Wrap Up from Theo

wrap up

Well, that’s a wrap. I have to say this was definitely one of the most engaging courses I’ve taken in a really long time. There are so many incredibly talented people in our class that I was expecting their presentations to be great, but pretty much every single one of them blew me away – including my teammate Matt, whose documentary was a huge undertaking and sadly wasn’t able to be viewed in class. Great stuff, and I’m sure we’ll hear more from all of them, if not this coming fall then further on in whatever they choose to do and whatever lucky employer manages to snag them.

Now, on to moving out of the apartment. Oh, and final exams. Yikes.

 

A Debt of Gratitude

Thank you to the excellent students of NMC 301 who pulled together and despite power outages, challenging sources, slippery truths and merely 24-hour days, delivered some of the most impressive and exciting work my colleagues, your classmates I have seen.

 

 

Team Iraq’s Documentary

Team Iraq is putting their documentary on YouTube so we can all enjoy it. It’s not uploaded yet, but this is going to be the address:

http://youtube.com/IraqDocumentary

 

Reflections on Final Project Presentations

Reflections on Final Project Presentations

June 4, 2008 · No Comments

It was so wonderful to see everyone’s project tonight.  I throughly enjoyed and learned a lot from each project. Seeing all different mediums come together in a three hour class is absolutely fascinating and educational in itself. Tonight we saw a magazine design, a blog with a documentary on it and a how to piece, a website created and enclosed a documentary and video. I thought each group worked extremely hard and it was foreseen in the the final product.

One of my favorite moments was when Pam was tearing up over my group’s documentary.  It made me feel like my group portrayed the message that we wanted which was to touch lives and send an educated message. Seeing her tear up made me feel good because I saw all of my hard work paid off in one 19 minute video.

I also enjoyed the Solar Vehicle Team documentary made by Jake and Lindsay. I think its awesome the opportunity that came to Lindsay from doing this project.  It makes me see that something as small a class project can lead to something more and can lead to furthering future careers.  Knowing that a great opportunity came to her from this only helps my confidence and my willingness to continue growing, learning and creating new projects. That is an experience that she will never forget and a life changing and hopefully career changing event in her life.  If she can do it, I can too.

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Tech Team webpage

Finished project, check it out…

http://web.mac.com/adamschwartz5/Tech_and_FB/Home.html

 

Introduction about the War documentary and the three students behind it!

The Iraq War: A Student Perspective was created off three students interest and curiosity about what students think of the war and whether it affects us.  We personally wanted to interview a vast array of different and diverse students that come from all backgrounds.  We took our journalism and multimedia knowledge and decided to do a group documentary, which could capture the thoughts of many students on film. Once we decided on our multimedia format and topic, we then came up with questions to ask all 67 students. With Nick’s occupation in the National Guard we were able to get quality interviews from soldiers themselves that served in Iraq, which helped to provide insight to see what it was really like being in Iraq.  We also interviewed Megan, a student who has grown up in a military family and is marrying Derrick an ROTC cadet and a student that will be deployed when he graduates.  These three students, Nick, Devin and Jenna tried to maintain the professional journalism stance by creating a nonbiased documentary telling the stories and opinions of many students.  We hope that we touched the lives of the New Media Communications 301 spring term class.  We personally learned a lot from this documentary and we hope that you all do to. Now lets take a look into the lives of the three creative, new media students.
Nick Conley is in his fifth and final year of college. He started his college career at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, NM where he played baseball and earned his commission as an officer in the United States Army. After graduating with an Associates of Arts degree.  He then moved back home to Oregon and attended Linfield College for a year. Conley transferred to Oregon State University where he has spent the past two years and will graduate with a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Studies with a focus in New Media Communication. For the past three years he has been a member in the Oregon Army National Guard where he is now a First Lieutenant. After Graduation Nick plans on going to courses for the military and by May of next year he is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq with the Oregon Army National Guard 41st Brigade. Conley brought his knowledge of the Army and his film skills to the project.  It was his stimulating questions to soldiers that brought the soldier prospective to the project.
Devin Robinson studied film for two years after high school before becoming jaded with the Hollywood system and the LA way of life.  Robinson did some traveling in Europe, returned to Oregon and became a waiter.  After a few months of that he decided it was time to go back to school.  Now he is in his senior year and studying New Media Communications at Oregon State. Robinson was enticed into this war documentary project because of the age similarity between the common college student and the common US soldier and what they thought of each other. Film and video are his favorite mediums and he was happy to bring his  technical and aesthetic knowledge to the project. He was the creative, master producer where his film skills shined like the Hollywood red carpet.
Jenna Santelli is graduating from Oregon State in a week and half with her study in New Media Communications.  She is going to be moving to Utah in a month to start her journey working at Salt Lake Community College in the Sports Information Department where she will continue her passion for writing sports. Santelli’s dream is to become a travel writer and travel world one article at a time. She has been to Thailand where she volunteered and kept an active blog. She also studied Spanish in Costa Rica. Santelli submitted her resume and this project to a National Geographic Correspondence Program that would help jump start her travel writing career.

 

Green Team Intro and Autobiographies

As members of the ‘Green Team,’ we have recognized that global warming is a serious issue that affects all of us. Our focus for this assignment is the impact of global warming on our lives and how we as students can take action and combat the effects of global warming. Throughout the term, this Writing for the Media Professional class has introduced us to a new and vital form of communication – blogging. As we each agreed that blogging is a great way to express our ideas and views on a particular issue that concerns all of us, we decided that we will present our group project in the form of a blog. This will allow other bloggers to communicate with us as well as indicate how they feel about global warming and the issues that we raise. By choosing the blog as our form of presentation, we were then able to present our research in different ways.

Whilst we have discovered that there are many student groups at OSU who have joined together to raise awareness of the effects of global warming, there are also a number of students who know very little about how their actions and daily choices are affecting the future of our environment. A particular student group that we have chosen to focus on is the Solar Vehicle Team. This group has designed and created a solar powered vehicle to compete in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. We interviewed members of the group and they provided us with a number of positive reasons why such a project is just one example of the ways students at OSU can get involved and promote the benefits of a green environment. We decided that our interviews with various members of the SVT would best be represented as a documentary and so Lindsey chose to accelerate her passion for film production and should be credited for her filming and editing skills.

We then decided that it was important to learn about global warming from professors who have a particular interest in this issue. Jake tried to interview Nicholas Drapela, who is known for his outspoken opinions on how and why global warming does not exist, however unfortunately this did not work out. Hannah spoke to Steve Cook, who confirmed that global warming is a problem that we must address. This feedback provided us with an interesting perspective on the issue in its entirety.

Finally, we decided that it was important to collaborate the research that we found individually to create a ‘how to’ guide on conserving the environment and saving energy. We hope you enjoy our presentation and gain as much from the information we have provided you as we have!

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Introducing members of the Green Team and how they have contributed to this project:

Lindsey Pierce:
My name is Lindsey Pierce and I am 21. I transferred from Linfield College to Oregon State University after one year. This is my second year studying New Media Communications at OSU. My focus is on video production. I grew up in Tualatin, Ore. with my parents, older sister, and younger brother.

How I came up with my story:
I was researching on the Oregon State University Web site to find environmental clubs. The most interesting one that I found was the Solar Vehicle Team. The team was a good example of students making positive choices to help the future of the environment, which is the topic of our project. This type of club also seemed to lend itself to a visual medium, so I decided to make a documentary about the club.

Hannah Boekemann:
My name is Hannah Boekemann and I am a senior in New Media and Communications. I am 21 years old and I am currently studying at OSU on a six-month exchange program. I am from Sydney, Australia and I will be finishing my journalism degree at Charles Sturt University at the end of this year. I have always had an interest in writing and the communications industry and this Writing for the Media Professional class has enabled me to explore my passion even further.

I feel that my strength is in writing and so I have aimed to work on my writing and reporting skills throughout this group project. However, I did enjoy learning about how to use the camera equipment as well as uploading video footage onto the computer. I chose to work with the green team because I know very little about global warming and how it will effect our future. Speaking to students from the solar vehicle team as well as a professor in geosciences has certainly improved my knowledge and understanding of this topic. Whilst we have chosen to speak to a number of different people, I interviewed Steve Cook in order to find out his opinion on global warming as well as to find out some ways that we can begin to combat global warming before it’s too late. I therefore used the information that Cook provided me with to write a mini profile story on him and the truth about the current global climate. I also asked him some tips on how to save energy and conserve the environment. I also did some research on global warming so that I could form a ‘how to’ guide on ways that we can all save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Jake Lowden: My name is Jake Lowden; I am a New Media Communications option.  I am finishing my third year at Oregon State University.  I am twenty-one years old and I have lived in Oregon City, Oregon my entire life.  I am most interested in the video production part of the New Media spectrum.  In this project I contributed in the filming of the video documentary about the Solar Car Club.

Coming into this project I was sort of skeptic of Global Warming in regards to whether it is true or not.  After listening to many of the members of the Solar Car Club express their opinions, I found that even if Global Warming is only a theory, it can’t hurt to make the necessary positive steps to fight Global Warming and improve the environment.

 

debt team final project – text section (video to be presented in class) – Student Finances: Weaknesses, Strengths, and Solutions

Theodore Mintesnot & Matt Johnson
NMC 301 Group Project – ‘Financial’ section
6.3.08

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Student Finances: Weaknesses, Strengths, and Solutions

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The biggest question of college life for not only students but their entire families is “how are they going to pay for it?” With rising costs of higher education, financial management is an issue that affects everyone attending college, and the cost of a mistake – financially, academically, and emotionally – can be severe.

From a somewhat broad question of “what are students doing to help or hurt themselves” and a greater focus on the financial aspect of that topic, our story has come together rather organically out of our interviews and questionnaires: we asked these questions to as many students and faculty members as we could find. Their answers edified and surprised us.

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In Patti Brady-Glassman’s estimate, the most prevalent area of difficulty for students financially is somewhat obvious: finding money. “Not a difficult question, not an easy solution,” the Associate Director of Oregon State’s Financial Aid office said. Brady-Glassman has been working with students and their financial issues for 19 years.

In her experience many students either do not correctly understand the process or don’t contact their offices until they are already in dire financial conditions. “Poor planning” can lead to catastrophe later on, Brady-Glassman said. The office sees its biggest volume the first week, which is often too late for very much to be done as deadlines for various applications to financial aid programs are handled in advance of the academic term.

Financial concerns are becoming a greater issue in no small part because, while costs of higher education rise, the financial aid itself is not increasing. Also difficult is the summer term, as aid is allotted to the main year, with summer being the ‘leftover’. In regards to the new student debt policy, Brady-Glassman noted that federal aid can only be used for the current term and not for debts from past terms.

Many students contribute to their financial issues with their spending habits, without fully grasping the “concept of a budget,” Brady-Glassman said. This can be especially bad for students whom receive aid at the beginning of a term and find themselves very short through the winter break.

Students whom want to support themselves with a job rather than entirely through aid or their parents don’t have it easy, either. Young adults in the 18-24 age bracket with no credit history or work experience can find it exceedingly difficult to find employment, especially in a smaller college town like Corvallis.

In Brady-Glassman’s 19 years of experience in the Financial Aid department she has notice that “students seem to be a lot more stressed out” then before. Rates of student depression are much higher. “…money is a stressful topic” to begin with, so students can go from being upset to either angry or relieved depending on what support they may or may not be eligible for.

Family support has radically changed as well. Parental coddling in terms of finances becomes an issue as well, since it deprives their offspring of responsibility towards their own finances that they necessarily must face, not only in college but life afterwards.

It’s not entirely negative an outlook, however. Returning students meeting deadlines suggest a greater awareness for some. Brady-Glassman said that offering information through the website has helped lower their rate of phone calls, and that the Financial Aid office is “always trying to improve communication.”

As for use of new/social media to help with this goal, Brady-Glassman explained that the Financial Aid office simply lacks the staffing for such an undertaking. However the OSU Admissions Office does have a blog, through which they direct relevant Q+A to the Financial Aid office.

Awareness of the Financial Aid office‘s location was not perceived as a problem to Brady-Glassman. Students often don’t come to Financial Aid until they are dire need of its resources, and even then most do not know how much they can or can not be helped. Brady-Glassman pointed out that there are many “misconceptions about aid” arising from anecdotal information of acquaintances. Such information is both confidential and often a very different circumstance for each student, and as such cannot be relied on for a reasonable expectation.

Financial Aid’s primary method of communication is email. Students who don’t check their ONID accounts regularly may miss out on opportunities with a strict time limit, costing them an opportunity for more funds.

Brady-Glassman urged students to become more educated about federal aid because it is very limited. The idea of a mandatory class on how to balance a budget for students is a popular one in theory but not so much in practice. Financial responsibility is a “dry, boring topic,” Brady-Glassman said, and very seldom are students “on the ball”.

When it comes to finances, students are “so hand-held out of high school,” said Brady-Glassman. By sophomore year there is a significant drop-off in students coming in to the Financial Aid office.

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Sara L. Bennett, a 22-year-old OSU Accounting senior, is part of the college group Beta Alpha Psi which teaches financial information primarily to high schools as well as some college students. Beta Alpha Psi has worked with Brass Magazine, a locally-operated national publication focusing on financial information for high schoolers and college students. Brass has given the group promotion in their publication. The local chapter even made it to 2nd place in a regional conference of 19 chapters, thanks to help from Brass, whom Bennett called a “great resource.”

Bennett believes the biggest problem is education – when it comes to financial responsibilities most students “have no idea,” she said. On a scale of one to ten, Bennett would rank students’ awareness of their financial aid options as a “4 or 5,” depending on their academic major – an economics student might have an advantage in this regard to a liberal arts student, and so on. When it comes to stress, Bennett also observed that students whom are finally seeking out help are most likely “higher than average” in their stress level.

What students can do about this is to be “proactive,” Bennett said, attending informational presentations, and doing their own research into possible scholarship opportunities.

Bennett noted that one thing students are very aware of is their long-term financial goals, such as their savings, retirement plans, or social security. Even if they don’t know how to accomplish these things many students are aware of them, perhaps from observing their parents’ struggles to meet similar goals of their own.

Bennett, whom has worked continuously through college up to this term, her last before graduation, agrees that starting the job process can be “rough” without any experience, and considers starting a savings account set aside for future goals to be a personal financial success.

She hopes the new student debt policy “will motivate students” to be more aggressive about managing their finances.

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Marceline Bamba, 45, is a licensed psychologist and clinical director of OSU’s Counseling and Psychological Services department. For the students whom the Guam-born counselor sees, finances are an issue “more common than not.”

Financial aid problems can lead to credit issues quite quickly. While financial aid is a considerable stressor it is not the only “issue,” Bamba said.

Bamba believes the biggest problem for students is management of funds and lack of aid. Students often try to find jobs during the summer term. Contributing problems might include irresponsibility or online gambling, which can both be quite detrimental to a student budget.

Students, if they are dependent, might be embarrassed to speak to their parents about their financial issues. “Parents are a lot more involved in student’s lives…not just [in] K-12 but college” as well, Bamba said.

Because of this increased level of parental guidance, when students are left to their own devices, they may quickly find themselves out of their depth and without an idea of what to do or even what questions to ask regarding financial management.

Among the students Bamba counsels there is a low awareness of financial options, and a need for information. The counselor insists, however, that students are always “open to hearing” about solutions.

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In addition to our main interviews, a questionnaire was distributed via email as well as in print to a number of students. Over 20 responses came back to us with more incoming at the time of this writing.

Concerns that were common among many of these students included credit card debt, the stresses of trying to balance between school and either employment or the job search, and almost unanimously a call for more information and education on financial options.

The rising cost of not only tuition but books, gas, and other expenses of living did not go unnoticed. 22-year-old Brittany White pointed out that “most students are unable to work and attend school full time, while trying to meet their financial needs.”

Accounting major Ben Mathias thought that “most OSU students are actually confused about their financial options.” Biochemistry & Biophysics major Kevin Dunn, 19, disagreed: “I’d say students are pretty aware of their financial options…but most students don’t understand what they do and do not qualify for, and therefore miss out on valid opportunities.”

Surprisingly, many of the students surveyed were not aware of the Financial Aid office‘s location or had ever even been there – their exploration of their student aid options often being done exclusively online.

Lily Lin, a 19-year-old Business Administration major, said that “the internet is a great way to spread financial [advice] to students.” The concept of using new technologies to disseminate financial education was one that many students seemed to find very convenient. Carrie Fox, a 35-year-old Accounting major, makes the case that use of social media “can educate people at a much larger rate than just relying on printed material to do it.”

22-year-old Blake Seabough agreed. “Awareness would be the best financial advice.”

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Matthew Johnson is a senior at Oregon State University and is majoring in Liberal Arts with a New Media Communications option. He is 21 years old and comes from the small town of Silverton Oregon.

Theodore Mintesnot is a current student of Oregon State University. He hails from Northeast Portland, his hometown, and currently remains undeclared of an academic major.

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Additional Resources:
Financial Aid and Scholarships at OSU
OSU Admissions Blog
Beta Alpha Psi – College of Business OSU
Counseling and Psychological Services at OSU
New student debt policy to go into effect winter 2009
ID card: what no debt really means
OSU discusses debit card option
Billing fee, not yet free
OSU’s Student Finance Page
NYT – Student Loans
College Loans by States Face Fresh Scrutiny
Project on Student Debt
U.S. Aims to Buoy Student-Loan Market
New or Used? – That is the question
Debt Load, Class of 2006
Top 10 Rookie Investment Mistakes
Surviving Credit Card Debt – How to Battle the Big Boys and Come Out Winning!
The Credit Card Trap
Get Real – Real Estate, Real Investment
Overdraft Intervention – Kicking the cost
Save Yourself – Saving strategies with sweet rewards
After Debt – 5 ways to stay debt free
Destination Debt Free – Mapping your way out of debt
Debt Double-Take – The two sides of debt
Buy Instead of Rent and Pay Yourself, Not a Landlord
Dealing with Car Dealers – 5 negotiating tips
Paper Free – Digitizing your dollars
Budgets in Flux – A 411 for irregular incomes
Should College Students Have Credit Cards?
DollarCamp Interviews:Students and Credit Cards
College Students and Credit
MetroMoney: Managing Student Loans: Part 1
Student Loan Rehabilitation and more: Part 2
“Tips to use Credit Cards to Your Advantage”
How to Declare Bankruptcy

 

Tech Team on Deadline

The Monday Night Rush

June 3, 2008

I had lots to do Monday night. We still havent received one part of our project so the stress level started to rise. Images still needed to be created for the project website and I needed to post things on the blog, opps. Stress increaser. The designing of the webpage is coming together and starting to look like a mimic of the facebook layout. Im learning web design and its kinda fun but lots of work.

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Deadlines

June 3, 2008

Well over the weekend. We were all supposed to write our portions of the project and send it to each other via email. However we had some complications of when things were done and deadlines were not followed. I had to start designing the webpage and was started to get worried about what the design was going to look like and how we are going to present our information. However i think everything will work out fine.

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Editing footage

June 3, 2008

Hi all.  So on sunday June first, I spent my night in computer labs at Hovland and was editing the footage. I had some problems with the camera and over exposed the image. I did some color correction fixed some of it. However, when i uploaded it to youtube, it all became darker. haha. But its not bad, just a montage of Oregon State students and facebook.   
 
 

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Students on FB

June 3, 2008

So on Friday May 30th I went walking around campus and asked students about facebook and their uses with it. Some questions I asked them were, Are you on facebook? Why do you have a facebook account? Is your facbook account distracting you from school? What are some positive things you’ve received from having a facebook account? How many times do you check it a day? Do you plan keeping it after college, why or why not? 

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Loges interview

June 3, 2008

 

Interview with Loges

 

On May 28^th I interviewed professor Loges.

 

The questions I asked him were…

 

1. Where did you get your Undergraduate Degree?

2. Your Masters, and Doctrine degree?

3. How long have you been teaching?

            - How long at OSU?

4. My group is focusing on technology we are using today that can help/hurt us in the future, in particular Facebook, do you have a Facebook account?

5. Why did you create a Facebook account?

6. What is your concern with Facebook?

7. Are people resorting to social networks and finding a false sense of community as means to treat depression of some sort?

8. What are some advantages you can see from Facebook?

9. Do you think its beneficial for students to spend more time with things that are more productive?

10. As I have been doing research on this topic I have noticed a education is brought up a lot, do you think are excessive use to the internet is hurting us as an Americans and other countries are getting smarter?

11. A few decades ago if someone had a question they would go ask a friend or go down the hall, initiated human contact. Now everyone just goes to Google, do you think we are on a path that is dehumanizing us?

12. Any other comments or concerns? 

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IDEAS!

June 3, 2008

So as the week bled into the 27th our ideas became more concrete and we started getting more of a focus with out technology category. We decided we would look at the developing web 2.0 and focusing on the popular social network site, FACEBOOK. Sarah is going to focus on how it can help/harm peoples career and profession. Josh is looking into the history and foundation of facebook, and I am taking a look at the psychological sides of facebook.  

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Start of Project

June 3, 2008

So in the week of the May 19th my group decided we need to gain a a focus and decide what to do our final project. I had already come in with some previous ideas about technology and possible effects it could have students in the future. This week was mostly brainstroming. It turned out that Sarah, Josh, and I will work together for this final project and have create a sweet project. 

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STRESS!!!! By Natalie Moser

“How To Deal With Stress” By Natalie Moser

3 06 2008

 

 

Stress seems to be more prevalent than alcohol on college campuses today.  Although, stress and college have always gone hand in hand, what is it exactly that is causing it and how can students deal?

 

“My job stresses me out the most, I have to work over 20 hours a week because I have to pay for school and on top of that it’s hard taking 18 credit hours and trying to work and being in a sorority,” said Sara Taylor, a Junior Communications major. 

 

Ava Khoshbin, a Freshman HDFS major, said that as far as what stresses her out it would be “The future, basically, school because it’s going to lead me to my future and if I fail then it’s like I’m going to fail my future.”

 

These stressful situations are shared among many college students and several of them deal with their stress through unsafe and unhealthy behaviors, such as drugs and alcohol, as a way of an escape.  Even though, they may not realize it at the time that these behaviors could result in an unfortunate life changing experience. 

 

How is it that students can release their stress but in a healthy way? 

 

Suggestions that were made by students for other students included things such as, “Talking to a friend or someone close that can help them cope,” said Tony Losh, a Junior Business major. 

 

Khoshbin, 19 from Lake Oswego said “Write down everything you need to do and take it on one by one, that’s the only thing that works for me.”

 

“Working out for sure, I should do it but I don’t, maybe that’s why I am so stressed all the time,” said Taylor, 20 from Lake Oswego. 

 

According to an article, “Teens and Stress: Who Has Time For It?,” from the American Academy of Family Physicians, they suggest first recognizing that you are in fact stressed.  Tips on how to tell are signs of:

• Feeling depressed, edgy, guilty, tired
• Having headaches, stomachaches, trouble sleeping
• Laughing or crying for no reason
• Blaming others for bad things that happen to you
• Only seeing the down side of a situation
• Feeling like things that you used to enjoy aren’t fun or are a burden
• Resenting other people or your responsibilities

 Other useful tips on how to fight stress, provided by the American Academy of Family Physicians, include:

• Eating well-balanced meals on a regular basis
• Drinking less caffeine
• Getting enough sleep
• Exercising on a regular basis
• Making a list of things that are causing your stress
• Take control of what you can
• Give yourself a break
• Don’t commit yourself to things you can’t do or don’t want to do
• Find someone to talk to

 By incorporating some or all of these tips into student’s daily lives they could significantly reduce the amount of college stress.

 

Although, “It’s obviously easier said than done,” said Whitney King, a Sophomore Business major.

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Stress and Students Today, By Natalie Moser

3 06 2008

It’s no secret that college students today face an immense amount of stress and pressure from anything ranging from college coursework to financial burdens to even health issues.  The interesting part about it all is how college students deal with these stresses and are they in a constructive or destructive way?

 

“I deal with stress by partying,” said Casey Knuth, a Junior Business major, “I’m a very live life by the moment kind of guy.”

 

Knuth, age 21 from Tualatin, also added “My number one stressor is waking up in the morning and all I wanna do is get drunk but I can’t because I know I have to go to class.”

 

On the other hand, Natalie Swartzendruber, a Sophomore Political Science major, said “I take “me” time, where I’ll go and do something I enjoy, watch a movie, get a chai, go for a drive, read my Bible, or call my mom.”

 

Both students deal with their stress in two completely different ways but it seems as though, according to a poll from the Associated Press, “Stress Pains Many in College,” by Alan Fram and Trevor Tompson, that many students are tending to resort to drugs and alcohol rather than seeking less damaging options, “More than a quarter of the students sometimes think they should cut down on drinking or going out.  A third say they sometimes want to use drugs or alcohol to relax.”

 

Many students attribute stress as a leading cause to the amount of alcohol ingested by college students today. Shelby Johnson, a Sophomore getting an International Degree in Spanish, said “That’s [stress] half the reason I think people drink as much as they do, like Tuesday nights, most people look ahead at all the stuff they have to do the rest of the week and get drunk.”

 

Students also talked about how social situations can act as a stressor causing them to consume alcohol or consume more alcohol than they intended to.  “If you know your going into a stressful situation you drink more,” said Johnson, age 20 from Portland. 

 

Yet still darker, although just as important are the instances of suicide that occur among college students due to stress.  “About one in six say they have friends who in the past year have discussed committing suicide, and about one in 10 say they have seriously considered it themselves.  Friends have actually tried to end their lives in that time, one in 10 say,” said Fram and Tompson. 

 

What has caused this push toward such a huge extreme?  “I think we have a lot more pressure put on our generation to be so much smarter and to make a good living,” said Courtney Schild, a Freshman Art major.

 

“Our society has higher expectations on what you should be able to do and your accomplishments,” said Johnson.

 

Schild, age 19 from Portland said “We hear so much from the media that everyone has nice things so we think that’s the norm so that’s what we strive to achieve.”

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Process Memo

3 06 2008

Overall, my experience writing both of my articles on stress was good.  People seemed to be receptive to my questions and friendly while I interviewed them.  Like always, I had the most trouble simply sitting down and writing my two articles but once I did things just started flowing pretty well.  I’m excited about my stories actually because I wrote them as a kind of pair.  One is about what students resort to when they are stressed and the other is about how to deal with stress.  I’m really excited about how our group project has turned out and I hope that the class will be as excited about it as I am.