The Huntsville Times, Weeks 3 & 4

Weeks three and four have been filled with great memoriesthat I will never for get! So far, I've been at The Times for one month and it's been awesome. I don't know where to start. Maybe I'll start with the white water rafting trip I took with the staff! (That doesn't even go together. lol How many newsrooms have their interns facing the rapids of the Ocoee River? I know of none as cool.) Wewent rafting after a whole week of working on this monster of a piece about Butler High School students and faculty about the impending closing of the school.(I'll tell you allabout that later..) So the trip was right on time for me.We headed down to Chattanooga,TN on a Sunday and best believe I was prayin' that I would not fall out of my raft and have to be rescued downstream. I was in the raft with Victoria Cumbow (crime reporter) , a friend of hers, and the Mark (sports columnist) and Patricia McCarter (former Times staff writer). I got over my fear really quick when the raft instructor guided us over the most difficult rapid first. (Props to Jerry, our raft guide) I even had a chance to go to the front of the raft and experience the waves up front. At one point, you can only see my hands outside the raft. I was scared shit less when I went up there, but I knew Jerry had my back and knew I wasn't trying to die that day. I had a Titanic moment when I spread my arms out of the raft. It was a great experience and I would encourage going on the Ocoee. I've never bonded with a staff like this before and can't wait to see what July and August have to bring.

The work I did during weeks three and four was some of the most reporting I've done since the summer of my freshman year. Let me start with the doozy: The Butler piece. I had been working on this since the second week of June and it seemed like I had been working on it for a lifetime. This story, like all others, came from an idea I pitched to Challen Stephens, The Times' investigative reporter and a damn good one at that. This guy knows all the dirt going on in Huntsville ( I found out there's a lot of low down dirty deals going on in Huntsville too; of all places right?)

Anyway, I got to work with him on this 35' inch story (1000+ words) that featured 1 teacher spruced throughout with 4 students giving their opinion in parts of the story. I talked with at least ten people for the story and went to the school three times for pictures and interviews. The school seemed so empty. Not just an absence of people, but an absence of excitement. They've been talking about closing this school for about ten years on and off, and next year is going to be the last year for the school. It's one of nine elementary, middle and high schools that Huntsville City Schools is trying to shut down. Crazy, I know. Nine schools?

To give a little background, this school was one of the most diverse top-tier schools in the Huntsville area back in the day. It's in the backyard of Redstone Arsenal so there was a good mix of Army kids and neighborhood kids at the school. Now, BHS is a Title 1 school with high failure rates, low test scores, low graduation rates, and an even more shameful reputation getting the label of the "ghetto school". Pretty much the whole plot of "Lean On Me".

It was piece that I felt attached to. I felt for these kids and teachers that were going to be out of a job and who did everything to defend their school when

everyone else is saying 'Away with it.' and 'Good Riddance." This was my first A1 feature as well, so I was excited to see it on the front page, and a little less excited about the comments I was going to get. Most of the commenters on al.com don't have anything of importance to say, so to engage people who make offensive comments (and then don't have the sense to hit spell

check...) is a dead end road.

I covered an array of other things. I covered the Soldier Show for Armed Forces Week, where, for the first time, 50 new soldiers were sworn before the show. I covered a new VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Commander (He was a handful...told me everyting he wanted included in the article..he must have forgot he was talking to a journalist and not a PR specialist.. o_O) I covered a couple who had a combined 50 years of volunteer service with the American Red Cross, and Madison Jazz's trip through China. So far, it's been a pleasant surprise. I never know what they're going to hand me next, which is part of the business that I some getting used to.

Since this is the end of my first month at The Times, I have took it upon myself to meet with my editor, Shelly Haskins to go over the work I've done this month; what he liked, and some advice on what I can improve on. The meeting prompted me to make some new goals for the next two months. I plan to make more videos and a few more long features. Hopefully I can get to work with Sports and when I say work, I mean get a press pass to go to SEC Media Days. :) We'll see.

'Til next time...