The more and more I stay here, the more interesting these articles get to be.
I'm currently working on a couple of articles that bring Tech in light of the awesome things that they are doing.
Last week was a total waste of time. I was without a computer for a couple of days because ISD was replacing it with a better and faster machine. Additionally, we were shifting around the office layout to make things better to walk through.
In addition, in the middle of the week, I was unexpectedly summoned to go to a funeral for a family friend. Luckily, I got a bunch done that week. So far, I went to interview Dr. Newmark about the new technical communication journal called Xchange coming to New Mexico Tech. So far, that story is still a work in progress.
In other news, when my computer finally came, I was in charge of doing a couple of video editing projects. It was an interesting project.
I also locked myself out of the office with everything including my cell phone in the office. That really sucked. Otherwise, it was a learning experience--never leave your stuff in the office if you lose track of time.
I worked on an article about Chartwells and Student Affairs. The manager at Chartwells received an award that needed recognition and Brandon Samter, director of international and student exchange, was leaving to work for another college. It was pretty cool writing about something that was interesting.
So much for last week. It made up for itself for the stories I covered.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Learning from my mistakes...
Everyone is not perfect. There is one thing that I really enjoy about working here at the Public Information Office is honing down on my skill to write well and not be as so cursedly redundant with my articles.
One thing is for sure, I've been accustomed to writing long essays in which I repeat myself to get the point across in as many examples as possible. I also am accustomed to writing short sweet articles that get to the point. But nothing in between.
Thom gave me some interesting insight in my writing skills. He is a seasoned journalist and knows what is newsworthy or not. Just get to the point and get your meaning across.
Some of the work that I've worked on has been quite rough. But after letting it brew for a day, I come back with a better way to word everything. It takes a day and someone else to actually make progress on it. However frustrating this may be, it does work.
I go back and revise work and see what is needed or missing. Sometimes Thom consults my writing and then figures on how to make it sound better. There are many dimensions on how to make it sound less boring than it really is. (We aren't in the business of tabloid or sensational news.) We try to make it sound interesting to the reader.
Often-times, I understand who the audience is when I write these things. I write it for myself because if I were wondering what was happening on this campus, I want to know and share it with everyone else too.
One thing is for sure, I've been accustomed to writing long essays in which I repeat myself to get the point across in as many examples as possible. I also am accustomed to writing short sweet articles that get to the point. But nothing in between.
Thom gave me some interesting insight in my writing skills. He is a seasoned journalist and knows what is newsworthy or not. Just get to the point and get your meaning across.
Some of the work that I've worked on has been quite rough. But after letting it brew for a day, I come back with a better way to word everything. It takes a day and someone else to actually make progress on it. However frustrating this may be, it does work.
I go back and revise work and see what is needed or missing. Sometimes Thom consults my writing and then figures on how to make it sound better. There are many dimensions on how to make it sound less boring than it really is. (We aren't in the business of tabloid or sensational news.) We try to make it sound interesting to the reader.
Often-times, I understand who the audience is when I write these things. I write it for myself because if I were wondering what was happening on this campus, I want to know and share it with everyone else too.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Merritt Mine
Last week, Thom and I went to Merritt Mine. Part of my assignment was to take photos of the mine and ask questions. Phil Kozushko, an alumni and adjunct professor with Tech, took us on the excursion down to the mine.
Kozushko is a valuable resource for information and gave us a detailed histories surrounding the mine. There is so much information, I wish I had time to hear it all again. Thom took the job of interviewing him after the tour, while both Thom and I took pictures of the mine and the area around it.
Lets just say, I actually learned more about mining history, mining safety, and mining conditions while on the tour. Under claustrophobic conditions, a low ceiling, and no light, it was quite an impressive experience.
This time, we went on the tour to gather more information, ask questions, and elicit important facts from Kozushko to get the story. The intended reason why we went is to get a story out for him for promoting the mine. The silver mine was built in 1866 and closed in1895. It wasn't that profitable, but we learned about the history of the land behind New Mexico Tech campus.
His goal is to have it open up for alumni and anyone interested to view the mine. He also has a lot of artifacts from other mines in the area and is an expert on mine history--which is quite amazing.
In the end, I managed to survive a mine. There are many ways people can get hurt or killed because of the uncovered shafts and unsupported mine openings. That is how people who are adventurous or daring get themselves in serious trouble because they don't practice mine safety. Kozushko practices mine safety and is trying to maintain Merritt Mine and increase the safety for these tours.
Kozushko is a valuable resource for information and gave us a detailed histories surrounding the mine. There is so much information, I wish I had time to hear it all again. Thom took the job of interviewing him after the tour, while both Thom and I took pictures of the mine and the area around it.
Lets just say, I actually learned more about mining history, mining safety, and mining conditions while on the tour. Under claustrophobic conditions, a low ceiling, and no light, it was quite an impressive experience.
This time, we went on the tour to gather more information, ask questions, and elicit important facts from Kozushko to get the story. The intended reason why we went is to get a story out for him for promoting the mine. The silver mine was built in 1866 and closed in1895. It wasn't that profitable, but we learned about the history of the land behind New Mexico Tech campus.
His goal is to have it open up for alumni and anyone interested to view the mine. He also has a lot of artifacts from other mines in the area and is an expert on mine history--which is quite amazing.
In the end, I managed to survive a mine. There are many ways people can get hurt or killed because of the uncovered shafts and unsupported mine openings. That is how people who are adventurous or daring get themselves in serious trouble because they don't practice mine safety. Kozushko practices mine safety and is trying to maintain Merritt Mine and increase the safety for these tours.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Summer Science Program
One of my largest topics and favorite interest story happens to be about the Summer Science Program (SSP) high school kids who are here at New Mexico Tech for six weeks.
Thom suggested on Monday to talk to the program facilitators for SSP and find some way to do an in-depth article about them and what they are doing. I thought it would be nice to see what it was like to be a SSP student for the day. That task seems to be harder than I realized.
After getting my computer slightly upgraded (replaced the monitor, mouse, keyboard, and added speakers) , I called Leslie Clark, who coordinates the program here at NMT. The original program began in Ojal, California, and Tech plays host to the second SSP campus.
This is a side-note, thank goodness I got an upgrade to my computer system. I was running a computer with an old cathode-ray tube monitor that was close to dying and a wavy keyboard that really was uncomfortable to type on. Also, my old mouse was kinda stupid--it didn't have a scroll button! I'm thankful for the upgrades. In the next few weeks, I may inherit a better computer. Yay for hand-me-downs! The office received major upgrades to computers and I'm just cannibalizing computer parts to make my work space a little better.
Back to Summer Science. I talked to plenty of students to get a better perspective of what it is like to attend this program. I walked into their lass for the morning to get an understanding of the lecture material and the professors' teaching style.
My observations from sitting in for a lecture, it was college oriented material taught by college professors to a purely high school audience. I thought it was pretty impressive that these students were able to understand college-level material. I was told by a girl that most have had calculus in the past, but not as rigorous as they've had. In addition, they are calculating the orbits of asteroids in space and they need to know basic calculus and how to derive and integrate functions.
Interviewing some of the students, I got the impression that they are similar to normal Techies (Tech students) and they just love math and science. From two guys in class, they just like the experience to be away for the summer and do something neat and cool. In essence, these kids are whizzes at computers, math, programming, and science. One thing that sets them apart is that they are very social.
One girl said that she likes to learn out of the sake of learning, but sometimes she needs to balance school and free-time. Her free-time comes in the form of playing sports, shopping, and dancing. Last Thursday, all the students went to swing dance and really enjoyed hanging out without their normal groups. There are other kids here who are attending Tech for other reasons.
The professors also enjoy teaching the SSP students. They have high remarks for all their students because they are sharp and intelligent. According to two of the professors, they are on their feet all the time answering students' questions.
Once or twice a week they are off campus on a field trip. They have gone to the Very Large Array, Magdalena Ridge Observatory, White Sands, and a mall trip to Albuquerque. Activities are focused to be interesting for these students.
At first when I began this interview to find out more about the students, I was quite afraid. First, I'm four or five years older than them, they are quite smart, but one teacher assured me, they don't have the wisdom or experience others have.
After talking to a couple of people, they warmed up to talking far more than academics. They showed a fun side to their time at SSP. They actually enjoy it here.
I did a few more interviews and got the facts straightened out, I got the quotes I needed out of work. I ended up getting my quotes while at swing dance. Hahaha. Sometimes it takes a bit of time outside of the office to get stuff done.
Another example was having to take a picture of the kids out there at Etscorn Observatory at 3:30 a.m.! Why on earth would anyone be up that late? In actuality, students were meticulously looking at digital images taken by the telescope to find the supernova they were observing the week before. How crazy.
Thom suggested on Monday to talk to the program facilitators for SSP and find some way to do an in-depth article about them and what they are doing. I thought it would be nice to see what it was like to be a SSP student for the day. That task seems to be harder than I realized.
After getting my computer slightly upgraded (replaced the monitor, mouse, keyboard, and added speakers) , I called Leslie Clark, who coordinates the program here at NMT. The original program began in Ojal, California, and Tech plays host to the second SSP campus.
This is a side-note, thank goodness I got an upgrade to my computer system. I was running a computer with an old cathode-ray tube monitor that was close to dying and a wavy keyboard that really was uncomfortable to type on. Also, my old mouse was kinda stupid--it didn't have a scroll button! I'm thankful for the upgrades. In the next few weeks, I may inherit a better computer. Yay for hand-me-downs! The office received major upgrades to computers and I'm just cannibalizing computer parts to make my work space a little better.
Back to Summer Science. I talked to plenty of students to get a better perspective of what it is like to attend this program. I walked into their lass for the morning to get an understanding of the lecture material and the professors' teaching style.
My observations from sitting in for a lecture, it was college oriented material taught by college professors to a purely high school audience. I thought it was pretty impressive that these students were able to understand college-level material. I was told by a girl that most have had calculus in the past, but not as rigorous as they've had. In addition, they are calculating the orbits of asteroids in space and they need to know basic calculus and how to derive and integrate functions.
Interviewing some of the students, I got the impression that they are similar to normal Techies (Tech students) and they just love math and science. From two guys in class, they just like the experience to be away for the summer and do something neat and cool. In essence, these kids are whizzes at computers, math, programming, and science. One thing that sets them apart is that they are very social.
One girl said that she likes to learn out of the sake of learning, but sometimes she needs to balance school and free-time. Her free-time comes in the form of playing sports, shopping, and dancing. Last Thursday, all the students went to swing dance and really enjoyed hanging out without their normal groups. There are other kids here who are attending Tech for other reasons.
The professors also enjoy teaching the SSP students. They have high remarks for all their students because they are sharp and intelligent. According to two of the professors, they are on their feet all the time answering students' questions.
Once or twice a week they are off campus on a field trip. They have gone to the Very Large Array, Magdalena Ridge Observatory, White Sands, and a mall trip to Albuquerque. Activities are focused to be interesting for these students.
At first when I began this interview to find out more about the students, I was quite afraid. First, I'm four or five years older than them, they are quite smart, but one teacher assured me, they don't have the wisdom or experience others have.
After talking to a couple of people, they warmed up to talking far more than academics. They showed a fun side to their time at SSP. They actually enjoy it here.
I did a few more interviews and got the facts straightened out, I got the quotes I needed out of work. I ended up getting my quotes while at swing dance. Hahaha. Sometimes it takes a bit of time outside of the office to get stuff done.
Another example was having to take a picture of the kids out there at Etscorn Observatory at 3:30 a.m.! Why on earth would anyone be up that late? In actuality, students were meticulously looking at digital images taken by the telescope to find the supernova they were observing the week before. How crazy.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Philadephia
My last interview before heading out to Philly was with Facilities Management. The next day I was on a plane heading to the other side of the country.
Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love, is a unique city to visit. Albuquerque and the similar West Coast contrasts with the East Coast and Philadelphia.
Four members, including myself, from our STC student chapter went the national STC conference on June 1-4, 2008. There, we networked with a bunch of awesome TCers, and then some. We proved to be quite famous out there while we networked with several professionals from our field.
In addition, we also met with Becca Taylor, one of our corporate board members from the TC program. Throughout the advice she and Char James-Tanny, the secretary for STC, we were set for our time at the conference.
Without the support of members of STC who adopted us while we were in Philadelphia, it would not be a memorable experience for us.
I thought I'd share that for this blog entry. I just wish we stayed in Philadelphia a bit longer to see more of the city and actually be tourists!
I met a couple of cool people for once!
Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love, is a unique city to visit. Albuquerque and the similar West Coast contrasts with the East Coast and Philadelphia.
Four members, including myself, from our STC student chapter went the national STC conference on June 1-4, 2008. There, we networked with a bunch of awesome TCers, and then some. We proved to be quite famous out there while we networked with several professionals from our field.
In addition, we also met with Becca Taylor, one of our corporate board members from the TC program. Throughout the advice she and Char James-Tanny, the secretary for STC, we were set for our time at the conference.
Without the support of members of STC who adopted us while we were in Philadelphia, it would not be a memorable experience for us.
I thought I'd share that for this blog entry. I just wish we stayed in Philadelphia a bit longer to see more of the city and actually be tourists!
I met a couple of cool people for once!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Facilities Management
After interviewing Ms. Guo, I had another interview with Dan Jones from Facilities Management the next day. Yes, I might be crazy to extensively remember so much stuff from a month ago, but I'm trying my best to catch up.
I went to see Dan Jones to get an update on the construction projects that Tech is doing for the summer. Having something about the construction on the main Tech website is something that should deserve more attention. At least Public Information would have the official story.
I talked with Dan earlier in the week to set up the interview. It was important that I actually see the map and plans to get a better idea of what is going on with the construction. Dan is great to talk to because he gives you details down to the specific names for the terms. After spending two hours talking with him, my entire morning was already used up. I knew I had a great story. He was very helpful and followed up with an email with pictures of the maps to put alongside the story.
One thing to note, all construction projects are all subject to funding; however I can't say that in the article. I had to carefully write the article to make it sound like the projects are ongoing, but that there is no guarantee that they will come out the way Dan said they would be.
In the afternoon, I spent a lot of time getting things sorted out for the following week. I had plenty of articles to work on and get to finishing them and uploaded on the Tech website. I finished the article in-time before leaving for Philadelphia, yet it got lost in the emails that go to Kathy for one last-check before being uploaded onto the website.
I went to see Dan Jones to get an update on the construction projects that Tech is doing for the summer. Having something about the construction on the main Tech website is something that should deserve more attention. At least Public Information would have the official story.
I talked with Dan earlier in the week to set up the interview. It was important that I actually see the map and plans to get a better idea of what is going on with the construction. Dan is great to talk to because he gives you details down to the specific names for the terms. After spending two hours talking with him, my entire morning was already used up. I knew I had a great story. He was very helpful and followed up with an email with pictures of the maps to put alongside the story.
One thing to note, all construction projects are all subject to funding; however I can't say that in the article. I had to carefully write the article to make it sound like the projects are ongoing, but that there is no guarantee that they will come out the way Dan said they would be.
In the afternoon, I spent a lot of time getting things sorted out for the following week. I had plenty of articles to work on and get to finishing them and uploaded on the Tech website. I finished the article in-time before leaving for Philadelphia, yet it got lost in the emails that go to Kathy for one last-check before being uploaded onto the website.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The shortfall of a failing memory
Okay, so I should have heeded Dr. Ford's insistence that I keep an updated blog of my adventures at PIO. At least I can remember pretty far back that it is scary to even think that.
To recall, I went to interview Ms. Guo for the Langmuir award. Thankfully that was quite an easy task to accomplish. She seemed to be very shy for an interview. I really didn't mean for it to be that way. But I guess that if you never have had to be interviewed for a news story, it can be quite intimidating.
I can wonder how much stress this is for people to just sit down and give out information to a writer. Rest assured, I love talking to people, it took a while to get her to warm up and give me good answers. Unfortunately, Dr. Zhang answered most of my questions and it was kinda decent in the article. Dr. Zhang seems to be more experienced at answering them than her Ph.D student. Hehe.
I got a bit confused on a few things in this interview, but I managed to get a good story out of it. Later that day, I got an email from Ms. Guo about how she felt nervous and she apologized for being that way. She answered the remainder of my questions that she was confused about. I replied back to see if I can get a photograph of her and the award so it can be posted on the Tech website. (I went back the next day in the afternoon to get the photo.)
My next interview was with Dr. Heizler. Let me say that this is going to be one of my most difficult stories that I will cover. I spent nearly an hour and a half talking with him about plenty of things. I still don't know what I'm going to do with this project. I have about five pages of notes from interviewing him, but it seems to be so scattered around different projects and I'm trying to find something to tie them all together and it is not working. I asked Thom for advice and he suggested to start typing and then go from there. Ask questions, figure out some other things, and proceed further.
Getting to know my office has been interesting so far.
To recall, I went to interview Ms. Guo for the Langmuir award. Thankfully that was quite an easy task to accomplish. She seemed to be very shy for an interview. I really didn't mean for it to be that way. But I guess that if you never have had to be interviewed for a news story, it can be quite intimidating.
I can wonder how much stress this is for people to just sit down and give out information to a writer. Rest assured, I love talking to people, it took a while to get her to warm up and give me good answers. Unfortunately, Dr. Zhang answered most of my questions and it was kinda decent in the article. Dr. Zhang seems to be more experienced at answering them than her Ph.D student. Hehe.
I got a bit confused on a few things in this interview, but I managed to get a good story out of it. Later that day, I got an email from Ms. Guo about how she felt nervous and she apologized for being that way. She answered the remainder of my questions that she was confused about. I replied back to see if I can get a photograph of her and the award so it can be posted on the Tech website. (I went back the next day in the afternoon to get the photo.)
My next interview was with Dr. Heizler. Let me say that this is going to be one of my most difficult stories that I will cover. I spent nearly an hour and a half talking with him about plenty of things. I still don't know what I'm going to do with this project. I have about five pages of notes from interviewing him, but it seems to be so scattered around different projects and I'm trying to find something to tie them all together and it is not working. I asked Thom for advice and he suggested to start typing and then go from there. Ask questions, figure out some other things, and proceed further.
Getting to know my office has been interesting so far.
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