Busy, busy, busy!

Whew, talk about a crazy week!

About halfway through the semester and I’ve already had more experiences than I can count.

This week alone, I covered the South Carolina Democratic primary in Columbia, the state capital, went to my internship and reported on the state legislature on location in Springfield.

Yes, in less than seven days, I’ve been in two different states and done three incredibly interesting things!

Learning New Skills

Covering the primary in South Carolina was a wonderful learning experience.

Having been to Iowa for the caucus about a month earlier, we, as a class, were already much better equipped to handle the incredible stress and immense amounts of information that come at you when you’re on location.

This time around, my classmate and I decided we wanted to make a video piece on our trip, in addition to the standard print piece.

Yeah, talk about stressful.

Luckily, not too long into the trip, we were given the opportunity to focus entirely on making our video piece, which made things a little more manageable.

Emphasis on the little.

Creating my first video news piece was nothing short of a whirlwind. Going to event after event, interviewing people at every location and writing text for video was so much fun. In Iowa, we didn’t have press access, so to go into this event with total freedom and access was great.

This time around, I’m incredibly proud of the work we did and even prouder that my piece was published!

Now, there’s some access

Back to Illinois

Getting back from South Carolina, I had all of 24 hours to repack and regroup to head to Springfield for the annual Legislative & Investigative Reporting trip.

Weirdly enough, as a lifelong Chicagoan, I had never been to our state capital before. Most kids here go during a middle school class trip. But this kid? Not so much.

When I arrived, I really didn’t know what to expect. Reporting on bills and our legislators remotely is one thing, but being on location is something different.

Being on their home turf can be really interesting and it was great to be able to get up close and personal with some politicians.

The highlight of my trip was getting to see a press conference with the governor as a member of the press. Normally, the closest I’ve ever been to the governor was my TV screen. Now, he’s less than 10 feet away, and I’m reporting on it. What a trip!

Springfield with the squad

Overall, while I have been incredibly busy and feel like I sound like a broken record, I’m having a blast this semester.

The opportunities that we get as Columbia students are second to none. Exploring different places and meeting tons of new people are what some can only dream about.

It’s easy to take things for granted, but I know how lucky I am.

Have you made the choice yet? If you haven’t yet, get on it!

The sooner you submit your application and choose, the sooner your new life can start!