Catching Up

I honestly swore to myself that I wouldn't get behind with this article or the sound blog post that I'm trying to do, but I've somehow managed to do that. It's my fault that I let it happen but I've also realized that it's incredibly hard to do any type of work when your laptop is continuously shutting off without warning. Thankfully, I now have a new laptop, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up with both stories.

I'm really focusing my time on the Choosy Kids article mainly because it's my first real assignment that will be published in a real magazine. The sound blog is something that I have no idea as to what to I'm supposed to do, much like the Choosy Kids article, but I'm asking Laura all of the questions that I have in the hopes that she'll be able to explain it to me so I'll be able to understand what I need to do.

I'm incredibly nervous about these two pieces and I just want them to be good when I write them. I'm worried that they won't be good enough and that I won't be good at writing in these types of forums and I don't want my choices to be limited when I graduate. Overall, I'm just incredibly nervous about this internship as it progresses.

Dr. Linda Carson Interview

I interviewed Dr. Carson twice. I called and spoke to her for about an hour over the phone and I also went to the Choosy Kids office and spoke with her for about an hour and a half. I found out that she knew my mother and used to work with her back in the day and she is a very nice lady. I enjoyed speaking with her and for it being only my second ever interview, I think they both went rather well. She was very easy to talk to and I didn't really have to think of questions before hand because she honestly answered every single question I needed to ask. I did end up thinking of questions throughout the interviews, but she really knew what I needed and wanted to hear from her about the company and what she does with the company.

I went to the Choosy Kids office on Wednesday February 15th at 3:30 pm. The office is located on Collins Ferry Rd. and it is easy to find actually. I'll admit that when I walked in I was incredibly shocked to see how professional the offices were. I was expecting to see something like a daycare center but they had individual office spaces for the workers, small cubicles for their interns, a break room, a conference room and various hallways that are decorated with Choosy and pictures of their various trips.

That was the first thing Linda asked me when she sat down with me in the conference room. She asked me if I was surprised to see what the offices looked like. And I told her that I was. She just smiled and said that most people were. I think it's honestly because everyone who does know about this company believes that it is a type of daycare/child's program. It's not. It is a legitimate company that is just trying to get off on it's feet and be recognized as a company that is focused on getting it's message of healthy choices and decisions out to all of the children so they don't grow up to have heart problems and have troubles with obesity.

I think that's basically what my story is going to be about. Just getting the word out to people in Morgantown that Choosy Kids is a company that wants to help the children learn about healthy alternatives that could ultimately save their lives.

Choosy Kids

So, I have my first article assignment. I am writing about Choosy Kids, which is a company based in West Virginia and was co-founded by Dr. Linda Carson. She worked at WVU from 1979-2009 when she retired and focused all of her energy on Choosy Kids. She had been working on Choosy Kids since she first started at WVU, but back then, it all started with KinderSkills and KinderSplash and other programs that she started and ran with the help of her students. The first KinderSkills class was in the spring semester of 1980 and it ran for a long time. I myself attended KinderSkills when I was around three or four years old. My mother worked in the Physical Education department with Linda and she took me and my sister to KinderSkills. I loved it and I know that these children at Head Start facilities all across the country love Choosy and love the programs that the company puts on.

Choosy Kids is a company... not a children's program like most people think it is. They go to Head Start facilities across the country and even to other countries and train teachers and children about oral health, nutrition and physical activity. They want to get children thinking about the healthy choices and alternatives they could be making and starting it when they're fairly young so it gets engrained in their heads so they grow up making the healthier decisions.

Choosy is the company's mascot. He doesn't have a story yet. It is left up to the child's imagination. He's green, furry, wears red Converse high tops, a backwards baseball cap and purple sunglasses. He is very much the face of the company and he helps teach the children about the proper and healthy ways they could be eating and living their lives. The children have a lot of theories about who/what Choosy is. Some say he's an alien from a healthy planet and he was sent to Earth to teach us. Others say that he is a bug who came up from underground to help us live healthier lives. Linda doesn't have a story for him yet and she doesn't know if she's going to think of one because the stories the children come up with are amusing and very, very creative.

Overall, I think this story on Choosy Kids will be very difficult to write mainly because I have never written a journalistic type of story and I'm worried that I won't have a good grasp on the style of the magazine. I'm just worried that it won't be good enough because I don't have any experience in this type of writing.

First Week Down

My first week at WV Living was an a real eye opener. I had no idea what to expect because I had never worked for a magazine or been in that type of environment. Now, to me, it seemed like a slow week, but everyone else kept referring to it as being busy. I guess it's just because I'm still new and they're easing me into the process. But, so far, I really like what I'm doing. 
Monday I was there for about two and a half hours and I was given the task of finding different places around Morgantown that would be kid friendly but also good for people of all ages as well. I did manage to find a great deal of places but the list is not completed yet. I've been working on it throughout the week as well when I wasn't in the office just to keep it updated and clean and neat. 

Yesterday, Wednesday, I was there for two hours and I was cross checking the lists of where WV Living and WV Weddings was sold. I had the correct list of places and I had the list that was on the web. I had to check to see which ones weren't on each list and make a note of it. I also was given a list of phone numbers from certain vendors that sell our Morgantown Magazine. I didn't get to that yesterday though.

That's what I was doing today, well still am doing. I called down the list and am now waiting for about three vendors to call me back with the numbers of copies sold. I've also been given my first story assignment. I'm going to be setting up an interview with one of the founders of Choosy Kids, which is a program for kids and parents and educators to help fight against childhood obesity and to just get the kids moving and having their parents help them as well. My job is to set up an interview with one of the founders and ask them simple questions about Choosy Kids, like what exactly the program is, why/how it got started, how it's making a difference, and how people can get involved. This story is for the June/July issue of Morgantown Magazine and it only needs to be 800 words. 

I'm really excited about this but I'm also extremely apprehensive about it because it is my first story assignment and I'm still getting used to the style of the magazine but I'm still excited about getting my feet wet with the magazine.