August 14, 2008

Today is the last Thursday of my internship and my Brazil story was pushed back a week. Through one of my other sources, I found a Brazilian man with plans of moving back home in October, but he keeps flaking out on interviews. I've called him three times a day for the past week or so and left messages on both his work and home phones. He's pretty much impossible to get a hold of.

Knowing it would make my story that much better to start with an anecdotal lead involving this guy, I'm really hoping I can interview him before tomorrow. Besides that, I feel like I've written a pretty informative article that wouldn't be bad the way it is.

Today I'm driving around Woburn taking pictures of every school in town (12 to be exact) for the back to school issue coming out in a couple of weeks. It's not exactly the most exciting thing in the world, but it's easy.

If lady luck is on my side, I should be getting a call back from this source. If not, I gave it my all, tried my best and am proud of the article that came out.

August 7, 2008

It took me six weeks, but I finally earned some money at my internship. My first person disc golf story was published in a half dozen local newspapers and I got paid for it, which is awesome. I'm pretty pleased with what I wrote.
Also today, my bass fisherman story came out on the front page and it looks pretty good. It was an interesting story to write and in my opinion, the lead was one of the best I've ever had published.

With time running out on my internship, I'm just about to get started on my Brazil story. I'm just waiting to interview a man who is actually planning to head back, for an anecdotal lead. I've got pages and pages of interviews and statistics and my editor is really expecting a big story. I'm excited to start writing.

July 31, 2008

Today was a pretty light work week. Monday I played in a charity golf tournament and tomorrow I'll be leaving early for a family vacation on the Cape.
Along with my Brazilian story this week, I just finished up a story on an 18 year old from Woburn who will be competing in the Junior National Bass Fishing Championship. I know absolutely nothing about Bass Fishing so it was pretty interesting to write it up.
Also on Tuesday, I went to a disc golf course and played a round with my buddy Matt. I was asked to do this by the Sports Editor here so that I could write a first person account on disc golf and what I thought of the experience. To sum it up in a few words, it was very interesting...fun, but interesting. A much bigger workout than I expected.
For my Brazil story, I'm still trying to find someone who is actually moving back to Brazil so I can give an anecdotal lead, but I hope to get somebody by Monday. I think I'll actually start writing it up next week and I'm really looking forward to seeing all my research put into a story.
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July 24, 2008

It feels like I started writing this Brazilian Immigration story right about the time I was getting ready to make my first communion. It's without a doubt the longest and most detailed article I've ever written (even though I haven't actually started writing it). Last night I drove over an hour to Lowell, MA where I met with James Alventeno, who works for my editor's husband. We sat down at the Oasis Brazilian Restaurant and had a brief interview before he introduced me to several other Brazilian immigrants who I spoke with. I must have at least ten different sources for my story coming from a wide variety of angles. Tomorrow morning I have a meeting at the Brazilian Consul in Boston where I'll be conducting yet another interview.

In the meantime, I'm trying to come in contact with Detective Ralph Coakley at the Woburn Police Department about a supposed theft of catalytic converters that happened at the Woburn Enterprise Rent-A-Car. I've left several messages for him, but he's yet to return any of my calls.
Also I'm starting up a story on the Bass Fishing Junior World Championship because someone from Woburn is apparently competing in it. I literally just started working on this story so I don't know too much about it yet.

July 17, 2008

Right now I'm in the midst of interviewing as many Brazilian store owners/immigrants as I possibly can. I've come across a few that won't talk to me for whatever reason, but mostly people have been helpful.
I was planning on doing a Q&A with the Mayor's two secretaries, just asking what their jobs were like, etc., but he just sent me an e-mail saying that those who worked for him were "confidential employees" and weren't allowed to speak with the press, so I guess I won't be writing that.

Trying to take a national story and give it a local spin, I'm also working on a story involving salmonella poisoning in Middlesex County. There have been seven cases recently even though the FDA has said that Tomatoes grown in Massachusetts are safe to eat.
The catalytic converter story I mentioned last week doesn't seem to have any legs at the moment so its been put on the back burner, but if there are any more thefts in the upcoming week I'll be doing a piece on it.

July 10, 2008

This week I've started my interviews and research for my Brazilian story. I've so far spoken with a Brazilian restaurant owner and the Executive Director of the Brazilian Immigration Center. I plan on speaking with several other Brazilian immigrant workers in and around the Woburn area. Kathie, my editor, thinks the story could end up being pretty significant so It's been a big focus of mine. Her husband is a painting contractor who actually employs many Brazilians so I'm probably going to interview a good amount of them as well.

My story on the reverse 911 system came out in today's paper and it looks good. They ran a picture I took along with it so that was cool. Also in today's paper was my very exciting police log which included a string of catalytic converter robberies in the area. I'll most likely be following that strange string of crime pretty closely and might write a story on it.

July 3, 2008

Today's paper came out and I was thrilled to see my extremely riveting and exciting article on parking meters grace the front page.
I met with the Mayor of Woburn on Tuesday to interview him on the town's relatively new "reverse 911" system. We chatted for about an hour during which I took pictures of him using the system. I'm currently writing the article for next week's issue.
My editor Kathie really likes an idea I came up with while roaming the streets of Woburn last week. I noticed that there were six Brazilian restaurant type stores all in a row on Main Street, which got me thinking alongside my immigration story that fell through... why is it that there is such a Brazilian influence in the town and more importantly, will Brazilians go back to their country seeing how its economy is doing well and ours is not.
I plan on speaking with the store owners as well as some other Brazilian workers in the area to get their thoughts on the matter.

June 26

With July 4th a little over a week away, my editor Kathy thought it would be a good idea to write a story on a citizen of Woburn who either recently became a United States citizen or was trying to in the near future. The hard part so far has been trying to find that person. I've called the clerks office at town hall, the YMCA (in hopes that their ESL Adult classes might lead me to a new citizen), and several other outlets but so far have had no luck. I'm hoping a woman from the Y calls me back before Monday because the story's a timely one. The sooner I find someone the better.

In the issue that came out today, I had 3 bylines. One for the police log which I do every week, another for a brief follow up story I wrote on a Woburn man who was arrested during a drug deal, and the third for my Wyman Elementary story that ended up getting pulled from last week's issue.
Monday I have a meeting with Woburn's Mayor Thomas McLaughlin which should be a good experience. I'm interviewing him about a new reverse 911 system that was recently set up in town. I'll stay posted on how that one goes.

June 19

This past week I wrote a story about the Wyman Elementary School that went into detail about why the school was named what it was. I spent Friday walking around town doing person on the street interviews to see if anyone knew who Wyman was. The interviews were a little difficult to get through and after speaking with about a dozen people, not including the principle of Wyman Elementary, I wrote that story up.
On Monday things got a little more exciting when two men robbed a Citizen's Bank around 11:30 in the morning. It was my first on the scene breaking news story. I went to the bank looking for witnesses and questioned police officers, wrote my story and had it put up on the newspapers website as soon as it was completed.
On top of that, I did my usual Woburn police log and had all three of those stories published in today's paper.

June 12 2008

I just wrapped up my first week as an intern at the Woburn Advocate in Massachusetts and already have a sense that this summer will be a busy one. My first published story was about communicable diseases people can contract from mosquitoes and ticks (West Nile Virus, Lyme Disease, etc.).
I also went to the Woburn Police Station on Monday and wrote up the police log for the paper. Typing out all the crimes reported in the town over the past week.
I also had a reaction story assigned to me about Barack Obama after he clinched the democratic nomination, but my prime interview target didn't seem enthused to do it. I spoke with him once and and am trying to get a hold of him again for an upcoming issue.