Task #49: Internship at The Hour (Kim)

49.  Internship at The Hour

I have been interested in writing since elementary school.  I wrote for the school newspaper in middle school, but I never pursued writing in the Paw Print at Norwalk High School.  When the opportunity to be part of an internship program rather than attend school for the last quarter of senior year arose, I was more than happy to contact the local Norwalk newspaper and ask to be a high school intern.

I began this internship on Monday, May 18.  I started with tasks like condensing press releases for the Community, Briefs, and To Do section of the paper.  I also began my first story - on a Celtic ceremony at a Norwalk Church.  When I woke up Tuesday morning and saw that what I had worked on was in the newspaper, I was ecstatic. Tuesday I was given my first big opportunity - to write a story on the lack of affordable housing in Connecticut and specifically the Stamford-Norwalk area. I had to call a representative for Governor Malloy, several president's of local business organizations, and dig through a report full of statistics about affordable housing.  It was my first day staying relatively late at the internship, but I was more than happy to do it because I knew there was a good chance the story would run the following day.

On Wednesday, both of my stories were on page 3 of the Hour and featured on the paper's website!

http://www.thehour.com/news/norwalk/norwalk-church-to-kick-off-celtic-celebration-thursday/article_2bb0a549-7a97-5f41-a118-673fc89b7941.html

http://www.thehour.com/news/norwalk/connecticut-ranks-eighth-in-nation-for-most-expensive-housing-stamford/article_2076eed8-70da-58b7-b5ae-13627d4986a5.html

On Wednesday, I headed out to an elevator opening at Lockwood-Mathews Mansion in Norwalk.  The elevator was a 15 years in the making project, so the mayor was leading a ribbon cutting ceremony.  I also drove my fellow intern to an event on the Norwalk Green with the Norwalk Gardening Club.  Then, I spent my day finishing this story, which was published on the website today.

http://www.thehour.com/news/norwalk/lockwood-mathews-mansion-museum-reaching-new-heights-with-elevator-installation/article_00223fb8-ffcd-11e4-9156-afa445dabea8.html?mode=image&photo=0

I did not expect to see my stories featured so soon in The Hour.  I expected to be mostly working on the Community section and Briefs section.  Even though it was slightly nerve wracking at first to call so many people, it is an absolutely incredible learning experience so far.  I'm so happy I decided to be part of the internship program, and Project Explore was one of many motivating forces in being part of it.

Task #18 Completed: Create A Stop Motion Video (Kim)

18.  Film a stop motion video.

1. Stop motion: a cinematographic technique whereby the camera is repeatedly stopped and started, for example to give animated figures the impression of movement.
2. 
   

I attempted to film the stop motion video when I created Open When letters for my friend Molly.  However, I never posted the video because although it was a learning experience, I didn't find the video to be any good or interesting to watch.  Once again, I attempted a stop motion video with the melting crayon art project.  Since I asked for a tripod and received it as an early Christmas present, I had the added benefit of the tripod.  However, I once again was not impressed with the results.

I have decided to combine the videos and post them anyway to show my improvements.  I have learned the importance of keeping a camera perfectly still; even with a tripod I struggled with this skill.  In addition, stop motion is very time consuming.  Each movement takes about twice as long with the added necessity of pressing the camera button.  I think that when done correctly, stop motion can be a fascinating technique.  I hope that next time I attempt a stop motion video, I will have learned from the mistakes you see here and succeed.

Task #15 Completed: Wear a Costume to School (Rachael and Kim)

15.  Wear a costume to school

Since this blog was created in November, we have to play catch-up with some of the tasks we completed prior to the creation of the blog.  One of them is "Wear a costume to school", which both of us did on Halloween.

Both of us used a play on our names for our costumes: Kim Possible and Rachael Baker was a baker. The Kim Possible costume did not look like much of a costume because it was partially normal clothes, so I borrowed a monster onesie to wear during school. Both of us definitely stuck out and got attention for our costumes, but it was a fun experience for the day.

  

Task #5 Completed: Trip to 9/11 Memorial (Rachael)

5. Document Trip to 9/11 Memorial   

As Kim and I created our list, task Number 5 had originally been dictated as "A Trip to New York City." However, we both soon realized that we had been to New York countless amounts of times so unfortunately, it could not be used as a part of our list. 

Yet as I passed 180 Greenwich Street in Manhattan I came across a totally new aspect of the "City of Dreams" which in fact was a place that symbolized much that was lost, the 9/11 memorial. 

The 9/11 memorial was built in honor of the victims of a terrorist attack in 2001. The sight of the memorial is breath taking and there were mass amounts of people gaping in awe at the beauty as well as checking for the names of their loved ones.  It was very interesting to me that there were many security guards and furthermore they were not letting anyone smoke or speak on the phone while on the premises. I believe that shows a huge sign of respect to those who were lost in this tragic event. The memorial means so much to the families that lost members so it was very touching to experience to be able to see the amazing structure.