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Week 12: Dead Trees

 This week, well, really since Thanksgiving break, I've written 5 articles.  Most of these articles have been copy, Carney Press release stuff, and other organizations sending out press releases. Mainly I'm doing these because they're quick articles I can do while I'm working on wrapping up my classes for the semester, plus it's easier for me to make a little bit more during the pay period to pay for Christmas gifts.  Even so, I did write one article that was really interesting. In Newark there's a house that George Washington had held a war meeting in during the revolutionary war, I really had no idea it existed before I was assigned the article. The angle to the article was that a Sycamore tree in front of the house is on its last limb, and might soon fall down. This tree was fully grown when Washington was alive, so it's likely that he and his men had sat under it during the meeting.  For this, I took a little bit of time to research the house, the owner,

Week 11: Giving Thanks

 This week I wrote 3 articles, one of them was for Governor Carney's weekly COVID-19 press release, which is pretty standard in the week for me.  I worked basically all week on an article about Jim Martin, and the work that he does helping the homeless through a hospitality kitchen which feeds people 5 days a week, for breakfast lunch, and dinner. Jim Martin's work has extended much farther than that, but that's mostly what I've focused on for this article. For it, I was able to interview him and a lot of people that he has helped and to see where their lives are now. Writing this article made me feel good because I was able to get the word out to people about the homeless, and it gave me a new way to look at homeless people.  the other article I wrote was about a 65-year-old writer who had recently published her first children's novel. I enjoyed writing because she was a great person to talk to and it was interesting to talk to a writer.  Neither of this articles h

Week 10: The most articles I've written in one week

 This week I wrote Five articles, Two of them being run of the mill copy, about Gov. Carneys Press release. I wrote two articles regarding Veterans day and one about a new UD art project.  Those can be found here: https://delawarelive.com/2020/11/13/average-delawareans-may-not-get-covid-vaccine-until-spring-summer/ https://delawarelive.com/2020/11/13/average-delawareans-may-not-get-covid-vaccine-until-spring-summer/ One of the articles I wrote surrounding veterans day was one that I had been working on for a few weeks, about Delaware's Veteran's court system. For this, I interview the Judge that created the program and one of the veteran mentors involved with the program. This article has not been posted yet.  The other veteran's article I did was on the 101-year-old WW2 veteran who has been traveling the country in an attempt to meet every state governor. I interviewed his son for this article. I was given this article kind of last minute, the day before veterans day. We s

Week 9: Elections and Their Conclusions

 I spent the entirety of my time this week working with the camera's that I learned to use in last week's blog post. On Tuesday, I set out to find what was at the heart of the American voter, and what I found was surprising to some degree. I spent the entire day driving around Kent and Sussex County Delaware interviewing voters and candidates. I interviewed about 20 different people and asked them all similar questions about what, who, and how, they were voting. I also asked people about what issue was most important to them and how they felt about mail-in ballots.  The answers from people largely depended on their political identity. Republican voters were more worried about unity while democrats, none too enthusiastic about their candidates, just wanted someone to do something about the pandemic. The turnout was great, so that was good to see.  These clips can be found on Delaware live's Facebook.  On Thursday, I went to Georgetown to live stream the 'Bury the Hatchet

Week 8: Three articles and a whole lot of training.

 This week I wrote 3 articles, One article I wrote was a rewrite of a press release of different state COVID-19 testing sites along with some background information.  That can be found here:  https://delawarelive.com/2020/10/27/state-releases-easy-peasy-list-of-covid-19-testing-sites-asks-public-to-test/ The other two articles I wrote were extensions of things I was working on last week finally coming to fruition.  one of them was an article about a fetal-maternal Dr. who had received a lifetime achievement award. That can be found here:  https://delawarelive.com/2020/10/30/states-first-maternal-fetal-doc-honored-with-medical-societys-top-award/ The third article I worked on was an article that I had also been working on, but then dropped, and picked back up.  It is mostly about how deer collisions are significantly higher in the last 3 months of the year because it is mating season. Originally, I interviewed a spokesperson from State Farm insurance for information about it. Some of th

Week 7: Press Releases and Works in progress

 This week I wrote two published stories and worked on three stories, that have yet to be finished.  The two that were published were time-sensitive, and so finished within an hour or two of the assignment. The first one was on the Carney press release. something I do every week. This week I wrote about how the state announced CARES funding for healthcare business, primarily focused in the southern two counties.  That can be found here:  https://delawarelive.com/2020/10/20/state-to-give-100-million-to-healthcare-companies-much-of-it-downstate/ The second article I wrote was on UD's announcement on how they plan to bring back students to the campus during the fall semester. This article cannot be linked, because it was posted on town square Delaware, which seems to be under construction at the moment.  The three articles that I worked on this week should be done sometime next week or the week thereafter. The first one that I'm working on is a profile of the Dr. who won this year

Week 6: Comedians in COVID getting coffee

 *NOTE: This blog post is about a week late so I'm just going to post what I did last week like normal and then do a second post later this week* This week I ran two articles, one was a standard wrap up on Governor Carney's Covid press release, something that I've been doing every week for a few weeks.  that can be found here:  https://delawarelive.com/2020/10/13/public-health-no-more-virus-hotspots-but-state-is-watching-several-places/ The other article I did was on a comedian doing a show at the end of the month to raise money for breast cancer awareness. as far as work goes this was the highlight of my week. Troy Hendrickson, creator of the mildly famous character "Aunt Mary Pat" was a great interviewee, very open and conscious of his words, plus he was just fun to talk to. I was really able to come up with questions on the fly while talking to him, so to me that either means I'm getting better at interviewing people and thinking critically while I'm ta