Story ideas

Profiles:

• Story on Kevin Kirsche (director of UGA’s Office of Sustainability).
• Other staff members- Tyra Byers, Andrew Lentini, and Jennifer Dunlop.
• Student interns in the Office of Sustainability.
• Johanna Biang. One of six winners of a grant from the Campus Sustainability Grants program.
• Some of the farmers/gardners of Athens Locally Grown.
• Any professors that work closely with the Sustainability Department doing research, etc.

Sidebars:

• History of the sustainability department.
• UGArden and what they are doing, where the food goes, etc.
• Relationship between Campus Kitchens, Athens Locally Grown, UGArden and the Sustainability Department at UGA.
• UGA’s “Green Fee.”

Innovation:

• All the “green” things UGA does. (Beyond recycling bins….)
  • Buses run on 20% biodiesel fuel.
  • At the UGA steam plant, most air pollutants are captured before they’re released into the atmosphere.
  • An alternative transportation system gives incentives to members of the UGA community who choose to walk.
  • Bioenergy fuel sources are being tested, but coal is still used in one of the four steam plant boilers at UGA. Does the department want to eliminate this use of coal? Does one coal plant boiler matter much?
  • UGA researchers are currently investigating algae as an energy sources for biofuels.
• What to expect in the future.
• Students’ projects that will be funded by the Grants program.

News Analysis:

• RecycleMania.
• Sustainability Grants program. How the money is split up, history of the program, etc.
• Benifits of organic foods and locally grown foods. Do they really help/matter?

Information Graphics:

• Chart/graph showing how much waste would be reduced by recycling.
• Map of recycling bins on campus.
• Graph illustrating the increase in waste and pollution into the atmosphere over the last few decades.

Voice Story:

• Someone obsessed with eating organic, locally grown foods.
• Struggles of a typical farmer these days….

My Interviewee

For my topic (politics), I would like to interview Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA). Fiscally speaking, he pretty much falls right in line with my beliefs. I would like to maybe get a story out of him relating national spending to the effects it has on the local economy. He has been a member of the House of Representatives for about 6 years now, so I am hoping he will be able to share some of his experiences and trickle some of his wisdom down to the up-and-coming generation of politicians and voters. He understands that our system of Keynesian economics and central planning has failed us, and that we need a different approach to running our great nation. I have never actually met Dr. Broun in person, but I am connected to him through UGA’s chapter of Young Americans for Liberty. A couple members of YAL actually went and met with him and had a discussion for a few hours last year. Through YAL, I could probably even get in touch with Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) or his son, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), for future stories. Another political connection I have worth mentioning, though it may not necessarily pertain to the Paul Broun story, is through the Athens Libertarian Party. I meet up with the LP here in Athens on a pretty regular basis (they meet once a month, but I am not always able to make it to the meetings). Their leader, Doug Harman, has many great political connections to speak of, and he himself has worked in government. Daniel Adams is also a prominent member. This past election cycle, he was the campaign manager of the Georgia LP candidate for governor, John Monds. I should have no trouble contacting any former LP candidate for office, including Chuck Donovan, who ran for Senate against Johnny Isakson. I am not quite sure yet what kind of stories I would get from them, but I am just thinking out loud here.

Kaela – Interview Plan

I will be interviewing Andrea Lott. She is the head of the mentoring program for the Barrow County school system. She works from the P.D.C. in Winder and contacts every individual mentor periodically to check in on each child’s progress. Her job requires taking care of all the paperwork, organizing each school’s program, and she still has time to get in touch with every person. She is passionate about the program and I believe she would be a fountain of information.

Tabitha Phillips – Profile

Chatting with local store owners, I realize that everyone has a personalized experience that led them to the retail-fashion scene in Athens, but I want to profile someone who is a little more behind-the-scenes. The person I currently have in mind is Beth Graham. She does clothes alterations for individual customers at Community in downtown Athens. She also works on larger scale alterations and fittings for fashion shows. I took photos backstage at a Community fashion show where Beth worked tirelessly for 6+ hours preparing the clothes for the runway. I would very much like to know where her passion comes from and what she plans to do with it in the future.

Katie Sykes- Alison McCullick

I would like to talk to Alison McCullick about the Medical College of Georgia/University of Georgia Medical Partnership.  McCullick is the Director of Outreach and Communications for this partnership. I know the partnership’s motivation is to increase the medical professionals from Georgia in hope they will stay in Georgia.  Ultimately, this new generation of medical professionals will hopefully help fight poverty in Georgia. While I know this is the basic gist behind the partnership, I am excited to learn specific goals she has for the program, as well as understand how she got involved in the first place. I would also like to talk to her about going forward with covering this beat in general- I’d like to see if she has any suggestions as she is very connected in this world I am still learning about.

My Interviewee – Gina Borg

I plan to interview Keith Appling, owner of Dooley’s Southern Stone Pizza Kitchen in Winder. Not too long ago, Dooley’s replaced Mellow Mushroom. While Mellow Mushroom was unable to bring in enough customers, Dooley’s has been fairly successful at drawing a crowd. The eatery is packed out every weekend and hosts a variety of events throughout the week. I know that Appling puts a lot of care into both the food and atmosphere of his restaurant and am interested in learning more about the secret behind Dooley’s unique crust and the root of the restaurant’s popularity. In addition, Appling’s father opened the first Dooley’s when Keith was 12, and I would like to learn more about the family behind the food. So far, I have spoken to other employees at the restaurant but have been unable to get in touch with Appling himself. I hope for success soon!

Who to Interview

There are two people who I’m very interested in interviewing to get a start on sustainability research: Andrew Lentini and Jennifer Dunlop. Both are program coordinators at the Office of Sustainability and both can provide the insight and background information I need to start generating story ideas about sustainability on UGA’s campus.

I’ve decided to focus on Andrew Lentini for my first interview because of his background and involvement at UGA and with the surrounding community. As a graduate of UGA, he’s familiar with how things work here as well as what challenges we face from the student perspective.

Person to Interview

I have tried to contact the UGA Athletics PR, but I have not heard from them yet, so tomorrow at the Gym Dogs meet, I hope to talk with someone within the Gym Dogs community about interviewing, and possibly getting to be in the locker room when the fifteen-minute interview starts before every meet.  For now, I will try and talk with as many fans as possible to see how they feel about the season and the gymnasts. Until I go to the meet on Saturday, I will just form a handful of questions I would ask the PR for the Gym Dogs or for UGA Athletics. 

Person to interview- Kelly Whitmire

Although political opinions are far reaching in Athens, I have had a little trouble finding a person to interview for my beat. However, one person I will be interviewing this semester is Ben Clark, who works with Students for Barack Obama. Although I don’t want all of my sources to have the same political slant, Ben is very knowledgeable about his party and the Republicans. Ben has experience working campaigns on both the national and state level, and I think interviewing a person with some experience in campaigning will be advantageous in understanding the primaries and general election. Since he is involved in local election, he also knows about the issues important to Athens voters. Although I don’t want to cover just the election on my beat, I think it should be covered during an election year.

Who to interview??

Right now, I’m in the early stages of finding people to talk to. For a particular story, I contacted the president of Student Merchandising Associaton, Kyle Nichols. Kyle was so sweet to help me out even though he couldn’t help me much. But he did direct me towards another person who would be the perfect person to talk to. That person is Stacia Andrews, president of Fashion Design Student Association. I’m very happy to say that it seems that she’s eager to speak with me. Although I don’t know Stacia well, I believe she’s a person that will help anyone in any way she can. Through her emails, she’s a very sweet and intelligent lady. I can’t wait to actually meet her in person.