MY STORIES: 

• James Jackson III and ACCEL help black-owned businesses in Salt Lake City
• Ogden resident Stanley Ellington enjoys helping the community
• Black Student Union at the University of Utah helps students connect

MY BLOG:

Intermediate reporting was not what I was expecting; students are expected to work in a real-world environment. This class pushed me to work more on my writing skills because I thought I knew how to write. But it taught me how to be more conscious on articles I wrote. Writing is an art like the title of the book says for this class and like most arts people have to practice at it. At the beginning of the semester I was a little nervous because it had been a while since I wrote an article. I learned that I can handle pressure and deadlines and this class showed me that I can really pull this off.

My beat was the African-American community and I learned a lot from the people I interviewed and in some cases I related to them. Stanley Ellington was one of our guest speakers for the class and while he was introducing himself he said something I related to. He said whenever he talked on the phone people would think he was from California, that he was from the ghetto, when in reality he’s from Alabama.

When people ask me where I’m from I answer I’m from Los Angeles and people assume that I come from the worst part of the city. I learned just to be patient and just explain to those people where I come from and not get mad or upset. Also what I learned from my beat is that it doesn’t matter if one is or belongs to a minority group you can still succeed in life regardless of your ethnicity.

ABOUT ME:

My name is Gustabo Rodriguez. I’m from Los Angeles and I moved to Salt Lake when I was 15 years old. I graduated from Granger High School in West Valley City. I lived there throughout my sophomore and junior years, but moved to Kearns in my senior year. In high school I knew what I wanted to study in college and that was communication.

When I enrolled at Salt Lake Community College that was my choice and here I am today. So right after high school in 2008 I attended SLCC (the Taylorsville campus) and graduated in the spring of 2011. I transferred to the University of Utah that fall.

I like watching and playing sports — basketball, soccer, baseball and football. Being from Los Angeles, I’m a big Lakers fan. My baseball team is the Angels. I don’t really follow the MLS but I follow the Mexican soccer league where my team is at and they are called Monarcas Morelia. Football I would have to go with the San Diego Chargers because Los Angeles doesn’t have a team.

I like any kind of music as long as it’s catchy I don’t have any favorite type of song, genre, or artist. That is one of the ways I could relax after a long day or even a long week. Action and comedy movies for me are the best and I always enjoy them.

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MY STORIES:

• Utah’s Black Chamber of Commerce and ACCEL helping African American businesses and the Utah economy

• Interracial marriage acceptance is on the rise

• Salt Lake City’s CHOICE Humanitarian, helping African communities

Taken at Alexa Wells home January 1, 2013. Photo by Jill Wells.

MY BLOG:

Over the course of my Spring 2013 Intermediate reporting class, I learned a lot about the African American community. I found it interesting to learn about all of the different organizations that help spread diversity in Utah. With Utah being 1.3 percent African American, I think it is important to have these organizations to give resources for those individuals. This beat reporting has helped my professional development by making me more aware of my style of writing. I have learned how to be more accurate and why it is important to include links in my stories to back up the facts. I have also learned how much a photo can help your story by making it more interesting by having a visual with the words. During this class I have learned why it is so important to remain objective in my writing. It is easy to come off as biased, so I have learned how to word my stories so that I am not including my own opinion. It was difficult to remain objective at first, especially when I am writing about a nonprofit organization, because I find myself wanting to tell my readers how great it is. Instead, I have learned to show my audience how great the organization is by explaining the different things that they are doing to make it great instead of just telling  them. In the end, showing compared to telling my audience how they should feel about my beat makes for a much stronger piece.

ABOUT ME:

My name is Alexa Wells and I am 20 years old. I was born and raised in Salt Lake City. I am a junior at the University of Utah and I am studying mass communication with an emphasis in journalism. For the past three years I have worked at Wells Fargo bank as a teller. My goal is to graduate and get a job working for a local news station and work in broadcast journalism. In my spare time I like to snowboard, hike and read books. Spring semester of 2013 I have been a student journalist for Voices of Utah for my intermediate reporting class. I hope to get an internship for a news station next fall and continue to improve my writing skills.

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MY STORIES:

• University of Utah students focus on diversity in innovation
• Shades of grey: complexity of African-American voices on gun control
• Redefining success for African-American college students

MY BLOG:

As my time with the Voices of Utah comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what it has meant to me.

First of all, when I came into Voices of Utah, I was told that I would be covering the African-American beat. To be honest this made me a bit uncomfortable. Not that I had anything against African-Americans personally. Some would say I was mildly racist but really it was more uncomfortably ignorant. That kind of thing happens when you grow up living in a town of 50,000 people with only three African-Americans. I could always be outwardly genial but I was quietly uncomfortable when I spoke with them. I just didn’t know what to do. I think it was just growing up being constantly told not to be racist toward people of different ethnicities instead of being told how to be their friend. I knew what I was not supposed to do. And there were a lot of things I was very good at not saying, but that didn’t help me with my interviews because now I actually had to do something.

I had to interview them.

I had to talk.

And it turned out to not be so hard.

In fact, that’s how I met Ennis. Ennis is a 50-year-old man who is going to the same university as I, who happened to live in a neighboring apartment complex. I spoke with him at times as he would pass me on the playground that sits between our two complexes. It was usually brief, but through that I found that we had a common background of having served in the military. I also found that he was quite pleasant, very smart, and fun to talk with.

But the most revealing thing for me was when I got the chance to interview him for a piece written for Voices of Utah about University of Utah student innovators. During the course of the interview he mentioned something that floored me. He said I was the only person who had come to visit him in the entire time that he had been there. This deeply upset me. By this time I had known him for several months and knew there was not a reason to not like him and to not be neighborly. In addition, there were many other of my white friends whom I considered very extroverted. Were they just like me, only being friendly to those who they most easily identified with?

I don’t know.

But it made me wonder if in a world obsessed with political correctness defined by copious checklists of things not to do, maybe we focus on our to-do list more.

And the first thing on mine?

Be good to my neighbors.

ABOUT ME:

I am currently a student at the University of Utah studying Chinese and employed as a member of the Utah Army National Guard.

I earned a Bachelor’s of Science from Brigham Young University-Idaho in University Studies with an emphasis in Military Science.

My experience in the Army National Guard has allowed me opportunities to build small-group leadership experience. It allowed me to organize and conduct small and large group training sessions; practice accountability for personnel and equipment; support, follow and implement the policies of officers; suggest and implement forward-thinking and pro-active policies; and to practice maturity, leadership and professionalism.

My experience as a student journalist has helped hone these skills and expand my vision.

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MY STORIES:

• My headline here

MY BLOG:

ABOUT ME:

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Photo of Alysha Nemeschy taken April 2013.

MY STORIES:

• Two local organizations help black business owners in Utah
• Using genetics to debunk racism
• University of Utah offers organizations for African Americans

MY BLOG:

As a student journalist writing for Voices of Utah, I have had the opportunity to learn more about myself and my community in one short semester than I have throughout my entire college career.

Reporting on the African American beat in Utah brought me to the realization that minorities are very underreported in the media and it us up to the next generation of journalists to bring this underreporting to an end.

Learning that Utah is made up of a 1 percent African American community got me thinking about the other minorities in the state that account for only a small population and in turn often go unnoticed.

As a feminist I have spent many years striving toward bringing equality toward genders – yet this still leaves me as a journalist, focusing on a very small minority group.

Writing on the African American beat has showed me that people throughout the world are being underreported. It is not just women or African Americans who do not get covered, but it is an entire population being suppressed in the media due to the lack of coverage that we receive.

Social-justice issues are scattered throughout the world, and as a journalist it is important to shed light on these issues and bring social awareness to audiences.

After reporting for Voices of Utah, I would like to continue to focus on bringing political and social awareness about civil issues to audiences as I continue on my journey as a writer.

ABOUT ME:

I graduated from the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Science degree in International Relations in May 2013. In August 2013, I will be completing two additional Bachelor of Science degrees: Political Science, and Mass Communication with an emphasis in Journalism.

In spring 2013 I was a student journalist for Voices of Utah. Additionally I completed an internship as an opinion columnist for The Daily Utah Chronicle.

My love for interacting with people landed me a job with Delta Airlines when I was 18. Working for this company led me on my global journey to understanding the world through travel.

My passion for education and traveling has brought me on an exciting journey with a broad sense of knowledge in many different areas. I believe that global education and understanding is one of the most vital necessities to bringing peace to this world.

Upon completing school I would like to continue writing as a freelance journalist while traveling the world and spreading awareness about human rights.

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MY STORIES:

• The Salt Lake City LGBT community wants equal rights
• When it comes to the University of Utah, pride has no borders
• Berlin Schlegel takes the good with the bad

MY BLOG:

When I first began reporting on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender beat, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I hadn’t actually taken the time to get to know anyone who is lesbian or gay. Reporting on the topic helped me have an open mind towards the beat. Coming from a Catholic family with strong religious beliefs I always thought that the LGBT community would never affect me or be a part of my life.

At first I thought to myself, how am I going to do this?

Will I be able to report on the topic without adding my own opinion?

How will this benefit my career as a journalist?

As I began brainstorming my first article I wasn’t sure where I was going with it. I found sources and I wrote down some questions. As I conducted my interviews I realized that reporting on the LGBT community was better than I imagined. It opened my views towards people who are lesbian or gay and it helped me realize that they are just regular people who want to have equal rights.

I began my interview with a lesbian couple from Logan. As I interviewed them, I realized that they were just like any other couple I had met. They had life goals, a home, regular jobs, they were full time students — the only thing that was different was that they don’t have the opportunity to have equal rights, like any straight person in Utah does.

This made me want to learn more about the LGBT community, it made me want to participate in events and offer my help in any way that I could. Living with a person who is gay also helped open my views towards the beat. I loved that I had someone to directly go to to ask questions when I didn’t understand what someone said or what the issues were with receiving equal rights.

The fact that we had to report on only one beat was nice. I loved that I was able to do a follow-up story on one of the sources I had interviewed. I liked getting to know the new people, getting to know their environment and understanding their sexual orientation.

This beat helped improve my professional development as a journalist because it taught me not to judge people by their cover. It taught me that no matter what your sexual orientation may be, everyone should be treated equally and as a journalist it helped me understand the life of the source I was reporting about. I learned to report without choosing a side. I learned to look at both sides of the story.

I am very grateful for the opportunity I had. Being able to report for the LGBT community helped build me as a better person. I met multiple people who are some of the most interesting humans that I have met. To be honest, I would like to continue getting involved in the LGBT community. Reporting for them helped me realize that they do deserve equal rights and that something needs to be done.

ABOUT ME:

I attended Utah State University Eastern in Price, Utah, during 2010-2012, where I studied communications and took general courses. My original intent was to study cosmetology and after a year I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted, it was what my parents wanted. I enrolled in a media writing class where I was introduced to The Eagle newspaper and that is when I fell in love with journalism. I wrote many different articles, such as profiles, news, sports and on some occasions opinions.

I continued writing for The Eagle newspaper during those two years. My sophomore year I was chosen to be the features editor on the staff, where I became proficient in InDesign and Photoshop.

I transferred to the University of Utah in August 2012, where I continue working on my associate’s degree and began my communications major. My current writing is published on Voices of Utah.

My goals for the future are to continue my education until I receive my masters’ degree and pursue a career in broadcasting. I plan on leaning toward news broadcasting, although I am interested in sports broadcasting as well.

My dream job is to be a news anchor on the Hispanic channel, Univision. Growing up I always watched the women on the news and imagined myself in their position.

Journalism allows me to express myself in ways that I haven’t been able to before. I love being able to interview new people, learn about their lives, showcase them through photography and inform my audience about the subject.

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MY STORIES:

• The University of Utah plans to update transgender housing policy
• Salt Lake City group of drag queens is changing the scene 
• Salt Lake City band RaeRe combines soul with folk music

MY BLOG:

Covering the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender beat this semester has opened my eyes to a variety of things. Through my outside story about housing, I stumbled across a unique focus of contrasting the University of Utah’s transgender housing policies with the rest of the Pac-12 schools listed in Campus Pride’s Top 25 LGBT-friendly universities. Once I finished this story, I realized how beneficial it is to be aware of all the different focuses a story can have.

This epiphany helped me choose an interesting angle for my Pride Week story on a unique group of drag queens in Salt Lake City. I initially intended to profile someone participating in the U’s Pride Week drag show, but as I got to know my source, my story blossomed into a larger picture. Not only was Tanner Crawford, also known as Klaus von Austerlitz, breaking the stereotype of a drag queen, but he was also part of a larger group of queens who shared the same non-traditional vision. The Bad Kids, as they call themselves, are breaking the stereotype that drag queens are all about glamorous makeup and high heels. I found that not only in my Pride Week story were stereotypes being broken, but most people in the gay community don’t fit into the preconceived notions people from outside of their community have imposed on them.

This supported my moral belief that the gay community is not a separate entity of our society. Instead, individuals are simply trying to live their lives day to day just as straight people try to do. The in-class interviews with Brandie Balken and Kai Medina-Martínez also reiterated the importance of acceptance because there is no difference between the gay and straight community but a minuscule detail of sexual expression and orientation.

Despite my strong beliefs, I found it relatively easy to remain objective when writing my stories. I used only the information my research and interviews gave me and was careful not to editorialize anything. This benefitted me as a journalist because I’ve practiced removing myself from the issues and only telling the story with the facts at hand. I am also familiar with how to steer clear of words or phrases that may infuse my opinions, and that will help me cover stories that may be about issues I don’t agree with. Journalism is about remaining unbiased, and I feel I have a good amount of experience to consistently uphold that value.

ABOUT ME:

I am a sophomore planning on graduating in 2014 with a bachelor of arts degree in mass communication.

I have been working at the Daily Utah Chronicle as a photographer since August 2011, specifically shooting sports photos. I have written stories for the Chronicle as well, ranging from a feature about Battle of the Bands to a profile of the Women’s Resource Center. My dream is to be a photojournalist where I can specialize in sports and band photography, and write some feature stories every now and again.

I love spending time in the mountains hiking and photographing nature and wildlife. Snowboarding, reading comic books and playing softball and guitar are some of my hobbies.

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MY STORIES: 

• Utah Pride Festival unites community
• Safe-zones create inclusive environment, safe space to be in
• LGBT youth become homeless for many reasons

MY BLOG:

My time in this class has been interesting. We were assigned the LGBT beat for our stories this semester, which I thought was an amazing gift from the gods of reporting.

That was the unofficial beat at the Daily Utah Chronicle, the student newspaper I write for. Each chance I got to report on and share stories from the LGBTQ+ community, I did little backflips in my mind.

However, after a short talk with my editor at the Chrony, I was told that I should refrain from covering LGBTQ+ stories, because I would insert small editorializing thoughts and implications into my stories.

In short, I was more than thrilled to be required to cover the LGBTQ+ community. But looking back on things, it could have been a double-edged sword. I never got to experience something I wasn’t familiar with and I was never forced to do research before starting a story. I already had several connections, so I never got practice in contacting sources for my stories.

The issues the LGBTQ+ community faces are often described as the new “big war,” and are compared with racial and sexual equality struggles over the history of our country. Through the years, media have been more and more involved with covering aspects of this community as they fight for equal rights and to have their voices heard.

That is the job of the media, especially to us reporters. We are, first and foremost, storytellers. It is our duty to share our experiences with the world from an objective standpoint. In a way, our responsibilities as journalists are very similar to a camera’s duty of taking a picture. We capture an event in its entirety and without any editorial input.

I have my own political beliefs and also my own ethical and moral compass. This beat intertwined very closely with those, as I was often talking to and working with people who shared my beliefs in certain aspects of the world and how it should work.

It was difficult to remain objective; I won’t lie about that fact. From a very early age, I was involved with and an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. The issues the LGBTQ+ community faces are very dear to me, and it’s hard to keep yourself unbiased when you’re involved with something you feel a great passion for.

A funny story about working this particular beat is from a conversation I had with my editor at the Chrony. She told me she noticed that I had a problem with objectivity when it came to the LGBTQ+ community. That was hard for me to hear, and I was even put on an unofficial probation (mostly at my request) from writing about this community. As I said earlier, this proved to be a double-edged sword when it came time to cover the LGBTQ+ community for this class. I dealt with my personal thoughts and feelings by having a lot of different people read my story and tell me if it sounded 100 percent objective, without any implications or subliminal messages.

I learned a lot about my career goals and myself this semester. Through an event unrelated to this class, I discovered that my dream of being a sports reporter wasn’t as golden as I thought it to be. I’d much rather be a reporter on a beat for crime or ethical/moral issues, to share stories of people who need their stories shared.

ABOUT ME:

When I first came to the University of Utah, I declared myself as a computer science student working toward a degree that emphasized on entertainment arts and engineering (video game design and computer animation).

It wasn’t until I got a job writing for the hockey club here (the Skatin’ Utes) that I decided journalism might be a better career path to follow. Once I got into that field, I totally fell in love. I loved being in the middle of something that was happening and being able to share with people my experience. I loved being a storyteller.

I don’t plan on graduating in the immediate future, as I’m only in my second year here. My ideal job is to be a reporter for the Boston Bruins hockey club in Boston, Massachusetts. If I work there, I would be more on the PR side, working closely with the team and coaches and putting out stories for the fans of the team.

If I don’t end up in that particular sports field, I would prefer to be doing beat writing for a local paper here, on any beat I can get. I’m on the lookout for internships and guest writing jobs.

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MY STORIES :

• LGBT organizations continually work toward equality in Utah
• The importance of allies in the LGBT community
• pinkdot events come to Utah, by way of Singapore

MY BLOG:

I was covering a segment of the Salt Lake City population that I knew little about. The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is flourishing, more now than ever, within the confines of a religiously oppressive and overly conservative state. In order to discover the factors that contributed to this surprising actuality, I decided to immerse myself in the culture by attending events and talking to organization leaders within the LGBT community.

I started by telling friends what I was assigned to cover, and I’ve got some lesbian and gay friends. They gave me plenty of ideas for topics to cover, but most importantly, they directed me to a coffee shop downtown that is a safe haven for LGBT people to gather and interact. After looking into it, I found out that it was called Café Marmalade and its building also housed the Utah Pride Center.

With the task of coming up with my own story ideas, and being new to journalism altogether, I knew this would be the place to start my adventure.

I was nervous.

I navigated my way through unfamiliar territory, on the west side of downtown, to find Café Marmalade. With horrible experiences in downtown parking in the past, I pulled into an unmarked spot in the parking lot next to the building uncertainly. I got out of my car with almost no plan at all, and made my way toward the building, full of apprehension.

Little did I know, I was about to experience journalism in its truest form for the first time ever and I would love it. The butterflies in my stomach would disappear and I would suddenly know that I was meant for this.

When I walked into the LGBT coffee shop as a straight person, I could almost feel a hush fall over the room. Friendly baristas and a professional and courteous staff at the Utah Pride Center led me to the person I needed to talk to.

Valerie Larabee, the director of the Utah Pride Center, graciously sat down with me for my first ever one-on-one, in-person interview over coffee.

This was the first step on a path that exposed another side of the community that I never would have known without this beat. I connected with neighbors, friends and colleagues along the way. I wanted a better understanding of a segment of the community, and they wanted to be better understood.

The discovery of a mutually beneficial relationship between reporter and interviewee deepened my passion for journalism this semester.  I realized the importance and power of reporting the news and I will continue to wield it.

ABOUT ME:

I have always loved sports, and I have always been told that I have a talent for writing. Those things have led me to where I am today, pursuing journalism at the University of Utah. I’m focusing on sports because that’s my passion, but I’m writing about anything and everything that comes my way. In my brief career, I’ve already gained a wealth of worldly knowledge and become a more rounded individual. My passion for journalism continues to grow as I dive deeper and deeper into reporting. Working full time, studying full time and writing full time for the Daily Utah Chronicle combined to create a chaotic life lately, but I love the experience. If only I could still find time to ski.

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MY STORIES:

MY BLOG:

ABOUT ME:

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