I’m a city girl at heart. Fact is, before my adventure in Seward with my advanced reporting class last summer, I thought sorghum was the Spanish word for beans.
But writing and reporting for the Seward County Independent taught no not only about sorghum, but about community journalism.
Every day from June 27 through July 8, an uneasy 10 UNL journalism students traveled to Seward to obtain hands-on experience as a part of our advanced reporting and editing classes.
As a reporter, I worked on news and feature stories for two weekly editions of the Independent. The stories I covered ranged from previewing a motorcycle rally to my most challenging assignment, writing a crop-status report.
As an Omahan, born and reared, I had a lot to learn about agriculture to complete this assignment. But the county extension agent showed me the ropes. And before I knew it, I was making predictions about the winter wheat harvest, reporting on the status of the sorghum and writing about recent hail damage to area corn.
The reporters also worked on a special edition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Writing about World War II proved to be more challenging than we thought.
It was hard to find sources who had been in Seward County during the war and were still around. But once the sources were located, the assignment turned out to be a lesson in both journalism and history.
Seward is Nebraska’s Fourth of July City,” and the residents put on quite a celebration. So the small Independent staff welcomed our help in covering the holiday festivities. Reporters took pictures and recounted the day’s activities, including a parade, an air show and a fireworks display. The editing students revised the stories, laid out the picture pages and wrote cutlines.
Accompanied by our fearless leaders, professors Alfred Pagal and Daryl Frazell, we received practical experience in a real newsroom setting.
I learned a lot in this class. Never again will I drive by a wheat field and ask, “When is hay going to be harvested?”
Student
Features