TKleiner @ WJMC

Before I have to get ready for the gala I have sometime to catch up on my blog…

Wednesday:

          The speeches from both Chuck Todd, NBC White House Correspondent, and Andrew Flagel, one of the admissions deans at GMU were very informative and entertaining.

        Chuck Todd has such insight into the world of journalism. I found it interesting that he split up journalism into 3 categories: reporting, analyzing, and commentating. He shared that every journalist should be able to analyze that they report on, but commentating on it is a dangerous road to go down. He suggests that as young journalists that we don’t go straight into commentary, he thinks that if we do we won’t gain the credibility that we need to make it in the world of journalism. I think that this is a valid point. if someone first goes into the world of journalism making comments on everything, than it would be nearly impossible to go back and have people trust you as an objective reporter.

         While Chuck Todd’s speech was entertaing, yet informative, Dean Andrew Flagel took the entertainment factor of his speech and ran away with it. Despite the over-the-top facor of his speech, Flagel was very helpful, and gave me much guidence when it comes to the college admission process. I learned that we shouldn’t send too much to admissions office, like most things, they are looking for quality, not quantity.  I am, to some extent, going into the college admissions process blindly, I’ve done plenty of research, but I don’t necessairly have someone telling me what I need to do, the advice oin his speech, and on his blog is so helpful. His advice on making a list of 5-10 things that we want in a college was very valid, I plan on making my list soon to help me pick which college I want to go to.

         Although it was so great to learn from Chuck Todd and Andrew Flagel, the thing that most people were buzzing about on Wednesday evening, besides being able to change into comfy clothes : ), was that there was a shooting on Capitol Hill right after we left! There is still coinflicting information being reported, but the latest is that a man in a white Mecedes would not stop driving through on intersection, he hit a police officer. After chasing the man down and telling him to get out of his car, he would not drop his gun, so the police shot him, and he died. Thankfully, all of the WJMC students are fine!