I just wanted to take a moment before my internship ended this afternoon to thank everyone at the Oklahoman for their guidance this summer during my internship.

The generosity and leadership displayed by the editors and staff here allowed me to further my skills. Over the last two months, I felt I was able to contribute in significant areas in the newsroom. I appreciate your time in answering all my (many) questions or taking time to mentor an intern.

A special thank yous to my fellow interns for all their kindness and generousity over the last two months. I worked with a lot of talented, amazing individuals. I sincerely wish you all the best of luck in whatever you decide to do in journalism or outside of it.

A huge thank you goes to my mentors Don Gammill and Richard Hall for always taking time even with deadlines or multiple projects to help guide, mentor and sharing any wisdom they had to offer for this intern.

Winston Churchill had this quote I feel sums up this phase of my young journalism career. “This isn’t the end. This isn’t even the beginning of the end. However, this is the end of the beginning.”

Thank you again for everything.

– Joey Stipek

I currently work for as the online communities intern in the social media hub on the 9th floor. Online communities pertains to the “know it” topics and their expansive library. If you’re unfamiliar with the “know its,” they pool together information, resources and articles published in The Oklahoma and on NewsOK into an online library.

These topics are developed as a joint multimedia project, using all of the OPUBCO newsgathering sources, from reporters to photographers, videographers, data research personnel and archivists, as well as from wire services, syndicates and other sources.

If you ever wanted to know more about any of the “know it” topics, ranging from addiction to mental health, cultural awareness to finance, recreation to Sam Bradford, there is a “know it” section created for each and every one of them.

But there also are the online communities. Edmond, Midwest City, Norman, Oklahoma City and Yukon serve as the hub of each community, which also includes surrounding towns and areas. Not only are there stories, photos and resource material compiled by Oklahoman and NewsOK staff members, but there are contributions from readers.

If you want to contribute information, praise or promote events in your area, you can do so by adding the following emails to your mailing list.

edmond@newsok.com — mid-del@newsok.com — norman@newsok.com — okc@newsok.com — yukon@newsok.com

Each community’s site has instructions on how to send in material. Just follow the directions.

Every morning, I come in armed with an AP Stylebook, cup of coffee and my own offbeat sense of humor as I sort through reader-submitted releases and news. I copy edit these releases and send them to Communities Editor Don Gammill or on occasion Metro Editor Kimberly Burk for the “News From You” page that runs each Saturday in The Oklahoman.

Occasionally, I will write about one of these topics featured in the “know it” library on our Know It blog and I’ll tweet out Don’s traffic column and “know it” related items on my personal twitter account.

What I love about journalism is investigative reporting, open records, entertainment writing and seeing language put to good use.

That’s “know its,” my internship and me. If you have questions, send me a note.

ASA Hall of Fame Stadium view from my seat at the NCAA Women's College World Series on Monday, June 4, 2012.

My post is a continuation of Garett’s recent post about the NCAA Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

When I was first selected for an internship at The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City and the WCWS immediately popped into my head. I knew I would find a way to watch a few games at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

Although I no longer play softball, it was a part of my life for many years. I played T-ball and started playing softball more competitively at age 10. I played on various travel teams based out of Southern Indiana and pitched for my high school team. I toyed with the idea of playing in college, but wanted to put more focus on building a career.

I grew up watching series-greats, such as Jennie Finch with University of Arizona, Cat Osterman with University of Texas and University of Tennessee’s Monica Abbott. I made it a goal to play at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, or to at least visit the place where softball history is made.

This past week, I visited the stadium and it was an experience that was a long time in the making. It was great to see so many fans packed into a softball stadium, considering softball doesn’t get much recognition where I’m from. I soaked in the atmosphere and can’t wait to cheer on University of Oklahoma this evening as they battle University of Alabama in game 3 of the WCWS championship series.

Go OU!

-Olivia Ingle

When I first heard the news all I could think about was Ohio St. and Michigan coming to Memorial Stadium and being swamped by the Sea of Red and the new rivalry that would begin.  The Huskers going to the Big House and The Horseshoe and silencing the crowd with big hit after big hit and overpowering the Big 10 with all their speed. Why lie we all know the Big 10 is not known for their speed and Nebraska has made major strides to compete with the speed that the Texas’ and Oklahoma’s bring to the field every Saturday. And now they would be going to a conference where they could possibly have the fastest players on the football field. Can you say BCS bound??? But with all these positives I had to contact some of my former classmates and see what the feeling was around Lincoln.

I talked to a former Husker and several current Huskers and I was reminded of all the tradition that would be lost.  The rich history of the Big 8 and the Big 12, all the battles that Texas and Nebraska went through just wiped away. And Oklahoma and Nebraska.   I was only a student-athlete at Nebraska for a year but I began to hate Texas along with my classmates. I remember when we had Big 12 Indoor Track Championships back in 2008 in Lincoln and I couldn’t believe how raucous the Devancey Center was from the chanting from Texas and Nebraska. We lost the meet by one point and from then on I hated Texas and everything they stood for, well maybe not hated but I had a strong dislike for the ‘horns. All this would be washed away and probably forgotten with the next generation. But honestly our generation has kind of lost touch with what is used to be.

Nebraska and Oklahoma had some of the greatest games college football ever seen but when the division split hit they no longer played every year and more and more of the younger generation forgot they were even rivals seeing as Oklahoma has dominated the Huskers the past 10 years with the icing on the cake being a 62-28 drubbing in 1928. That was my first Oklahoma-Nebraska game I ever watched and I thought to myself “are we really rivals with the Sooners because they are beating us like a non-conference AA opponent.” The split division philosophy also causes less games between the hated Longhorns. The rivalry isn’t what it used to be  between the two schools and we need to just face it and move in. It’s very tough to be someone’s rival when you don’t even play them every year like Michigan-Ohio St. do every year for the past 109 years! The Huskers will go to the Big 10 start some new rivalries and create new history.

I think the best part of this deal is recruiting. They can now steal the Big 10 schools recruits and they can even begin an OU-Nebraska rivalry game or Texas-Nebraska game to keep getting recruits in the area. I think the move is great for the Huskers and well needed. They can now be in a conference where revenues are shared and not dominated by that team down in Austin that just sucks up all the revenue.

I think the sport it’s going to benefit most is volleyball, think about this: Big 10 championship between Nebraska and Penn St. Can u say E-P-I-C.

The decision comes after years of hikes in tuition costs from school year to school year.  The trend of raising tuition started when state legislators decided almost 10 years ago to give control over state-funded universities’ tuition prices to regents instead of handling it themselves.

Even though prices for OU and OSU have risen steadily in recent years, both schools pale in comparison to the prices of other schools in the Big XII.  Prices at Oklahoma schools don’t compare to the likes of schools like Baylor, Colorado, and Missouri.  Even as a Colorado native, I would pay almost the same amount for in-state tuition at CU as I do as an out-of-state student at OSU.

It’s nice to hear the regents are giving out-of-state students a break financially for once.  Hopefully, Oklahoma public universities can start a new trend and not raise tuition costs again.

Be sure to check out the link below to newsok.com to see Ed Kelley’s original video.