That is cool that you were able to do your field assignment on the study abroad. I am going travel to Italy for a semester so I am excited for that. I have been to the international center and they are super cool in there. They help me out with everything and know there stuff. That is cool that this group of students going to France are pretty much going for vacation. I have to go for school but I will probably have a month of vacation when I am there. Hope you enjoy the trip it will be an awesome experience.

Samuel Islas

6/4/12

saramariestrasbaugh:

Field Assignment Two

For the second field assignment I chose to write about the study abroad trips at Cal Poly Pomona. My focus was on the summer Paris trips. For exactly one month, beginning on July 1, a group of Cal Poly Pomona students will live in Paris and study the language. The trip will allow students to be fully submerged in the culture while experiencing the city.

            Trip goers will attend operas, museums and other excursions. The French teacher at Cal Poly Pomona will lead the students through the month long trip. She has been leading the trip for the past five years and once lived in the beautiful city. Her expertise will allow students to gain the most they can from their travels.

            Since I am one of the participants on this summer trip, I enjoyed researching for this field assignment and learning more about the trip and what I have to look forward to.

            I kept my interviews exclusive to students. A lot of information on the trip can be found online and I thought hearing students opinions would allow for a different approach then just listing information that is easily obtainable.

            This was my favorite of the two for the field assignments. Having a direct connection to what I was writing about kept me interested and wanting to get as much information as possible. Studying abroad is an experience that many students look into and want to be a part of. Unfortunately, not everyone commits to a trip and gets to attend. After researching how simple it is to be a part of such a trip, I would hope that everyone who wants to study abroad would do so. If my article were published, I would want it to give students the drive to go and study abroad, to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. 

My field assignment was on underage drinking. I really did enjoy doing this field assignment more than the previous one. I say that because I found this topic to be a little bit more interesting. I got to interview a cop, teenager, and parents.

The best part of doing this field assignment was hearing the teenager’s stories. It was very interesting because when he was saying these stories his parents had no idea about what he has done in the past. I interviewed them separately. the teenager asked me not to mention anything he told me to his parents. His parents on the other hand thought he was the best teen any parents could have. “The role model’ as they put it. I thought how could the parents not know at all? To call Matt, the teenager, a role model after the stories he told me is crazy.

Overall everything went smoothly I was able to get all my interviews and all seemed to work with my schedule. maybe the only thing I would probably want is to add another teenager and his or her family to the mix to see maybe a different point of view. The reason i did not was because I did not know what the max was for interviewing people.

i wish this would have popped in my head sooner. The reason why I chose this topic honestly was because one of my friends was talking about under age drinking. So I would like to say thanks.

Samuel Islas

6/4/12

Congrats! I think it is always cool to hear someone talk about walking in two weeks. Hopefully you will get a career. I was looking online and it said that public relations is on a rise. Unless your a journalism major then good luck (in a good way). I don’t walk for another two years so I have quite a long time. i could walk next year but I would have to be taking 5 classes every quarter and I would have to put my trip to Italy on hold and I do not want that. So I will no rush it and just go with the flow. Once again congrats!!

Samuel Islas

5/24/12

patriciagaleas:

Finished internship, check. Cap & gown, check. Graduation pictures, check check check! Looking for a job, that’s the longest check ever!

Yep, after 18 years, yes that’s right I said 18, I am finally done with school! It’s becoming real, and yet it’s surreal at the same time? Does that make…

In my first blog I wrote about how I was too excited for this summer. This Saturday my brother is graduating from high school. So right now my whole family is scrambling and try to organize everything for Saturday. My parents like to throw big parties so right now it is kind of chaotic at the house. 

My brother’s graduation is the first graduation happening this year out of six. So next weekend it is two of my cousins graduation. Then the week after that is my other brother’s graduation and two of my other cousins. I am really excited because last summer there was not any graduations or ceremonies so this year is going to be great. 

The only down fall about these graduations are the gifts. I do not know what to exactly get my brother graduating high school. He already has a lot of stuff and my parents already gave him a laptop so I will probably give him money. My other brother though I will get him an Ipod. The one graduating in two weeks is a lot more appreciative and he usually gets a lot of hand me downs. So I tend to get him new stuff when it is his birthday or for this instance his graduation. 

Congratulations on everyone that is graduating in two weeks. Your finally free and able to make a difference in the world (hopefully). May what ever path you take lead you to greatness. When writing the previous sentence I felt like i was Yoda or some wise person (strange I know). have a good weekend I know I will. 

Samuel Islas 

5/24/12

I completely agree with you and that the council meeting was off the charts. Did you join the riot afterwards? I wish it would have been a little more interesting. The librarian was okay but to be honest I think they need to change their panel of council members. The older guy next to the Asian council member needs to retire because I was going to fall asleep when her spoke. The women next to the mayor also needs to retire. They need to bring in more young council members like the mayor and Diamond Bar would thrive that much more. 

Samuel Islas 5/18/12

brycebwillis:

Well, Where to begin? The City Council Meeting was off the CHARTS! For me, it was like a rock concert. There were, I’m guessing, at least 300 people there. All so excited for the discussion of their slightly affluent cities plans. As a matter of fact, after they mentioned the closed session budget…

This was the very first city council meeting I have attended and I must say that was very boring. The experience after was great but the actual meeting did not really excite me. the reason why I thought it was boring is because I thought it would be like the city council meeting exercise we did in class the week before. That exercise was interesting because that was a topic that caught everyone’s attention.

After the meeting though it got better. we got to meet the mayor. She was cool. She seemed very down to Earth. One of my classmates seemed to have a huge crush on her. She was able to answer all the questions we had given her. Our “tour guide” or the woman that answered some of our other questions in the press room was really nice also. It must be pretty crazy to try to remember all that information about the city.

i have never been to the Diamond Bar City Hall and where the meeting was held was very nice and huge. They said that they will be moving to a newer building later on. I can not imagine how that would be. like I said that building seemed nice but the new one must be even better.

After the meeting we were taught how the cameras worked and how the technical guy is able to record the meeting and what kind of technology they use. 

I did not know that they city of Diamond Bar was that young. I also thought it was pretty cool that they were able to get the type of technology that the camera records you when you talk into the microphone. The tech guy said that they were able to put that company that creates that type of technology on the map. Overall I really did enjoy the experience. Now on to writing the paper for the actual meeting. 

Samuel Islas

5/18/12

I know this title may seem confusing but just to set things straight this blog is not about the strip club on Central and Mission. How do I know where it is exactly located? Well I went to an elementary school just two miles away from it that is how ghetto my elementary school is. Back to the actual topic about this blog is that I feel that I am repeating the first five weeks of this quarter.

In the first five weeks I was assigned a shadowing project for my photojournalism class, field assignment for reporting, and a nine page paper for my philosophy class. When I completed all these assignments it felt great and to know that I did well on of them it felt even better. 

Now that we are getting closer to the end of the quarter it feels like it is happening all over again. I get assigned another field assignment, I have to shadow a non-profit company for the photojournalism class, and now I have to complete an eight page paper for my philosophy class. 

I am doing this all over a again but now they are all due on the same week so this makes it even that much more difficult. I know that I will be completing the assignments on time but just the thought of each one is kind of stressing me out. That is why I said it feels like deja vu because I am doing the same thing over again and I am not to happy about it. Why could it not be the strip club Deja Vu instead of school deja vu? Just messing. 

Samuel Islas

5/11/12

Exercising is the best reliever to do when you are stress or upset. I run four times a week. I feel great when I return home.  I think that is the best thing to do because not only are you getting all that negativism out but also you are working on your body to make sure it is in shape. That would be awesome if everyone that was stress or upset would go for a run and make it mandatory. That would be lowering the amount of violence in the world and lower the rate of obesity in America. Taking out two birds with one stone as the saying goes.  That is great though that you were able to go for a run and feel great about it.

 Samuel Islas 5/10/12

hstorlie:

So far, this has been my busiest quarter yet. My days are filled with driving back and forth from Pasadena to Pomona to Sierra Madre. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I have classes from 8-11:35 am then I drive out to Pasadena to babysit from 12:30-5:30 pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work…

That is pretty cool that you were able to talk to many students on how they felt about the presentation. I too probably would be nervous going up to random people asking fro their input. That is good though that you were able to do that. I did not see in the blog post that you interview Davis unless I missed it, my bad. That would have been cool to interview someone very well known. In the long run though at least you enjoyed you field assignment and went through with it. 

Samuel Islas 5/4/12

I know I enjoyed mine and I think that is the best thing to do when you really enjoy doing a topic that is interesting to you and the readers. 

estebanvillegas:

I had a very interesting experience with my field assignment. I really did not know what to expect or how to accomplish it. My brother is journalism major and any mistakes in my writing have always been critiqued by him. However, my brother gave me some few tips in order to accomplish my field…

My field assignment was about enrollment for public and private elementary schools. I talked to two parents and two faculty members.

The assignment was interesting because honestly I thought it was going to be boring. The two parents that I spoke to were very nice and answered all the questions I had. The two faculty member were the ones that were kind of hard to interview because both were busy and the days they were available it conflicted with my availability but that gores to show that I need to make sacrifices in order to get this story done. When I finally got a chance to interview the faculty members they were both very open to answering any of my questions. 

It would have been cool though to interview the students. If I were to do that I would probably need a permission slip from each of the student’s parents. that would have taken a while to get and there probably would be a lot of trouble to organize that. I does not matter though because I was able to get what I needed from the four interviews I conducted. 

Overall I really did enjoy the topic I chose. I think that is the best thing to do. If you chose something that is interesting and you want to do that as your topic it should be smooth sailing. I think it is funny when students choose something that is not creative or interesting and is very bland to the reader. Because that is when your work becomes more difficult to do. 

I also noticed that everyone did their field assignment about an event or something that pertained with Cal Poly Pomona. Mine did not on the other hand so hopefully my stands out in a good way and not by failing. 

Samuel Islas

5/4/12