If you're wanting a post about my doings in the J-School lately, this post won't have much to offer you. This is more about me and an idea I had and things I want to do with my earnings from my job when I get older.
Obligatory journalism update: I've settled into KOMU extremely well. I hit a few hitches now and then but that's all part of the learning process. I've learned I love TV reporting and working with the web/social media. I'd be happy with a job in either field. Still not sure if I can handle producing. I'm not sure my brain is quite organized enough. As it sits now I'm live reporting for KOMU for the Friday dayside shift (5 and 6) for the first half of the semester (P.S. If you're a job recruiter looking to hire someone, google me!) and I'll switch to mornings the second half of the semester.
The station I interned at this summer is hiring...which is exciting! The problem, they're needing people now, not in May when I graduate as will thousands of other college students. Joy. Encouraging somehow...but not quite the solace I need. Which is why I'm working on my website right now (www.jobethdavis.com) It's a serious work in progress but I'm learning (slowly) the tools I need to build it and gathering media for it.
Also this semester I'm already cranking out stories for Missouri News Horizon, an upstart in-depth political reporting website launching in February. Got my butt kicked last week in cranking out a story with next to no notice, but thanks to two awesome group-mates everything got done, and I think the final product was awesome! Here's to hoping we get a little more notice from now on since this was only the first week. I think Sam, Kelsey and I work together really well which should ease my stress level for the semester considerably.
AAAAAND capstone...Kelsey and I (awesome that we're working together on two projects) and working with media mind @jenleereeves aka Jen at KOMU on amping up KOMU's use of social media. As an experiment we ran a live blog through the KOMU website and facebook on CoveritLive for the State of the Union Address. I was way skeptical about live blogging (granted, doing this was my idea) but we decided as a last minute thing to do it. WAY COOL! All we did was embed the code in our facebook and station websites and tweet references to it, and we attracted 35 people to read the blog we were putting out. This was with no mention on the newscasts at all. I think for Mid-Missouri being as media-slow as it is, this was an awesome response. And definitely something KOMU needs to do again in the future.
So...that was my journalism spiel. On to what I started to blog about...
A couple months ago I found a a Photo Essay that hit kind of close to home:
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1930475,00.html
Anyone that knows me knows I LOVE my dogs. There's nothing I want more (ok, maybe a job) than a puppy of my own to raise. I've never lived without a dog until I came to school and I've honestly had some animal-separation issues. But in being the responsible person that I am, I realize there's really not much room in an undergraduate's life for a dog. I have issues just finding time to take care of myself, let alone trying to manage a four-legged friend.
Something not many people know about me is what I went through with my grandparents when I was a little girl. I lost both grandparents on my dad's side when I was 7. I barely remember them. I lost my grandmother on my mom's side to a long bout with cancer when I was 10, the memories I have of her were mostly of her being sick. And my final grandparent, my grandfather on my mom's side, died on Christmas morning my freshman year in high school. He's probably the grandparent I remember the most, but he spent most of his older years living in a nursing home, so that's where I remember him the most.
I especially remember taking our Dog at the time, Big Guy (A Great Dane/Blue Healer Mix) to his nursing homes to visit him and the other residents. What a hit. Our gentle, fuzzy giant was a favorite by all. I also remember Ace, the therapy dog (Black Lab) on my g-pa's Alzheimer's unit floor. I remember thinking what a world of good visits from those dogs brought. There are other people like me out there who love dogs who just can't have one. And I was absolutely thrilled when I came across this photo essay...all people who had rescued an animal from a shelter and trained them to be therapy dogs.
I want to do this. I want to do this SO MUCH. Doing this lets me rescue an animal, have a pet for myself, and give back to a community be it a nursing home, foster system, school, anything. I absolutely love this idea. It's truly a goal of mine and I can't wait!
I've got another 6 months or so until I can even think about being able to do this...so in the mean time I'm helping this way:
http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=15539990
Great Dane Rescue of the Ozarks is where my family rescued my dog Nila from.
They just received 6 puppies, all of them have Parvo. All 6 puppies are out of the woods but vet bills for something like Parvo are massive. The small group of people that run GDRO can't absorb that kind of financial shock. They're asking for donations to help cover their vet costs.
I can't give much but I'm going to try to help. This is a group close to my heart. And who knows, maybe one of those puppies will still be around in 6 months when I'm ready to adopt :)
