Oklahoman interns NewsOK.com Blogging Community

Here’s the funny thing about good-byes:

You can see them coming, but when you actually have to say those two dreaded words. . . it’s never easy.

That’s how I feel today, with less than four hours left in my Oklahoman internship.

I couldn’t agree more with Richard and Dontay: This experience has been invaluable to me beyond words, and looking back now, I can’t believe how much I’ve learned.

Like I’ve told my editors, the only reason I came to Oklahoma was because of the glowing reputation for The Oklahoman’s internship program. I had no ties to this state, so there was no other incentive for me to come here. Yet I couldn’t be more glad with the choice I made! This internship program surpassed its great reputation, and I’ve found Oklahoma has the same “Midwestern nice” qualities I’ve been familiar with all my life, which is a comfort and a joy.

Like Richard, I also find myself wondering, “What if?” [What if I didn’t find the courage within to take risks and travel to places I’ve never been?] Well, then I’d certainly have regrets.

But that’s not the case. I’ve treasured every moment here in Oklahoma - even the stressful ones.

I came here wanting to improve my writing and gain experience in multimedia - and I feel like I did just that. Plus, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazingly talented reporters, editors and photographers, who’ve each helped me become a better journalist.

I’ll walk away from here with improved skills and new friendships that I hope will last. [That means you, fellow interns!]

It’s sad to be saying good-bye. But as I’ve been saying to my colleagues here, it’s only good-bye for now. This certainly won’t be the last you hear from me.

Thank you, Oklahoman, for everything you’ve given me this summer. It’s been a wonderful ride.

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

First board meeting for OKC Superintendent

   
Karl Springer started a new tradition for the Oklahoma City Board of Education tonight during his first board meeting as superintendent.

During each school board meeting, Springer wants time set aside for a “superintendent’s report” - which he says he’ll use to tell the public about what he’s been doing around the district. Springer said he requested this time and received unanimous support from the board members.

“We need to be transparent,” Springer said, during his first report to the board. “We want to cause everybody to rally around the students. . . My politics, my agenda is to make sure every child gets a quality education.”

School board chairman Al Basey applauded Springer’s work during his first six days in the superintendent’s role, calling him “the greatest advocate of employees and kids we’ve ever had in our district.”

As Springer was introduced during the meeting, he received a lively applause from parents and community members in the audience.

Springer appeared enthused about his new role - describing with excitement the various things he’s done during his brief time with the district: media interviews, visits to schools and speaking at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

As several parents and family members of Classen SAS students spoke about the administration issues at the school, Springer sat attentively and seemed interested and responsive in the parents’ feedback.

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman (reporting for The Oklahoman’s Wendy Kleinman).

** Also featured on NewsOK’s Education Station blog.

Since this was our last weekend as Oklahoman interns, it was a chance for many of us to make some lasting memories with the friends we’ve made this summer.

Friday night was a night out at the Oklahoma Redhawks game - courtesy of OPUBCO/The Oklahoman, which provided us with free suite tickets and an all-you-can-eat promotion pass (Thank you, OPUBCO!).

Some interns brought family members or friends to share the night with, while the rest of us made use of each other’s company to share in America’s past-time. But either way, good times were had by all!

Ironically, rather than watching the ballgame, many of us spent the night chatting together with the other Oklahoman employees who joined us: Joe Hight (director of information and development), Patti Shubert (executive assistant) and Jim Beckel (photographer).

I’m sure we provided them with some added entertainment with our intern cameraderie and antics — and maybe a little terror too, in Jason’s case…

The evening passed much too quickly, and before we knew it, the ballgame ended. Even though the Redhawks lost at the bitter end, the night still closed with a bang…

 Then on Saturday, a few of us met up again for an ol’ fashioned board-game night.

Jason and I faced off in a game of Scrabble - since I wasn’t fully convinced of his mastery over the game. He soon put my doubts to shame as he won with more than twice the score of mine. That put me in my place.

When Amy, Jenn and Dontay joined us, we switched to Scattergories, which led to much laughter as we began to question the worth of each other’s answers during the numerous rounds we played.

Some of the best moments?

– Dontay fast becoming the underdog and likely winning more rounds than all of us.

– Amy calling me out on “flakes” actually being “snowflakes,” so I couldn’t use it as an answer for “F” under “Things that are cold.

– Jason and I having some kind of telekinetic link and coming up with the exact same obscure answers as one another.

– Jenn being constantly distracted by my playful kitten and coming up with random answers.

So, as you might tell, it was an exciting and fun-filled weekend with some great friends. It’s amazing how fast you can get used to being around the same friends all the time, and before you know it - that time is up.

One more week of memories, my friends… Let’s make ‘em worth it.

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

Just want to share this video that I did this week.

These kids have a lot of fun and play really well. I met them a couple of weeks ago on an assignment and wanted to go back and do a video story to portray their emotion and energy…… and humor.

-Amy (Photo)

Jefferson Middle School Drum Line - Playing everything from Metallica to Mozart, the Jefferson Middle School drum line in Oklahoma City has energy, teamwork, and a lot of fun.

In my most recent discussion with fellow intern Dontay Allen, the topic of the SuperSonics’ recent transition from Seattle to Oklahoma City was at the center. More importantly, we shared opinions about what the team’s new nickname should be.

Oklahoma has a deep history - rich with a collaborative western and Indian heritage as displayed at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. There are also several top energy companies within the state and a history of tornadic disasters. And though famous outlaws such as George “Machine Gun” Kelley, Bonnie and Clyde, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, among others, may not necessarily be a positive thing, they did commit many heinous acts of crime throughout the state. I hope you’ll forgive me for being unable to name all the wonderful things this state has to offer (I’m not from here), but I hope it gets everyone’s creative juices flowing. Embrace this state and take pride in its culture by naming OKC’s new NBA team after the history of this state.

Here’s my top two picks:

Oklahoma City Cyclones (vs. the Twisters as listed on the NewsOK.com Poll: What should the team in OKC be called?)

Oklahoma City Outlaws

Just a thought for the day!

Adrielle Harvey, Business Intern

It was only fitting that today after I posted my blog “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave,” I attended a Rotary Club 29 meeting with Business Editor Clytie Bunyan, in which 20 people representing 10 countries received their citizenship into the United States. The newly sworn-in citizens participated in the Pledge of Allegiance and sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” for the first time as U.S. citizens. 

Rotary Club 29 is the Oklahoma City branch of Rotary International, a service organization that lives by the motto, “Service Above Self.” Rotary Club 29 is the fourth largest Rotary International Club with 530 members. There are currently more than 30,000 clubs worldwide.

It was nevertheless a humbling and exciting experience and definitely a great way to kick off my Fourth of July celebration this weekend.

 - Adrielle Harvey, Business Desk

This morning, I filled in for The Oklahoman’s city government reporter Bryan Dean by attending the City Council meeting downtown.

Being July 1, it was the kick-off of the city’s fiscal year - meaning the council had a whole 63-pages full of purchase orders to approve for the next year. In between the actual prevalent issues, there was a whole lot of nothing - as is typical of any governmental meeting.

But I’ve been through worse, mind-numbing meetings in my journalism career so far. (And trust me, some were far, far worse.)

It helps that City has a special press box overlooking the council chambers - almost exactly like what you’d see in a sports arena. There’s a row of glass windows separating the chambers from the second-floor press box, with little speakers so the press can listen in to the meeting. What makes this so perfect is that you can multi-task while the council discusses the less-interesting topics, like zoning laws.

But you also don’t have to worry about being totally silent and still for the whole two-and-a-half-hour meeting. It’s very casual in the press box, and the reporters joke with each other, and the city’s spokeswoman Kristy Yager is there to help with anything you might need for a story - and throw in a joke here and there herself. That environment helped the slow parts of the meeting go by a lot faster.

I really enjoyed getting to cover the council meeting today though - I was able to sift through the agenda and listen to the council members, which helped percolate a few story ideas in my head.

So besides the couple items that I was told to watch for, I was able to come out of the meeting with a few other points worth mentioning in the newspaper.

~ Kristen M. Daum, City Desk intern at The Oklahoman.

Well, I clearly haven’t won any riddle awards, but I might win for least number of posts. Just want to say that everything is good in photoland. I just published to videos from my overnight stay at Quartz Mountain for the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute where students can go to excel in drawing, writing, singing, dancing, and many instruments. Both videos are on newsok.tv, but if you don’t see them in the list there, you can search ‘oklahoma arts’ and you should see them. There might also be the Red Earth festival video that I did a few weeks back. Happy to hear suggestions for improvement!

My view, in response to Kristen’s questions, is that this is the most exciting time to be a part of problem-solving in the news business. Since I’ve only been pursuing photojournalism recently, these changes feel pretty natural. I don’t see my work as a huge upheaval of the way things were but rather just the way things are. 

Communities of people love to learn and share, or basically tell stories, and for forever we’ve enjoyed storytelling through many disciplines and mediums (theatre, film, writing, singing, spoken word, painting, photographs, and a hundred others). So I understand why media companies are struggling to change in an industry where they haven’t been forced to make much change compared to others. But despite the change, the product is essentially the same, sharing information. 

I think it’s great to force ourselves to be more resourceful and find ways to better understand and reach customers/readers/viewers (or whatever you want to call them). It seems to me that when we combine the business talents, which seems to be the case at The Oklahoman with direct mail, niche publications, wimgo, newsok.com, and other endeavors, with the journalistic talents, that someone somewhere is going to be successful at providing a valuable service to the communities in which we live.

And to plug the glory of my job in particular. I really think this is a great time to be a photojournalist because now I have an array of tools, not only still photographs, to use in order to tell the most complete and compelling stories that my noggin can muster.

P.S. This might be complete garbage. I really know nothing. It’s all just in my head. Maybe someday I’ll be able to talk with actual authority on something.

Amy Rymer, Photo Intern 

On the eve of the NBA Draft, with all the excitement surrounding the Sonics and their possible relocation to Oklahoma City, my mind instead turns to tragedy: Len Bias is dead. He’s been dead for 22 years now. He’s been dead as long as he was alive.

Bias, one of the great college basketball players of all-time, died 36 hours after being selected in the 1986 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. He was on top of the world. He was about to sign a $1,000,000 contract with Reebok. He was the heir apparent to Michael Jordan. He said being drafted by the Celtics “made all his dreams come true.”

But the following night, while celebrating his new-found fame and fortune, Bias’ friend Brian Tribble convinced him to try cocaine. Bias did. He tried it all night long. And at one point, around 6:15 a.m., he snorted one last line. He then got up to use the bathroom, stumbled, sat back down on his bed and lapsed into seizures. Tribble didn’t know what to do. He called his mother, who told him to call 911. He did. He just kept telling the operator “It’s Len Bias.” The operator told him it didn’t matter who it was. Tribble repeated his name. “This is Len Bias. You have to get him back to life. There’s no way he can die.”

But Bias did die. At 8:51 a.m., at Leland Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, the doctors pronounced him dead. Someone called Larry Bird at his home in French Lick, Indiana. “One of the cruelest things I’ve ever heard,” was all Bird could say. There was know other way to describe it.

I don’t know how good Len Bias was. I don’t know if the Celtics would have kept winning championships had he not died. I don’t know if he would have rivaled Michael Jordan as the greatest player ever. Nobody knows the answers to those questions.

But I do know we can learn from his mistakes. I do know drugs can kill. I do know this can happen to anybody. I do know it’s a much shorter fall from the top of the world to six feet under than most people think, and it can happen in the blink of an eye. I do know we lost Len Bias too young.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this story. But I did think it was a story I needed to tell.

Jason Singer, Sports Intern

I promise I have not fallen into a dark hole and disappeared from the blog. OK, maybe I have, just kidding.

Last week, was crazy. Lots of projects to complete. Check out the interactive map that I spent more than three full days on. http://newsok.com/golf/coursesmap/. And yes the main illustration is something that I created! It’s a great piece. It was a part of the golf know its.

Wall-e, comes out June 27. For most of today, I have been working on the Weekend Look page, which looks pretty awesome so far and the main theme is about Wall-e. So check out the Weekend Look on Friday.

This week’s project is “Gas Getaways” which is run in the newspaper on July 2, along with a web piece. It’s seems to be a pretty interesting project!

So it’s almost hard to believe that my internship is halfway over. It has been such a great experience. The even scarier thing is less than 6 months from now I will graduate from Ball State University. For now it’s just another Monday here in Oklahoma.

Quote for today
“True interactivity is not about clicking on icons or downloading files, it’s about encouraging communication.”
—Ed Scholssberg, 2002

Jennifer Adams, graphic designer