m often better at talking to people than I give myself credit for, and I really enjoy doing so. I was also pleasantly surprised by how willing most people were to talk when I asked them for an interview. They loved to tell their story, like when I interviewed families who owned ethnic food restaurants. People often want to share with you their thoughts, experiences, and projects, and are very helpful especially when it comes to finding more people to interview. “Oh, you have to talk to so-and-so,” or “Oh, please go here and talk to this person,” are phrases I heard often when interviewing my sources because a lot of them really care about their community and want people’s voices to be heard. It was inspiring.

Sometimes, it is in fact hard to remain objective, like when you are reporting about something you are genuinely excited about. This often results in you starting to write or report in an overly enthusiastic way that can sometimes over-hype the truth in certain ways.

This occurred, for instance, when I was writing about delicious, family-owned ethnic food places on the west side. Of course, when I went to the restaurants I tried the food. Some of it I thought tasted so good (because it did) that I started writing my original draft of the piece with a biased tone of admiration. I had to take a step back and put my taste buds aside and revise with a little more heightened sense of objectivity!

ABOUT ME:

I’m Martin Kuprianowicz. I’m an editor for SnowBrains as well as its Alta Ski Area reporter for the 2019-20 ski season. I’m an undergraduate at the University of Utah pursuing a degree in communication with an emphasis in journalism. I’m from Midland, Texas, and grew up skiing at a humble hill called Ski Apache in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

Filed under: Blogs & Bios, Student-Journalists |