Zoe Pringle

Staff Writer

In the beginning of November, Foran students of the Journalism Department took a field trip to Southern Connecticut State University for a Journalism workshop. This article is a follow-up to a previous story I wrote detailing the feelings of students anticipating the field trip. Access that story by clicking this link: https://manestreetmirror.com/2018/11/20/journalism-department-takes-a-trip/. Now, students return to the classroom feeling more prepared than in the beginning of the year, and ready for better newspaper making.

To start, I interviewed a couple of Journalism students that clearly enjoyed the field trip as a whole and will be keeping their experiences in mind as they contribute to the Mane Street Mirror this school year.

Senior Sam Inthapanhya states, “I enjoyed my first session “Just The Facts,” which taught me the importance to write and be objective because it’s what current journalism needs. It made me look at journalism in a different light.”  

Sam wasn’t the only one who felt strongly about this field trip. When asked a few questions about how the trip is influenced her specifically, Junior Ciara Demott had a lot to say, “By taking the seminar “Beyond Fake Polls” I was able to understand how to create a more reliable and scientific aspect to my articles. For the month of December I did a drink review and I was able to ask a differentiation of students to get better results.”

She also includes her favorite thing that she learned, “..the “Just The Facts” seminar… in a large group we were able to discuss why certain things aren’t good enough for the news and why news today is so biased, especially politically.”

Demott ends her summary of her experience with an overall statement, “I really enjoyed the atmosphere of SCSU and how freely we were able to discuss our own opinions with new people. It did open my eyes to why news is the way it is and also how society views it.”

Finally, I was able to question the Journalism teacher Mrs. Lisa Farrell to see how this trip went compared to other field trips in the past. She states, “This year the trip for me was just as insightful and eye opening as it always is – I think that students learn a lot about journalism through professor led workshops and I am always happy to be part of the adviser’s round table where I can learn from other schools. I think the most beneficial is just learning from other people – when you stop talking and listen, anyone can learn a lot!”

She also mentions some things that she looks forward to implementing in our very own newspaper, “Layout and design is something I am always trying to improve on, I really liked the look of Norwalk’s paper and want to try some of their ideas.”