My first two years of college were filled with prerequisites and general education requirements. There weren’t many classes that actually held my interest for the entirety of a semester.

This year I finally started getting into classes pertaining to my major: mass communications and journalism. Yes, I learned AP style and interviewing and reporting skills in previous classes, but I actually got to put the things I learned into action.

Neighborhood News Bureau (NNB), a class required for a degree in mass communications, is a working newsroom set in the heart of Midtown in south St. Petersburg. In this class I learned what it takes to go out into a community and speak to strangers in order to get stories.

Stories from NNB are published on the bureau’s online magazine and sometimes sent to local publications like The Gabber in Gulfport or St. Pete Patch. I was fortunate to be one of those published outside the campus system while in this class.

In news editing, students learn everything there is to know about AP style and how to recognize mistakes in journalistic writing. In this class, I also got the chance to meet some famous people in the journalism world from the Poynter Institute and the Tampa Bay Times.

While working for The Crow’s Nest, I learned what it is like to run a newsroom. I learned the processes of story and photo selection, editing, and as the creative director I learned the layout process and basic design concepts.

A semester internship at University Advancement (formerly the Division of External Affairs) taught me public relations communication and networking. I learned about updating the USFSP website and keeping track of the social media outlets on campus.

During the course of the spring semester I wrote press releases, blogs and stories, and took and edited photos while creating connections with important people on campus.

I now have a body of published work.

An education from a classroom is essential, but I think it’s important to complement those skills in a setting that is outside the walls of a classroom. In journalism, like other majors, it’s essential to network and to get in contact with the right people. Putting a degree on a resume looks great, but experience and letters of recommendation are even better.

Credits accumulated: 104.

Credits needed: 20.

Just 20 more credit hours until I can walk across the stage and get my expensive piece of paper.

The point of going to school is to get an education, graduate and get a job. Since my second year of college I couldn’t wait to get out and start my career. But now that my college days are close to an end, the thought of not being in school and just working a full-time job scares me more than it should.

The end of this semester will be the end of experiences and the beginning of new ones. It has been a year since I started writing and working for The Crow’s Nest, USFSP’s student newspaper, and I will be applying for the editor-in-chief position for the fall.

The editor-in-chief position was a goal of mine since I first started writing for The Crow’s Nest. Right now, my future sort of hangs in the balance of whether I get the job or not.

If I get the job, I will dedicate myself to doing the best I can running the paper and will graduate in the spring of 2014. If I don’t get it, I will continue to be the creative director and help run the paper, but I will also be looking into graduating this December.

All these prospects for the next year of my life keep swimming around in my head and it gets to be overwhelming. I have to submit my application for the editor position and prepare myself for an interview in front of the media board, comprised of students and faculty from the journalism department.

On top of all that, there are also these questions: Do I look into graduate school? Where should I look? Do I start looking for a job? I found a great job prospect, but am I qualified enough for it? Do I put myself out there and apply anyway? Will I be able to work a full-time job and be a full-time student?

The spring semester is coming to a close and I am about to register for classes for summer and fall. Right now, I am hoping for the best and I am excited to see what the rest of my undergraduate days hold for me.

How do you report on something when you have a strong opinion about it? How do you interview and write about someone that you completely disagree with?

Even design must be neutral: What is the best way to visually present information on a page while remaining objective?

It is human nature to have an opinion and want to express it. As a journalist, you have to know where the line between opinion and fact must be drawn.

It is easy to be objective about topics like reporting on students who were successful in landing a job right after graduation or covering the closing of a local restaurant. Other topics, like elections, gun control and healthcare, can be rather difficult.

As the creative director for The Crow’s Nest, the editors and I had to make sure that we covered the student government elections fairly and remain unbiased. It is important to write stories fairly, but also to visually present the information objectively. The graphic designer, Justin Duplain, and I had to make sure the photos were of equal size and that an information chart featured unbiased information.

When one candidate bought a full-page ad, the editors wanted to make sure it didn’t come off as endorsing a candidate. To do this, the editors and I decided to take off The Crow’s Nest URL and the section title from the corners of the page. We even placed “advertisement” at the top of the page.  By doing this, the page looked more like an ad than a regular news page.

I still struggle with quashing my opinion with almost every story I write and almost every piece I have to layout. I may think a story is silly or unimportant but I can’t let those opinions show in my designs.  I have learned the best way to remain objective is to put myself in the other person’s shoes and try to understand how they feel. I think by attempting to understand where an opinion is coming from makes it easier to put myself in the neutral zone.

Accounting Professor James Fellows at the Lealman Asian Neighborhood Family Center with (l-r) a Pinellas taxpayer and students Adelina Dine and Thanh Ha Ly.

For the sixth year in a row, USF St. Petersburg accounting students are providing hundreds of hours of free income tax preparation for low- and moderate-income people throughout Pinellas County.

The students are volunteering through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, a nationwide program that provides free tax preparation for people with annual incomes of $52,000 or less. Many of the taxpayers the students help qualify for the earned income tax credit, which allows them to receive a refund with a low income.

“The program helps bring in millions of dollars each year from these tax credits, which aids the local economy,” said Accounting Professor James Fellows, Ph.D., who oversees the students’ work.

Chad Mello, a graduate student studying forensic accounting, is involved in the internship program for the second time this spring. He says he enjoys helping families because he knows how complicated it can be to file income returns.

The hardest part was the hours of intense studying and training he went through over the winter break, Mello says. But he knows his hard work will pay off.

“Being able to communicate a difficult topic and helping a family understand the reasons for the outcome of their return is satisfying to me,” Mello said.

Mello has an internship with Deloitte, one of the biggest international accounting firms in the country. He hopes to work there fulltime someday.

Each student who participates in the program is eligible for three hours of course credit. The USFSP program began in spring 2007 with six students. This spring, 21 students are working.

To qualify, students must take IRS tax prep courses during the fall and complete their tax certification exam during winter break. Eligible students then take an all-day IRS training course to prepare.

By the middle of January students are ready to get to work. Each student will spend at least 75 hours preparing tax returns during the semester for about 1,000 people.

The students work at 12 sites in cities throughout Pinellas, including St. Petersburg, Largo, St. Pete Beach, Clearwater, Safety Harbor and Tarpon Springs.

Walt Gordon

Poynter was a giant in the newspaper industry and a tireless champion of USF St. Petersburg. When he died in 1978, he left behind a 44-foot stack of papers, documents and filmed interviews. They are housed in Special Collections at the USF St. Petersburg library that bears his name.

The Nelson Poynter Memorial Library collection had only occasional interest by researchers until Gordon decided to dig in.

Gordon, a fall 2012 graduate, spent all last summer poring through the collection. The result is a 30-minute documentary about the man who turned the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times) into one of the most distinguished newspapers in the country.

“I could have made an hours-long documentary on Poynter,” Gordon said. “He had such an interesting life.”

Born in Indiana on Dec. 5, 1903, Poynter knew at an early age that journalism would be his life-long career. His father bought the St. Petersburg Times in 1912 and Poynter wrote his first story for the Times in 1914. In 1938 he became the general manager of the Times. Before that he was the editor and publisher of the Clearwater Sun and the Kokomo (Ind.) Dispatch . Poynter later acquired the St. Petersburg Evening Independent, which folded in 1986, and founded Congressional Quarterly, an influential legislative news service.

He is perhaps best known for leaving the ownership of the Times to the non-profit Modern Media Institute, now the Poynter Institute, to ensure its independence. The Institute is located across the street from USF St. Petersburg.

Poynter died hours after participating in a groundbreaking at USF St. Petersburg on June 15, 1978, during which he was honored for his efforts to establish it.

James Schnur, Associate Librarian in Special Collections and Archives at the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library, suggested the Poynter documents as a subject of Gordon’s project. Schnur, who first met Gordon while teaching Florida history at Eckerd College, assisted in the documentary process.

As a librarian and graduate of USF St. Petersburg, Schnur understood the impact Poynter had on the development of the university and downtown St. Petersburg. Schnur says Gordon’s documentary is a great way for community members to understand Poynter’s significance.

“He brought Poynter in to the community,” Schnur says.

Making a documentary came naturally to Gordon, who taught TV production at Countryside High School and earned a Bachelor’s degree in history from Eckerd College.

The Poynter Papers include interviews from the 1970s and 1980s that were recorded on film and transferred to video tapes. Because of his experience with TV and film production, Gordon was able to transfer the VHS tapes into digital files in order to make the 35-minute documentary.

Gordon is a staunch advocate for combining the latest technology with other disciplines like the arts and sciences in order to expand educational capabilities.

The documents and videos along with Gordon’s annotations will be available to scholars, researchers, and students interested in learning more about Poynter and St. Petersburg history.

“Altogether, the collection constitutes an amazing amount of data that could still benefit from more research.” Gordon said.

Gordon continues to teach TV production at Countryside High School. He presented his documentary at Heritage Village for its “Speaking of History” lecture series in November. Gordon also presented a 20-minute version of the documentary at USFSP for the 65th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Philosophy of Education Society Feb. 1-2.

Not me.

I jumped right in. (Don’t worry, I was sitting in the front seat.)

Last week I got a chance to ride along with a St. Petersburg Police officer through the neighborhoods of south St. Petersburg.

I was working on a feature story for the USFSP Neighborhood News Bureau, which is both a class and a real, working newsroom run by journalism students. The goal of the class is  to report on the people and goings-on of Midtown.

I started my shift with Officer Mike Geil at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb 5, and ended the shift around midnight. Officer Geil is just one of many officers who patrol District 1, which includes most of Midtown.

I shared a night shift with Officer Geil

The city has spent millions of dollars in recent years on infrastructure and economic development to improve the lives of Midtown residents.

The ride-along started off with officer Geil going over basic information about the area and things I should expect to see. The goal of the ride-along was for me to get a better understanding of the area. Officer Geil spoke of the area’s challenges and some possible solutions. He mentioned that one of the main problems in the area is the large number of people loitering in public, especially around liquor stores.

The first call we got was for a high school student accused of stealing a Nintendo Wii.

At first, I didn’t want to get out of the car when we arrived at the student’s home, but Officer Geil wanted me to “experience what it’s really like to be a police officer.”

Throughout the rest of the night, Officer Geil and I took myriad calls ranging from harassment to a mysterious vehicle and person parked near a creek. He also showed me where all the “hotspots” were for criminal activity in the area.

Officer Geil also introduced me to Duncan McClellan, owner of the Duncan McClellan glass art studio and hot shop. The glass studio is one of Officer Geil’s favorite hangouts. He has come to appreciate McClellan’s art and often visits other nearby artists. The ride-along ended with him showing me the oldest cemetery in St. Petersburg. Some of the graves date back to the Civil War and the late 1800s.

One of the most interesting parts of this experience was learning about the forms of communication that the officers use and how quickly they can get a call, answer it, resolve it and report it. Officer Geil’s laptop rests where the center console would be. Surrounding the laptop are various radios and speakers, and near the rearview mirror were controls for the lights and sirens. (I was really tempted to press the siren button when he wasn’t looking).

I hope I won’t be seeing the inside of a police car again unless I am on another ride-along. As a student journalist, this was a great way for me to be involved with something that not many people ever get to experience. I got the opportunity to tag along during a police officer’s shift while also learning about a community from the eyes of someone who has spent the last six years patrolling the area.

When I sat down in the lounge of PRW, the then editor-in-chief asked what I liked to write about. My answer: “Anything except sports.”

About five minutes later I had a story assignment and absolutely no idea where to go with it.

Flash forward to the end of spring 2012. I had written a few stories for The Crow’s Nest (even one for the front page!) and was curious about joining the staff as an editor. One of the job openings was for the Creative Director, which entails layout and design. Well, I have some experience with layout; I did it for a couple years in high school for the student newspaper. I applied for the job, warned them that I needed a crash course in Adobe InDesign, and got the job about a month later.

Little did I know that I was going to have to learn InDesign, Photoshop, and my responsibilities as Creative Director very quickly. Honestly, I don’t know where I would be if it weren’t for the guidance and skill of our graphic designer, Justin Duplain. He has taught me everything I know about design and was very patient with me the entire time. He never got frustrated even when I was frustrated with myself.

I’m proud to say that I quickly learned some very tough computer programs and helped put out 16 amazing issues in the course of five months.

Now, The Crow’s Nest is about to put out issue 19 and every week I learn something new about design, photos, writing, or journalism in general.

Working for the student newspaper has taken me from being shy and introverted, to not being afraid to go up to someone and talk to him or her or call someone on the phone for an interview. Getting involved in something like this really helped me grow. After all the hard work I put in, it’s exciting to know that people are reading what I write and appreciating what I put together.

Dr. Armstrong, the Literature Program Coordinator at USFSP, received the Holman Honorable Mention Award for 2012, which was created specifically to honor her book.

The C. Hugh Holman Award is presented annually to the best book of literary criticism or scholarship in southern literature. This year the award went to Jean W. Cash for Larry Brown: A Writer’s Life. But the voting was so close and the judges were so impressed with Dr. Armstrong’s book that they created the Holman Honorable Mention Award to honor it.

“For me, to be so close was huge,” Dr. Armstrong said.

“Julie is at the forefront of her field and her faculty could not be more pleased, especially since the organization created a special award to recognize her achievement,” said Frank Biafora, PhD., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “It shows the extraordinary scholarship that’s taking place at USF St. Petersburg.”

Mary Turner and the Memory of Lynching tells the largely forgotten but horrific story of Mary Turner’s lynching and studies the responses to it by local residents, activists and writers.

Mrs. Turner was eight months pregnant when she was seized by a mob and taken to a bridge near Valdosta, Ga.. “There a crowd of several hundred watched the mob hang her upside down, shoot her, set her on fire, remove her fetus, and stomp the unborn child into the ground,” Dr. Armstrong writes in the opening of her book.

Mrs. Turner was murdered to prevent her from pressing charges against the people who murdered her husband.

The Tampa Bay Times called  Dr. Armstrong’s writing powerful and compelling. “She writes movingly of being so repelled by some of the research that she found it difficult to go on,” the Times Book Editor Colette Bancroft wrote. “But she did, and she finds satisfaction in having helped bring a dark chapter in our history back into the light.”

Dr. Armstrong will receive her award at the American Literature Association conference in Boston, May 23-26.

Called The Genius Next Door, the series will give audiences a chance to ask questions, exchange ideas and discuss cutting-edge research with intellectual leaders from USF St. Petersburg. Frank Biafora, dean of the USFSP College of Arts and Sciences, will act as the emcee and facilitator for the monthly series.

The Genius Next Door will be a five-part conversation series featuring three different professors every month. Activities and topics will vary each event based on the speakers.

The next event will be Thursday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Museum Theater, with overflow next door seating in the Raymond James Community Room.

The speakers for Thursday’s event are Daniel James Scott, MS, MBA; Dr. Jill McCracken, College of Arts and Sciences; and Carol Hixson, MS, Dean of the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library.

Scott, an instructor in entrepreneurship, is the Associate Director for the Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation Alliance. McCracken, an assistant professor in the English Department, teaches writing and composition. Hixson, writes a blog on her thoughts and experiences in technology and running a library.

The event is open to the public and admission is free for Dalí members and $5 for non-members. The museum is at One Dalí Blvd. in St. Petersburg.