Intro to Journalism

Journalism Major, Ithaca College 

[graceelletson]

Failure Actually Is an Option— But School Won’t Tell you That

"Why are we learning this?" A question that we have all heard, or asked ourselves, at one point in our academic careers. Having just graduated high school, I've heard that question many times. And while the question is almost always delivered in a whiny tone, and it is always answered with an annoyed air from the teacher who feels that their subject’s importance has been insulted, I started to think that maybe we shouldn't just dismiss this question as a way of stereotypical teenage laziness.

I am fully appreciative of the education I've received. And I understand how important it is to be educated wholistically in Math, English, History and Science. However, I think that students going into the 21st century workforce are lacking essential 21st century occupational skills. And I think the "Why are we learning this?" question may be a sign of exasperation— students are frustrated not by what they're learning, but by what their education lacks.

We are missing life skills. Life skills like collaboration, innovation and creativity are not woven enough into our schools' curriculum. But how can we teach these skills to kids when the system that’s doing the educating does not put value in them?

In school, collaboration is known as cheating. Ask a person next to you for advice on an assignment and it’s distracting.

Creativity is seen as a waste of time. Because it can't be measured on a standardized test.

Innovation is not allowed. Standardized tests teach us that there is only one right answer. And that failure is not an option.

Standardized testing is not only limiting what students can learn, it’s limiting teachers. Teachers have to teach to a curriculum that abides by the material that is going to be tested on. That leaves little time for activities that teach students how to problem solve and to be creative. And students are frustrated. And I think this is breeding a type of resentment among students that’s killing their curiosity and passion. I’ve heard plenty of times throughout any given day “I hate school,” or “This is stupid,” and “Why are we learning this?” And when you stop and look around at all the sadness within an institution filled with some of the most exciting information, you have to ask, what’s going on here?

However, my senior year of high school, I had an experience that made me rethink the way we should be learning.

I had the amazing opportunity to intern at a local newspaper, The Cape Cod Times. Going into the internship, I expected to learn a lot about journalism in the real world. What I really learned more was how to work in the real world. I was tested on my ability to problem solve with interviews, how to communicate effectively to get the information I needed, and how to be an innovative and helpful employee. And these are all skills that I aquired by failing at these tasks the first time, and then getting the chance to try again.

And I realized, as a high school student, that experiential learning is so refreshing compared to how we’re taught in a conventional classroom setting. Coming to Ithaca College as a journalism major, I’ve noticed that mostly everything is taught through experience. And looking back on my first semester of college, I feel like I’ve learned more here in this time period than I would have learned in a whole year of high school.

Christine Hafer, assistant professor in the department of education at Ithaca College, said she also agrees that experiential learning is vital to a student’s education and that it provides them with the skills to be accountable, take initiative and make their own decisions.

“By creating a designed learning experience that includes the possibility to learn from natural consequences, mistakes, and successes,” schools can create more experiential learning opportunities, Hafer said.

Don’t get me wrong, academic learning is just as essential to a student’s education, but it needs to be balanced with the soft skills that students need to be successful in the real world, and in college.

But one of the most important things I learned from my internship is that failure is essential to educating. Not only does failure encourage, it inspires a student to want to succeed. In secondary education, we're taught to fear failure, because failing only cripples us academically. We've created this culture of education based upon the fear of failure, and that's no way to educate.

In college, this lessens. There’s importance in the grade and maintaining a certain GPA, but many professors have told me already that when you go to interviews, they don’t ask you about your grades— they ask you about your experience. So why are high school students maniacally obsessing over their test scores just to get into an institution that really doesn't put that much importance in them itself?  

There has even been talk that rising suicide rates among teens can be linked to the expectation of success that schools and families put on their students. Psychologist Robert Leahy said that present day high school students have the same anxiety levels as 1950s psychiatric patients.

We need to change the culture of the way we educate.

I’ve noticed that I feel so much healthier psychologically in the college setting. I’m not going to six classes a day back to back, and I’m learning what I actually want to learn. We need to incorporate more academic freedom into our teenagers’ lives, or else they will continue to hate learning if they're just boxed in all the time and not taught how to be learners who can survive in the real world.

Internships, even at the high school level, can monumentally boost a student's confidence in themselves, and in the security of their future career.

My favorite experience from my internship at the Times was being able to go over to Martha’s Vineyard by ferry to cover a film festival. Mind you that this was not an assignment given to me. I had done an earlier profile on the festival and asked my editor if I could potentially cover it as a freelance job. To my surprise, and delight, he agreed, knowing full well, that as an intern, I could screw it up and he’d end up with a massive hole on a page. But I just remember getting to the festival, meeting with the producers, talking to people about what they thought about the movies, and thinking-- this is it. This is real. And this is what I want to do. I wrote my story on deadline while heading back on the ferry and it was published the next day.

That experience validated for me that I mattered as a journalist. And that I was valuable and that I had a skill to offer to the world. You can’t learn that from a textbook. And the feeling of pride, and confidence that I know what I’m going to do for the rest of my life, certainly can not be measured by a standardized test.

[biculturalist-deactivated201612]

One thing I immediately find interesting is the lack of photojournalism detailing the damage of the Paris attacks- the damaged stadium, the bodies of the victims, the restaurant, the ensued chaos, the tears, the emotions. Instead we mostly witnessed landmarks around the world lighting up as the colors of the French flag, the blackout of Paris, and the marches for solidarity. Contrast this to the endless portfolios dedicated to capturing the plight of Syrian refugees and the destruction of terrorist attacks elsewhere. Selective photojournalism exposes who is respected in times of horror and who is capitalized upon.

[graceelletson]

Campus Opinion: Diversity Needed, Execution Far-Fetched

By Grace Elletson

After a series of events reported by The Ithacan about racial tensions at Ithaca College*, administration is trying to address these conflicts by installing new guidelines for recruiting faculty and staff of diverse racial backgrounds.

The new procedures include training on inclusive search procedures for search committee chairs, diversifying search committees,including a faculty member from outside the unit that is conducting the search and approving lists of semi-finalists and finalists in searches to ensure that candidates from underrepresented backgrounds are included in the finalist pool.  

Still, students and faculty alike are concerned about the lack of racial representation and if these guidelines will actually fix the problem.

John Romanelli, freshman, said that creating a diverse environment where people can learn is essential to a well-rounded education.

“The lack of diversity is a problem and it’s an issue we need to address moving forward,” Romanelli said.

While Romanelli agrees that the guidelines for search procedures might help diversify the school, nothing the school does now will immediately fix the issue.

“First, people need to stop being racist,” he said. Romanelli attributes the gap to social construct. He said he doesn’t want the procedure to turn people of color into a novelty “to fill a quota as the token ‘professor of color.’”

Michele Lenhart, director of Student Leadership and Involvement, said that a crucial part of having a diverse faculty and staff is being able to connect with students culturally.

“Increasing the number of faculty and staff, who represent culture groups other than the majority, will increase the number of perspectives students get to learn from,” Lenhart said.

Validating Lanhart’s views, a study conducted by the American Council on Education and the American Association of University of Professors**, found that two-thirds of faculty members evaluated think that students benefit from learning in a racially and ethnically diverse environment. Also, more than 40 percent think that diversity helps develop critical thinking and leadership skills.

However, Chip Gagnon, professor in the Department of Politics, said that he thinks this need for diversity caters to the idea of “token” professors and expanding cultural perspective merely for students who are white — rather than for the purpose of social justice for minorities.

“The argument for diversity objectifies faculty/students of color as ‘enriching’ for the benefit of white students,” Gagnon said. In an article he wrote for Buzzsaw magazine in 2005***, he outlines contrasting worlds that whites and minorities live in.

“In the US, black students experience living in a white world every day of their lives, even if they go to black-majority schools or live in black-majority neighborhoods. The same cannot be said for most whites, who tend to live in overwhelmingly white environments,” Gagnon wrote in his article “Marketing or Justice? Diversity, Justice and the Academy.”

He said the reason why minorities are underrepresented in higher education positions, links back to the opportunities people of color are given in their public education system. He said minorities have very low graduation rates due to the lack of funding given to schools, which is based upon property taxes. In the 2012-2013 school year, whites had an 86 percent graduation rate, hispanics had a 75 percent rate, and blacks had a 70 percent rate,**** according to the Department of Education.

“This means fewer people of color go into graduate school and get PhDs, which mean there is a limited number of applicants of color, and given that all colleges have a diversity goal, they are basically competing for a limited pool,” Gagnon said.

Gagnon and Lenhart both said they couldn’t speak to the inclusivity of racial culture among faculty and staff because they are limited to their own departments.

Freshmen Maribel Bermudez and Lexy Arter, both students of color, agreed that at least among students, there is no racial exclusion on campus that they’re aware of.

“I grew up in two different cultures, so I feel comfortable with everyone,” Arter said, who is biracial.

Bermudez, who is predominately of spanish heritage, said that most of the people she has met are indifferent to race.

“People here look at who you are as a person, not your race,” Bermudez said.

Bermudez said that she understands that being able to have a professor to connect with culturally is important for some people, but for her, she said she’s likely to connect to anyone who is a good teacher.

“I’m more likely to connect with a teacher who has similar ideals as me, if that connection comes from a cultural background, that’s great,” Bermudez said.

[graceelletson]

Keith Hannon: Comic, Father, Professional

By Grace Elletson

9/1/15

Keith Hannon wears many hats. A skilled social media professional, professor for Ithaca College, father, stand-up comic, and self proclaimed “Hollywood failure.”

An alumni from Ithaca College, Hannon had dreams of moving to Los Angeles and becoming a comedy writer. He made the move, but didn’t quite make the dream. He was offered a job at a prestigious corporation in the eyes of many children-- Nickelodeon studios. However, hoping to begin his comedy writing career, Hannon found that he was doing more grunt work than the real writing he had his eye on.

“You need to be ready for humility,” Hannon said, recalling when he worked in the Nickelodeon dumpsters, throwing away leftover sets, more often than on the writing team. Fresh out of college, Hannon had lots of experience with making films, broadcasting and writing. But he knew how necessary that experience was. “You need to endure the tough times if you’re going to excel,” he said, “You’re never going to get anywhere if you think you’re too good for something.”

And as life continued for Hannon, what brought him back to the east coast wasn’t necessarily a failed career, but a child. He said that him and his wife were burned out by the “LA rat race” and wanted to raise a family back in Ithaca, New York.

Now, he’s a social media director for Cornell University, connecting with alumni to hopefully bring in donations to the college. On the side, he works with students at Ithaca College, teaching journalism.

“I find students to be uplifting,” Hannon said, “It’s rewarding to feed off of their energy.” He preaches to his students about the rights and wrongs in journalism, and how the field today is constantly changing. He helps them analyze what kind of journalist they want to be, and how they can affect the field.

And as much as Hannon jokes about his “Hollywood failure” and instills his humor with an almost concerning amount of cynicism, he still hopes that his biggest professional accomplishment is yet to come.

[graceelletson]

Headline, Leads for “Fresh Snack” initiative

Grace Elletson

9/30/15

“Fresh Snack” program to be implemented at Belle Sherman

A new snack program at Belle Sherman Elementary will provide healthy snacks twice a week to students who receive free or reduced lunch.

Healthy Snacks to Replace Junk at Elementary School

43 percent of students at Belle Sherman elementary school are receiving free or reduced lunch. To combat the junk food these students are eating, a new program called the “Fresh Snack” program will give students, twice a week, a cup of fruit, vegetables and legumes.

Fruit, Veggies, Legumes, Oh My!

Crinkling plastic packages and greasy junk-food grub is getting the boot from the classroom at Belle Sherman Elementary. The school is implementing a new “Fresh Snack” program for children who receive free or reduced lunch; who make up 43 percent of the school’s student population.

[graceelletson]

Newsroom Article

Article written in response to this video — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqOYBabXmA

By Grace Elletson

At a college panel discussion featuring liberal television presenter Sharon Weidman, conservative politician Lewis and News Night lead anchor Will McAvoy, politics didn’t end up taking the main-stage at the end of the night. Rather, it was Mcavoy’s fervent tirade about his belief that america is no longer the greatest country in the world.

The question, “Describe in one sentence what makes america the greatest country in the world,” was an easy answer for Lewis and Weidman. Lewis gave a classically conservative answer of “Freedom and Freedom” and Weidman, living up to her liberal stance, proclaimed that “Diversity and opportunity,” is what makes america the greatest.

As for McAvoy, after being pressed to answer the question genuinely, he shocked the audience by saying, “It’s not the greatest country in the world...that’s my answer.”

He continued to dismiss both Weidman’s and Lewis’ political stances and went on to explain that america isn’t as grand as it seems — rolling statistics off his tongue like he’s been rehearsing how to discredit america for years.

Then he began to attack millennials, specifically the young girl who asked the question from the audience.

“But you nonetheless are without a doubt a member of the worst generation — period— ever— period. So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

After this proclamation, he became less angry and more somber— almost nostalgic.

“We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people… We built great things, we made ungodly technological advances,” said McAvoy.

And he has a point. America is not what it used to be. We’ve transformed into soul-sucking capitalist incorporation. We care less about our people and more about the profit we can make out of them.

However, we are not a part of the “worst generation — period — ever — period.”

We’ve been dealt a difficult deck of cards. But things aren’t going to change unless it’s our generation who makes the first move. We are the most progressive, intelligent and innovative generation to have been born. So please do not tell me that we can’t make a change.

As McAvoy said, “The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”

And I’d have to say that unfortunately, I agree. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t change that.