Just seven months ago, skateboarding for Towson University student Amanda Flores was only something she wished she could do. Now, it is one of her main hobbies that she dedicates countless hours to as she works to improve her skills. What was once just a dream, is now a lifestyle.
The hashtag with the positive message #GreatThingsAhead shown on the top of signs pointing towards detours due to construction is a little contradicting of the feelings students have about all of it. Even though the construction shows an effort to expand and improve Towson’s campus, it is currently acting as just a hassle and inconvenience for students as they make their way to class.
I talked with Towson University student Nicole Damico about her feelings towards the construction, and how it is impacting her.
As she sat in the Starbucks on campus and signed up for classes for the upcoming spring semester, Towson University junior Alex Brown reminisced on the last time she went through this process for the current fall semester. This past July, she walked into her orientation for transfer students excited to start her journey at Towson, and looked forward to registering for classes in her major, Early Childhood Education. But as she sat down in the computer lab with a small group of other transfer students to register, the feeling of excitement quickly turned to that of stress as she saw how few classes were available to the last of the students making their schedules, and how many of her credits from community college that she thought would transfer over, didn’t.
“When I had to sign up for my classes I was the last of the bunch so I got the worst picks,” Brown said. “There were so many classes that I needed that I couldn’t take and the times were all over the place.”
These days, it is not unusual for college students to have part time jobs while in school. Some of the more common ones students choose include jobs like waitressing, working in retail, or an on campus job. But Towson University student KayLeigh Moody is taking a different approach for her part time job, by working for an online dog sitting company called Rover.
Most students enter their freshman year of college with an idea of what they want to pursue as a future career, in the place where they plan to make it happen. For some students everything goes as first planned, but for others, they find themselves choosing to scrap their original plan and switch it up. I talked with Towson University student Tony Petro about his decision to change his major from Statistics to Journalism, and make the move from Virginia Tech to Towson.
Weather shot: I took this picture of the sunset from the balcony of my apartment. The darkness of the trees and how they only take up a small portion of the shot really draw your eyes to the colors of the sky. 
Portrait shot: This is one of the dogs I watch, Lucky. I love the way the sunlight is hitting her through the window, making her eyes pop and keeping the background dark at the same time. I’m also using rule of thirds by placing her a little to the right of the frame.
Tiger shot: I took this picture from this angle because of the way the sun was hitting the tiger. If I would have taking it facing the other direction, the sun would have been too direct towards the camera you wouldn’t have seen the tiger. In this, the plants frame the tiger.
As a journalist, you are expected to be comfortable with going up to random people and interviewing them. So as a journalism student, now is the time to start practicing. I talked to 15 strangers, 13 students and 2 professors, and got to know them a little better by asking: “What’s the best thing that’s happened to you in the past 24 hours?” Here were their responses.
Having a presence on social media is becoming more important in the world of sports journalism.
Journalist Heather Rule wrote an article about its importance for the National Institute for Social Media.
Rule says that Twitter is one of the most important forms of social media a sports journalist should have because it makes it easier for them to share information and game updates quickly.
I agree with this because Twitter allows you to post updates right as they happen, such as a big play or an injury. This is the stuff viewers are looking for on their Twitter feeds during games. I follow a few sports journalists on my Twitter and it’s nice to have those updates right away. For example, one of the Capitals journalists was tweeting out information during the first big pre-season interview so that I could know what was happening and what the players and coaches were saying without having to wait for the event to be over and a whole article to be written. I got the quick basic information I wanted to hear.
SARAH RIDENOUR 