Bureau Reporting- Personal Reflection

During our bureau reporting exercise, I was able to experience the part of a bureau chief along with Samantha, while the rest of our team went out on campus and interviewed fellow students. At first I felt like I wasn’t really doing much, since it took a while for the first few quotes to come in, so I began doing research for anything relating to financial stress on college students.

I remember getting frustrated just because I wasn’t finding exactly what I was looking for through my searches and I couldn’t really figure out how to narrow them down. However, it was really helpful once quotes did come in to have a baseline of ideas to go off of. The one major problem Samantha and I experienced was that we had duplicate quotes from our team and we couldn’t get on the same page about how to compile them all. In the end, we worked together; Samantha worked on the text of the blog and I went through and inserted links.

Overall, it was an interesting experience, something I imagine is just a small hint of what actually occurs in bureau reporting on tight deadline.

Bureau Reporting- Students & Financial Stress

The life of a Biola student is one filled with exams, homework, careers choices, and the building of life-long relationships. Add to that weighty equation the high cost of education and you have the recipe for high stress in students’ lives.

Money concerns weigh heavily on students, Freshman Connor Cress said, “It’s a struggle, I know God will provide,” but added that he was still worried about his family’s finances.

Freshman twins Allie and Jessica Albruna face this burden doubly, for they must cover the cost of two Biola educations. Allie said, “I always go to my parents and pray about what will happen in the future,” adding that they parents always help them with prayer first and then often follow that up with money.

Nick F., a graduating senior, is almost at the end of his struggle with finding ways to pay for Biola each semester, but the prospect of having to start paying back his loans looms ever closer. This is a huge stress, but he says, “I am trusting God to provide all the scholarships and loans.”

Financial aid has played a huge part in ease student’s money worries and keeping many students here. Sophomore Rebecca A is very grateful, “I am only here because of financial aid.”

Still, despite all that financial aid does, some students still find themselves wondering if they will be coming back. Freshman Karen C is still unsure of what her next semester looks like, “Something got mixed up… And Biola’s not helping me at all right now… I’m going to talk to financial aid again… if it’s still not cleared up… I can’t come back next semester” Karen C. Freshman

In the end, all Biola students can do is trust in God to provide for his children to be where he wants them. As freshman Sue reminds us, “I knew God wanted me to be here so I knew he would provide and he did.”

*Looking for more information on how to manage stress and finances? Take a deep breath and check out some of these links.

Talks About Financial Aid

Cash Crunch: Learning to Budget and Save

Top 10 Stress Relievers for Students

Scholarship Search

Broke! A College Students Guide to Getting by on Less

Bureau Reporting Follow-Up [Thursday, November 19, 2009]

After taking into account the different students we were able to talk to on Tuesday and the stories we heard, our group went about scouring the internet for anything we could find concerning the current economic crisis. Bryan Murley, in a column for PBS.org, decided that he was going to conduct a search on how college media is covering and reporting on the economy and his results were discouraging, "Over the past week, I've surfed a ton of college media websites looking for innovative ways these journalists were telling the biggest story of their generation. And I've mostly come up empty." Although students are, well, students, there is still a ton of great journalism that they can do!

Back to our team and finding more information about the effect of the economy on students...

New York Times online posted an article about how, although the "sticker price" of college appears more expensive, in the end the net amount turns out to be cheaper than it was five years ago! Yet there are still many students that face financial struggles while in college.

As journalism students, we are gaining the skills and abilities to make light of these issues and possibly enact change! We would do well to head the advice of Bryan Murley when he encourages students involved with college media to think outside of the box and get in on the action of what is going on around us, "The most frustrating thing in my tour of college websites is the "sameness" of much of the coverage of the economic situation. We get it, students are having a problem getting jobs. Really, we get it. With over 5 million people unemployed, we get it. So dig deeper. There are ways to show your fellow students how this economic downturn is affecting them in other ways than employment. Really.

Check out our comments below for many more links to helpful information on college, stress, finances and hope.

An Exercise in Conscience & Perspective

*Note: this blog is an assignment for class in which we are to view a situation from the perspective of a Muslim in the U.S. Military and does not reflect the religious views of the writer*

The whole world would probably agree when I say that ever since the 9/11 attacks, it has become increasingly more difficult to live life as a Muslim on U.S. soil, not to mention being one among the ranks of America's finest serving in the U.S. Military. Each day, I fear that somehow I may become implicated by the default of my religion, even though I remain true to my country, dedicated to protecting the life, land and liberty that I love.

It seems to me that the media will do anything that they can to take a story involving a Muslim and somehow dig and dig until they can tie that individual back to some radical group in the Middle East or "intercept" communication of them speaking with some rebel organization. What I think is that those involved in media reporting will do whatever they can for a compelling story, even if it means exaggerating the details.

Recently, reports have come out concerning the Fort Hood shootings that insist Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is thought to be the sole shooter in this unbelievable atrocity, has been in contact with a radical cleric who is known for anti-American teachings. Read about that here. Even though the article doesn't directly say Hasan was working in collaboration with this man or that there was even a connection, the fact that they chose to report on it implies an accusation.

These types of articles and media coverage have a negative effect on how Americans view the Muslim religion and those that practice it, no matter what their citizenship status is. While I have very close relationships with people outside of the Muslim religion whom I know respect my allegiance to the U.S., I still experience discrimination and racial profiling. I appreciate the coverage of events that the media provides, but I feel that they should wait to report certain details until they know the truth; until they have the full account of facts, instead of stirring up unnecessary accusations.

In Class Conservative-Liberal Blogging

The in class assignment from today really showed me the wide span of perspectives that are out in the blogosphere.
At this point in my life/budding career as a student journalist, I haven't yet gotten to the point where I feel compelled to constantly blog about my opinions and feelings on many of the "hot topics" and news events.

Maybe I should though.

Maybe it's something that would make a difference, if not in the lives of the billions of people constantly surfing the web and scanning blogs. It might add to my skill set as a student. It might help me keep up on daily news. It might make me an angry Conservative, or I could decide to move up to Nor Cal and just retreat with the hippies (which sometimes sounds like a nice plan).

Overall, I feel a daily pull of responsibility to be accountable for my points of view and be able to back them up with real and intelligent support. If I'm going to do that, I should be a lot more involved and up to date on current media and hot button issues.