Mission Accomplished

As you may have guessed based on the title of this post, I have finally completed my semester long community reporting project.

A few weeks ago, I posted a preview of my web story introducing you to Victoria Dubrovina and her students at Journey House. If you enjoyed that article, I am pleased to announce you can now view the complete print story along with photos and video on the project website. 

Working on this project has been rewarding in many ways. Firs off, I had the opportunity to meet so many new people and hear their incredible stories. I only wish I could tell them all. Secondly, throughout the process of this project I learned more about the City of Milwaukee and participated in the Clarke Square community in a very unique and meaningful way. Thirdly, and most importantly, I grew as a journalist. Not only did I write my brains out, I also became far more comfortable using different forms of multimedia.

The two areas in which I feel I have grown the most are website construction and design and blogging. Before I started this project, I had never designed a website before. Now, I have two. Each time I sit before the Weebly interface I feel more and more confident in my ability to produce a solid website. I also feel like I have made great strides in blogging. Not only have I upheld the commitment I made to myself to blog every week, I believe my posts have dramatically improved both in content and in writing. For latter belief, you will be the ultimate judge.

With the completion of this project I am reminded that the semester is quickly coming to an end, but do not worry. I will not give up on blogging as I strive to continue developing my talents as a multimedia journalist. 

No Hablo Espanol

Last Thursday, I found myself in the very unique and, might I add, unfamiliar position of being in the minority.  My team partner, Colleen Hermann, and I returned to Journey House in order to finish gathering our interviews and video for our final project.

This time around, we attended a GED class for immigrants. The minute we walked through the doors of the old church and into the classroom, I suddenly wished I had continued taking Spanish beyond the two required semesters. Spanish filled the air as students chatted among themselves waiting for class to start. At first I figured this was no big deal. I assumed that as soon as class started they would all speak English and I would be able to keep up with the conversation just fine. Oh, how wrong I was.

As the class settled down and the evening’s lecture began, I quickly realized the whole class was to be conducted in Spanish. Now I had a problem. How could I possibly cover a story when I had no idea what was going on?

As the teacher, Ana Melo, scribbled fractions on the board, I breathed a small sigh of relief, mathematics the universal language. Maybe now I would be able to keep up. After all, Sesame Street taught me how to count to ten in Spanish when I was five. Too bad I forgot everything I learned in high school math.

Just about the time I thought I had a grasp on what was going on, the math lesson came to an abrupt halt. Apparently, as I later learned, the reason for this unexpected stop was my partner and my presence in the class. Students wanted to know why we were there and, more importantly, why we were taping them. Melo quickly explained saying we were students from Marquette University working on a school project. To be completely honest, the only reason I even knew she was talking about us was her reference to “Marquette Univerisad.”

Melo must have caught the bewildered look in my eyes because from that point on she attempted to translate everything the students said that she thought would be of interest to us. Some of the students spoke a little English, and some of them spoke no English at all.

The language barrier created a few problems. First, because we were dependent on Melo to translate, we only heard what she thought was important. Second, because my partner and I did not understand much of what the students said, we missed out on a lot of information and context. If you know anything about reporting, you know that the context of a situation is crucial. The last problem we had was in translating student’s quotes into English. There are some Spanish words that just do not have an English equivalent making quoting students verbatim a near impossibility.

If I learned one thing from this situation, it was what it felt like to be in the minority. And that experience, I believe, gave me greater insight into these peoples’ lives and helped me in reporting my story more accurately. 

Sneak Peak

Blogs are awesome because they give journalists a place to preview and publish their work.

So in keeping with this sentiment, below is a preview of the story I have been working on for the past few weeks concerning Immigration. The article below is the web version of a longer print story entitled “Paying It Forward: Immigrants Helping Immigrants.”

CLARKE SQUARE, WI-- Victoria Dubrovina is a first-generation immigrant. Originally from Russia, she moved to the United States 12 years ago. Like many immigrants, she came in search of greater opportunity, not knowing the opportunity she herself would one day provide.

Six years after becoming a U.S. citizen, Dubrovina is working hard to help other immigrants obtain their citizenship.

“I think I can relate to my students because I know what I went through they’re probably going through too and that’s why I think I can help them more than anybody else.” Dubrovina said.

Last January, Dubrovina, in partnership with the adult education center Journey House, started a citizenship class. Drawing on her own first hand experiences, Dubrovina has developed a curriculum specifically designed to help students get their citizenship.

“When I did it for myself, everything was new. What do I do next? What do I do next?” Dubrovina said. “Now I can show them easily.”

Her students are especially appreciative of her insight and look at her as more of a friend than a teacher.

Currently, Dubrovina has five students in her citizenship class. They all plan to become citizens before next year’s presidential election.

Remember, if you like what you read there will be more content posted to the projects website at a later date.