By Rebecca Doser
FEATURES EDITOR
“Next stop, 42nd Street Times Square. That’s right, folks…next stop, 42nd Street Times Square.”
Phew, fresh air, I thought as I exited the shady terminal into a growing stampede of New Yorkers. Okay, now turn left, find 3 Times Square, stop at the desk in the lobby for a pass, have the deskman call extension 6263, and head to the 19th floor. Easy right? Perhaps for a city gal, but more like a heart attack in the making for a small-town girl like me who is acclimated to the tight-knit, middle-of-nowhere land of Canton, NY, and also has the worst sense of direction you can fathom.
Nevertheless, I made it. Reuters America: one of the largest international multimedia news agencies in the world.
As an English Creative Writing Major taking as many journalism/newswriting classes available to me, I immediately hopped on the rare occurrence that “Journalism” appeared under the industry search engine on the Shadow-A-Saint program webpage. When notified by Career Services of my selection to participate in the program, I immediately called my parents, eager and optimistic to be shadowing National Correspondent, Barbara Goldberg’80 at Thomson Reuters.
Next up: Research time. I investigated the in’s-and-out’s of the Reuters company while simultaneously learning that Goldberg was not just any alumna, but rather one of the top journalists in the News industry. Time, U.S. News & World Report, NPR, and ABC News are just a handful of previous journalism experiences for Goldberg.
With spunk, energy and eagerness to have my company, Goldberg led me from the vibrant orange walls through the cluttered forest of employees’ desks. And let me tell you, when I say forest, I mean forest. Reuters is composed of varying sects similar to the layers of a forest, yet much different: world news, business news, stock market updates, and headline news to ensure an alert and notified nation-wide audience.
Only having previous journalism experience as an editor and writer of student-run newspapers, I lit up at what may seem like a pretty dry and disastrous forest to some, but was pretty damn beautiful in my eyes.
The fast-paced environment of Reuters hits you the second you walk in. “Good morning, I’m calling to confirm the plane crash in Westchester that occurred…” followed by “Hey Paul, I’ll have that article in to you no later than 7 p.m. this evening…” was like music to my ears.
Man, I wished I could be sitting in that spinny-chair right now, writing up interview questions for a story, and sipping coffee out of a Reuters mug while NBC news blared from the cheap television screen beside my laptop.
But little did I know, that is exactly what I was doing five minutes later.
My expectation of what a “shadow” experience would be like was hit out of the ballpark within my first conversation with Goldberg.
“I am going to send you the pitch I just gave to my boss for a feature story that I want you to help me on. It’s going to run at the end of this week so we have the next three days to get going,” she told me with upbeat excitement.
“I will give you the next hour to look up these two conservative groups, find their contact information and write up five to seven interview questions for each. Then we will meet for coffee and go over what you came up with. Sound good?”
Wide-eyed, grinning and trying to suppress my increasing heart rate, I immediately felt the urge to rip out a “HERE WE GO SAAAINTS!” in the middle of the Reuters office building. But luckily I came to my senses and managed a more appropriate, “Wow, that sounds awesome!”
The Pitch:
LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. – This story will take a look at how elementary school educators teach traditional family holidays like Father’s Day and Mother’s Day to children now that an increasing number of kids are being raised in same sex families, a trend expected to pick up speed now that gay marriage is legal in 20 states.
Color will be included from a visit on Thursday to the Lambertville Public School, where first graders making a Father’s Day project include one student with two dads. (We’ll call him “L” in the story, although we can identify the Dad)
Interviews may include:
1. Demographers from the Census Bureau, UCLA’s Williams Institute who can discuss the how many children under 18 live in U.S. households with a mom and a dad (about two-thirds, meaning one-third have a different definition for family) as well as growth in the number of children under 18 being raised in same sex families (100,000 in 2000 and 125,000 in 2010 – a 25 percent increase).
2. Spokespeople from leading LGBT organizations that focus on teaching methods, curriculum and why being inclusive on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day goes beyond just feeling welcome and ultimately affects school performance.
3. One of L’s teacher, a veteran educator who can discuss changes in the way she now handles the holidays compared to in years past.
4. A first grade teacher from a private elementary school near Atlanta, Georgia, on what teaching methods were used to get her class to welcome a fellow student’s two moms to the school’s Mother’s Day tea.
5. L’s father, who also participated previously in his son’s nursery school’s Mother’s Day spa – an experience he initially resisted but, at the teacher’s urging, joined to the joy – and relief – of his child.
6. Conservative groups on whether there is a need to develop more inclusive curriculum for traditional holidays given the rise in the number of same-sex families in the U.S., especially in light of the argument that children who feel more connected to their school do better academically.
After reading this pitch off my laptop screen, I took a deep breath, inhaling the addictive scent of the fresh morning brew swirling through the Reuters cubicles. I thought back to the literary journalistic stories that I spent weeks, hours, and late nights tweaking for Professor Juraj Kittler’s Literary Journalism course last semester. But in comparison, this pitch was so intriguing to me that I just nodded my head thinking, “Damn, this is going to be an unbelievable experience and I am going to take advantage of every single part of it.”
Traveling with Goldberg to Lambertville Public School on Thursday was filled with conversation surrounding the “nipping and tucking” of her 664-word draft to adhere to the 600-wordcap given by the editors. The fact that Goldberg trusted me, a St. Lawrence upcoming Junior, to give her constructive criticism of each aspect of her rough draft just goes to show how she truly wanted this to be a learning experience for me, that I could reference in my future journalism endeavors.
Likely, all of you hear the following phrase multiple times during your four years at St. Lawrence: SLU alumni are truly great. And I bet all of you think within the same mindset, brushing off this seemingly redundant comment as if it is old news that you are already aware of.
If you get nothing else out of this article, I hope you remember this: SLU alumni ARE unreal. You, as a student, have the potential and resources to connect, and reach out to a successful, friendly, and experienced group of Saints whom hold at least one common ground: St. Lawrence University. You cannot wait around and expect life to merely place an opportunity on your doorstep, rather you, like I did, should seek out each and every opportunity that flashes by. For me, I never would have had this life-changing experience had I not hopped on my Shadow-A-Saint application with the eagerness that I did.
As the SLU Associate Director of Major Gifts and my volleyball team’s faculty mentor, John Pezdek consistently reminds my teammates and I the following advice: “Do not merely spend your time, but rather invest your time.”
I did not spend my time twiddling my thumbs while standing in the first grade classroom at Lambertville Public School, rather I invested myself in observing Goldberg’s poise, note-taking skills, and communicative skills as she interviewed the first grade teacher. I even photographed this shot of the featured student to accompany the article.
I did not spend my time roaming Times Square with the “shop ‘till I drop” mentality on my last day in NYC, rather I invested myself in arriving early to Reuters in order to attend the morning news meeting and observe the environment in which I hope to work in someday.
And what was the result? Recognition as an “Additional Reporter” in Goldberg’s article titled “Teaching Tolerance to Children When Father’s Day Is Fathers’ Day” which was published in The New York Times as well as on the Reuters website.
I challenge you to ask yourself this question at least once a day: Am I truly investing my time, or am I merely spending it?