Friday, January 22, 2010

A New Semester

Hi Bloggy Friends,

Well, things are heating up in the Sugar household now that school is back in session. I can't believe I'm down to my final semester. It will feel great to walk away with a diploma in May, but there is a lot of work to be done before then. Here's a quick rundown of some of the classes I have this time around:

Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab (MURL): This is the big one that all seniors must take before getting a degree. Journalism students from every focus - broadcasting, magazine, photo, etc. - are lumped into one class, teamed up and asked to cover news in their assigned Philadelphia neighborhood. I've been paired with a sweet girl named Megan (a magazine student), who thankfully seems willing to work hard. We're going to cover the Germantown / Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia, which, in my opinion, is one of the most exciting neighborhoods outside the city. Mt. Airy has a burgeoning gay family community and the artistic scene is thriving as well. I'm excited about it. We'll be working for the Germantown Chronicle and Mt. Airy Independent, as well as our class blog, Philadelphia Neighborhoods. This class should prove to be very time consuming, but I will hopefully walk away with a good number of clips to add to my resume.

Broadcast Performance: In this class I will hopefully have my broadcast performance skills perfected through a host of assignments that include creating a varying array of radio and tv packages and recording actual news segments in the state-of-the-art Temple Update studio. I'm looking forward to it, but the workload may be a little heavier than I anticipated.

TV Broadcast Production: My classmates and I will be paired with students taking TV News Reporting and taught to produce three different news segments throughout the semester. Our responsibilities will include picking news stories for the reporters to cover, perfecting their scripts, deciding what stories to air and creating a rundown for the actual news block. This will be a very hands on type of class. I'm excited for it. I've considered producing as a possible job choice, so this will be a great way to test out the waters.

Internship: Last semester I interned at City Paper for the experience, but this semester I opted to stay around for credit. Taking an internship is optional in the journalism sequence, but I love working there and thought it would be a great way to earn credits without having to pile on another class. I think I hit the jackpot as far as internships are concerned. They allow me the opportunity to generate as much work as I want, and the people who work there are awesome. I love it.

Shew! I'm going to have my hands full, huh? It may be a hectic schedule, but I think it will help me adjust to the fact that I'll be heading out into the "real world" again after being in school for the past four years. It's going to be a big change, but I'm ready for it.

I hope you all have a great weekend. What does your schedule look like over the next few months? Have any exciting plans? I'd love to hear them!

I'll chat with you soon,

Josh

2 comments:

Bill Fogle said...

Wow, thanks for discussing your classes. Nice to know what you'll be doing.

Has it really been four years?!

The activity sounds exciting. Everything you're doing in school has a nice mix of writing with other media. Fabulous. Communication!

I'm kind of living for May, too. Then I'll plant my second generation of tomato plants (this time with protective cages that Gary's sister gave me for Christmas ... SCORE). I'll start planning to re-do the river rock in our back yard (it needs redone!). We'll work some more on our house painting project, and hopefully my job will slow down to where I can again take my long mid-day walks in Rock Creek Park.

Wishing you the very best for this semester!

Love
BFB

wutdaheckisdat said...

I totally agree about Germantown/Mt. Airy (I refer to it as Mt. GermanAiry) becoming a mini gay-family mecca and a charming and exciting place to be. it is also affordable and peaceful for the most part. This place is rife with history, old-old houses, interesting people, gardens, music, art, fabulous food, and a lot of peace and quiet. I moved here in 2005 with that in mind, my boyfriend in 2007 and it has really been moving onward and upward all around us.

Really loved reading your blog...and will look for you in the Independent.