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Published!

Yesterday when I left the office I grabbed two copies of the paper I work for.  Lo and behold, there was my name printed in the byline on page 14.

I’ve always loved that feeling immensely.  I’ll definitely share the article up on here when it is made available on the website.

I’m so excited, I enjoy being at this office and I enjoy the atmosphere.

This morning was fun because when I got in, my editor asked me to call the police department for another town.  The editor of that paper wasn’t in just yet and he needed someone to get the basics of a car that crashed into a house.

It felt so natural.  It’s definitely putting aside my anxieties as I get better accustomed to a newsroom setting.  On to bigger and better things always! 🙂

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So honored.

My editor called me into his office today to talk about a little field trip I get to go on.

For years, the LIRR and MTA have been working on creating an East Side Access Tunnel.  Lots of Long Island commuters work on the east side of NYC but have to go all the way to the west side of the city to Penn Station because there is no stop before then.

The East Side Access Tunnel will stop of course on the east side, and then I believe direct to Grand Central Station.

The LIRR/MTA have invited my paper to tour the tunnels in progress, which are not expected to be completed until 2019.

So on June 27th I get the opportunity to tour the tunnel.  This is a privilege!  Few people have ever gone down there besides the workers.

I’m truly blessed!

And on June 30th I’m going sky diving for the first time, but that is a present my sister and brother chipped in for.  Spectacular.

I feel really comfortable here and am so grateful to have found this internship.  Now back to work! 😛

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Started a new blog!

I always get really excited when I find little post-it notes or lists that have been lost.  I think it’s an interesting sneak peak into a strangers life.  I also like to leave little inspirational post-its in random places, like bathrooms and in between library books.

The site can be found here:

http://lostandfoundnotes.tumblr.com/

I’m also working on creating a literary blog, where writers can submit literary work, preferably with a journalistic twist.  This is inspired by my Literature of Journalism professor.

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Covering Police Activity

So tonight something interesting happened in this little college town.  I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed and what do you know pops up?

Someone posted about heavy police activity in town.

Their post read as:

“On my way to the deli in town, I saw 4 police cars, 2 fire trucks, and the trailways on Main street. I think someone got hit!! :O:”

This was posted just around midnight.  And I had seen it about 25 minutes after it was posted.  So I decided to check Twitter and there were two tweets about it.

The most interesting Tweet was:

“What is happening in New Paltz? Helicopters, 7 police cars, and ambulance and a women screaming outside the middle school. WHAT’S GOING ON?”

So I decided to go into town to investigate.  While I was putting on clothes (I was in pajamas at this time) I could hear a helicopter outside, to me that was a confirmation.

It took me about 15 minutes to walk into town.  When I got to the area by the aforementioned Middle School and the Deli (Convenient Deli) it was bone quiet.  Nothing was stirring.  No police activity.  Convenient is 24 hours, so I went inside and asked the cashier if he had seen or heard anything.  He said someone either got hit by a bus or had a heart attack on it.  Either way they were airlifted to a hospital.  He also gave me the interesting fact that a drug sniffing dog was brought in.

Luckily, I had bumped into my roommate in the deli, who dropped me off back to the dorm.  I proceeded to call the bus company but they shut they closed at midnight.  I then called the town police.  I explained what I heard about the activity and the officer on the end of the line, clearly annoyed and angered said, “We don’t give out that kind of information on the phone.”  I didn’t want to deal with an irate officer so I hung up without pressing any further.  You can bend my back but not break it.

So now what do I do?  I’ve written down my timeline of events and what I know.  I have to go to the bus station tomorrow anyway to take a bus home for the weekend and I plan on doing some more snooping.

What more could I have done?

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CoveritLive!

Doing my first CoveritLive! event.

Now let’s see if I can get this to work properly.

 
Click Here to tune in!

Tune in to see my tweets on “The Art of Investigative Reporting” Lecture with Andy Lehren, from the New York Times.

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Wrote this last semester

I had to write a tragedy article for a class last semester, so I chose my dad.   Obviously I can’t publish it but I thought it would be nice to share.

Enjoy!

________

by Laura Cerrone

Angelo Cerrone does not like to remember his near-death experience 35 years ago. So much so, his wife barely knew it even happened.

In 1976, Cerrone was 22 years old, working for the aviation service company Allied at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica, Queens. He was assigned to troubleshoot a company bus that would not turn on. Cerrone recalls the only other person was the bus driver, one with no knowledge on fixing a vehicle.

“I troubleshooted the vehicle and it still wouldn’t start, the battery was okay, so I knew the problem was elsewhere.” said Cerrone.

He proceeded to inspect the undercarriage of the vehicle. He had instructed the driver to stay in the driver’s seat with the bus in park and his foot on the brake. Cerrone remembers the moment the bus turned on – and suddenly it began to move, dragging him underneath as the driver pulled away.

“It was a burning pain. It was like a hot rash. Like I was set on fire.”

Cerrone gripped onto the bus’ chassis. “If I were to let go I would’ve been run over.”

He was dragged almost 20 feet before his screams were heard by the driver. In a matter of minutes an ambulance arrived and took the young man to Peninsula General Hospital.

For Cerrone this could have been the end to his life, or the end to his dreams working in the airline industry. As a young boy, Cerrone grew up in post-World War II rural Italy. He lived on a farm where he shared a room with four other siblings, and used an outhouse. When his father brought him home a broken bike, Cerrone fixed it. When he moved to the United States at 13, he saw opportunity all around him, the biggest of all was working for the airline industry, because to him there was nothing more powerful and magnificent than an airplane.

Cerrone had sustained lacerations running up and down his back, internally he was miraculously unscathed.

While physically he healed with a few days in the hospital and several weeks off work, he wasn’t emotionally ready to take on his job again.

Cerrone turned to a friend of his mothers named Marisa Schiavello, Schiavello specializes in spiritual prayer healing. While Cerrone attended his regular doctor check-ups to check for possible infection he also sought sessions with Schiavello. Schiavello and Cerrone’s mother would swaddle him in bandages and then pray to God for him to heal.

“Emotionally it helped, made me feel that God was on my side because I wasn’t killed.”

Cerrone now lives in a house he worked years to build with a wife and three kids, a cat, and two bunnies. He still works for the airline industry at American Airlines where he gets to watch airplanes take off and land, still fascinating his inner-childlike awe.

Cerrone reflects on everything he has now and imagines it could of all been very different.

“The scariest thing about this ordeal is that I thought it was the end of my life.”

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Working on an article.

I’m currently working on an article about women who drastically change their appearance/cut their hair following a break-up or other traumatic experience.  I’ve done two interviews so far and am finding out really interesting information.  A lot of it is what I anticipated but other information is new and gives a depth  about people and their coping abilities.

I really can’t wait to write it and file it and post it on here!  I definitely want to accompany it with a post about the process.

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German Newspaper Layout

I love this new layout, and I think it will be something I can handle.

Especially with how full my semester will be.  I’m taking six classes, 17 credits worth.  I’m also on the e-board in two clubs.  Not to mention I go to the gym and try to have a bit of a social life.

I just got done with my first week of classes for the new semester.  One my classes starts next week so I haven’t been to all of them.

My classes are:

Text Me! – This class is about computer mediated communication.  I’ve found this topic really interesting especially with my fascinaition (and addiction) to social media.  But now I get to learn the history of all of it, like how the Justice Department and ARPANET are two major factors in me being able to write this on my laptop.

Literature of Journalism – My professor speaks the truth in this class.  Literary journalism is something I’ve never had the chance to do, and it will be fun to add a flair of creativity to personal narratives while social commentating the way I see things.  Love it already.

Arts Writing – Writing about music, film, art, dance, theater… and the whole rest of the gambit.  My professor was a editor of the Rolling Stones magazine.  Cannot wait for her anecdotal stories and report on some of my biggest interests with integrity and the tools I need.

Investigative Journalism – Probably my favorite so far.  Taught by a New York Times reporter, I learned more in the first class than I ever did before.  This was the perfect class to take, I can’t wait to take the knowledge I gain and translate it into real impactful stories.

Advanced Editing – This class runs an online newspaper.  We are in charge of everything, assigning the stories, editing, fact-checking… we’re pretty self-efficient.  Getting a taste of ‘the real thing’ should brace me with a little more backbone for actual (and virtual) newsrooms.

Intercultural Interaction – This is the class I start next week and have once a week for seven consecutive weeks.  It’s my one credit modular course and all I know is that I will be working on some sort of project that involves a student from a foreign university.  Sounds pretty exciting, pretty stoked!

So, with all that said, most of these classes are upper division.  Which means the workload is…is… scary.  I’m looking at my homework list from this first week and don’t know how I will pull it altogether

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Case Studies

I’m attending the National Communication Association conference in New Orleans in 2 weeks, and I just received my badge to get in and also the book I chose.  I chose “Critical Studies in Media Communication”

I cannot wait to read it! It looks like it has such interesting information in it, thumbing through it the first chapter is about journalism during the Beijing Olympics.  I was really excited when I read that title.  There’s also coverage of racism in journalism in modern day and how the New York Times covered fires in the late 1800’s.  Fascinating.

I’ll probably get to reading it this weekend.  When I cut into it, Ill give a little non-libelous review!

 

Hope everyone is adjusting to November!