Ally Van Deuren

“CSPA for life!” said Amanda Crater, instructor of the Environmental Communications class. I am starting to believe that statement more and more, as I realize that the lessons learned here about journalism and the real world alike will stick with me forever.

I am going to miss getting woken up at 2 am for an “assignment.”
I am going to miss Stan’s eccentric rants about unincorporated cities and his performance while showing us Ralph’s starring role in The Godfather II.
I am going to miss the mysterious unknowns in the VG dining hall.
I am going to miss this glorious room, and computer number 5.
I am going to miss Ruth…okay maybe not (see previous post)
I am going to miss late night matching games and corrupting Yeon Woo.
I am going to miss Rich and James’ impersonations of different people.

Thank you for a great 2 weeks, counselors and instructors!

QUOTABLES

“I watched you change…” -Jenny Choi

“I feel like a Neanderthal right now.” -Hannah Song

“Cut down the B.S.” -Mike Daugherty

“What gets the eye-balls? Panda babies.” -Nicole Vargas

“It’s too late to screw.” -writers of Tick tick…BOOM

“SMack that?”

Teresa’s…

“Ah…HERMOSA BEACH! The aristocrat of the California beaches!” -Stan Kelton

To explain my final post, we just finished our final assignment at CSPA. It was a TV Broadcast that we wrote and recorded in teams.

It was going rather well – the opening anchor broadcast and my first spoken part about the Arizona Immigration Law did not go too badly. I was satisfied at least (and I am pretty hard on myself). It wasn’t until the last minute, right after Mary’s broadcast, when I started to get ready to get into position for the final broadcast (several more people still had to present – I just wanted to be ready)

But, instead of hearing Hye Sun’s name being called, I heard…

“And now, back to Ally Van Deuren…”

WHAT?! The team must have decided to skip major parts of the broadcast to skip to the closing part. It wasn’t anyone’s fault – we couldn’t communicate while in the room! I scrambled up to the desk and fumbled with the mic. I was on the air and I still was securing my mic onto my lapel, when I started my closing piece as fast as I could, because I figured we were very short on time. I saw my producer’s hands waving so I spoke as quickly as I could and said goodnight!

But then, as it turns out, we were on the air for a good ….15 seconds extra. It turns out that we had EXTRA time…I was pretty furious.

Mary, who was seated next to me, wanted to fill the extra time by saying “Stay safe, Los Angeles..and clean!”

I knew that I shouldn’t say anything else – I knew the best thing to do was just wait and look professional – which I think I accomplished, although I don’t think Lance was too fond of my performance.

Although it was a negative way to close out the two weeks, I really loved the process going into production. It was just the miscommunication error that I was not too fond of.

STAY CLEAN.

Love, Channel X

1. CSPA is the best high school journalism intensive of its kind, with instructors working professionally in print journalism, online media, public relations, law, and local governments. Many CSPA graduates have gone on to many prestigious journalism schools across the country, such as Harvard, Berkeley, Northwestern, Columbia, USC, Pepperdine, and University of Oregon.

2. Students at CSPA go through situations in the real-world of journalism, such as attending several press conferences, publishing their own newspaper, posting breaking Web updates, publishing blogs, conducting multiple interviews, covering a trial, touring the San Luis Obispo daily newspaper office and television station, shooting photographs, and producing and taping their own television newscast.

3. Teachers at CSPA teach their students about the new and upcoming forms of journalism, such as online and social media that are constantly evolving.

Update: Two-acre brushfire just broke out behind local high school.

1. I would take as many pictures and get as much video footage of the fire as possible and then load them onto my blog on the site.

2. After posting these on my blog, I would get some quick interviews using Quick Voice with nearby witnesses and members of the fire department, if available.

3. Then, I would turn my camera footage into the visual component to a video, using the interviewees’ voices as the background audio. Then, I would post this video on my blog to publicize the fire.

The following is an excerpt from a humor story I completed for Steve Harvey’s class. It was one of the most fun assignments thus far:

It terrorizes our dreams. It shoots down our ideas. It picks favorites. It ledes us into the dark world of Cyberland. In short, it is the bane of CSPA journalism students’ existence. What is this creature? It’s the printer in the newsroom at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo, better known as Ruth.

Not only is Ruth everything mentioned above, she makes awful, agonizing noises when she inhales before deciding whether or not to print and has a rather voluptuous stature as she towers over me at Mac number five as I slave away on a story. I thought the most somber name for a printer with such a ghastly nature would be Ruth, short for (but not limited to) “Ruthless.”

I cannot tell you what I dread more at the end of class: the minute in which the instructor of each class says “time is up!” or “deadline is now!” or the infamous minute in which I am slowly inching out of my seat to make the dreadful, six-step trudge to see if I am on Ruth’s good side today. As Mel and other students eagerly surround Ruth right at deadline with anticipation, nerves shoot through my veins and prayers to Saint Ruth flow through my lips.

I understand that as journalists, we need to experience annoying technical difficulties once in a while…that’s life. But in the classroom setting here at CSPA when we are trying to master as much as we can about our craft?

Oh Ruth, don’t you see what your gentle insanities do to us?! Why must you torment us so? Don’t you know that you are our ticket to story completion and success?

We see Cal Poly’s technological guru here in the classroom on a daily basis, and as far as I’m concerned, he comes about as close to a world healer as I know. Sometimes, however, even He cannot fix the Ruth’s problems, and we are left just as stranded as we were before. For a school so advanced in the math and sciences, it seems odd that someone hasn’t formed a better printer-computer relationship for this beloved newsroom on the third floor of the Graphic Arts building on Cal Poly’s beautiful campus. It’s probably all Ruth’s doing.

Or is it just CSPA students? Maybe we are cursed here on campus because we have killed Margaret Baker Lissy and shot Rolland Nesmith through the head too many times. Maybe Ruth knew them personally and printing so many stories gives her pain and sorrow. Knowing Ruth, she probably would hold a grudge against the CSPA students for even an innocent action such as this.

Regardless, we already go through enough trials and tribulations while writing our pieces; we don’t need sass from the printer that will ultimately determine our success. I have learned many things from Ruth over the past week, one being that I think I’ll stick with the telegraph from now on. -30-

Adam Robak, an incoming senior at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, California, has been running on his competitive high school cross country and track teams for three years. At this year’s CSPA workshop, he usually gets up early in the mornings to run around the campus or surrounding mountains with fellow journalists interested in running. Anyone can tell that Robak is very dedicated to both journalism in the classroom as well as running outside of the classroom setting. Usually seen in his running shoes and shorts, it was surprising to see a picture of him in slacks and a tie.

“Bishop’s Ball,” the event Robak attended this year at St. John’s Cathedral, is an annual collaboration dance for students who attend different churches in the South Bay. It was Robak’s second year attending the ball. He attends St. Cross Episcopal Church, located in Hermosa Beach, California. Robak explained that at the dance, he got to meet and socialize with people from other churches.

Robak said, “It was a fun event!”

To see the photo on Adam’s Facebook, click here.

… and everyone plays their role on a newspaper staff. This is just part of what I took from Gil Chesterton’s class on Newspaper production.

There are the principal roles, the stars, played by the editor-in-chief, the executive editor, the managing editor, and the page editors. The supporting roles (staff writers) write the “meat” for the paper…what the principals use to sculpt their work in the bigger roles. Without the supporting roles, the leads certainly wouldn’t have a show. Then there is the ensemble, the most crucial part of the cast and staff alike. They support the leads and the rest of the cast by providing a group of people to count on. These are the readers, who fund and shape the newspaper.

By the end of the production of the CSPA reporter, I am hoping to be able to shout encore!

Things are going quickly here… here are the folks I’ve acquainted myself with in the past two days:

-Margaret Baker Lissy

-FeePheé LaRoulxe

-José LaRoulxe

-Mr. Nesmith

-Mr. O’Conner

-Frederick Fender

-Zyxthun Brrr

-Dr. Lindsie Loemahn

-Nancyee and Syd Vicious

-Justyn Bheaber

-Dr. Zietfrieg Bartholomew

-Linda Louise Cummings (this is a real one…) Check it out:

http://www.ocregister.com/news/linda-200290-suicide-cummings.html

Thank you to all of the instructors and counselors who acted as these wonderful, juicy characters in the on-the-spot Earthquake news story assignment! They certainly showed how they LEDE by example, no pun intended.

Also…I chose this photo to insert in my blog because Chris Carlson, our photography instructor told us to take as many pictures as we could and get as CLOSE to our subject as humanly possible. The subject of this photo, Jeremy V, doubted that this picture would turn out well… but lo and behold! Chris picked this photo as one of his top three favorites of mine. So, enjoy the artsy-ness.

The above is a quote from Fiddler On The Roof if you didn’t know already.

My mom got her undergraduate degree here at Cal Poly, so being here learning more than I have ever learned about journalism in my life makes me feel like I have chosen the right path for my senior summer. She has always wanted me to go here because of the fun she had gracing these halls, and despite past hesitation, I would be thrilled to go here if I got accepted. I am big on the whole “living up to tradition” thing, so this morning, as I mentioned earlier, I hiked to the “P” on one of the mountains surrounding the school. My mom says her one (and only) regret from her college years was that she NEVER climbed to the “P” with her friends. It seems simple, but after hearing about it so many times, I knew it was something that I just couldn’t pass up. So making the trek even though I am definitely not a stellar runner made me feel like I was really walking in her shoes.