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A portion of Peter's winning essay:
Walter Cronkite. Christopherb Hitchens. These men are journalists of the highest order, masters who have come to define their profession. The dazzling heights that they have reached as journalists is just one of the reasons I desire a future in that particular field, as journalism is for me a dream job. It is a field of study that offers me opportunity, intellectual challenge, and the simple joy of writing, and with this essay I hope to detail both those shining characteristics and my long-term career goals in the profession.
The accessibility and versatility of journalism is an attribute that few fields can match. Truly a field that offers something for everyone, movie buffs, sports enthusiasts, and even food connoisseurs can all find a niche in the journalism environment. This kind of variation is to be admired, and while I like many have the ultimate dream of being a columnist, I am also extremely devoted to the
respected worlds of movies, music, and politics, and would view a profession that gave me access to those fields as a gift. But with great power comes great responsibility, and the journalism field demands intellect. From Newton to Einstein, Stravinsky to Zappa, and Griffiths to Spielberg, human creativity is never ending, and the one similarity that we all share, from Thoreau to Roy Rogers, is the intellect--the ability to perceive our surroundings and conceive a perspective. The field of journalism offers unparalleled access to our world, allowing us to challenge and hone that technique. And in journalism, I have found a profession that allows me the opportunity to write, which is an
opportunity like none other. A writer always carries a purpose when they sit down and put thought to paper.
Whether it is a renowned novelist Meticulously assembling a new novel, a manager of a corporation
dictating a memo, or a responsible mother composing a grocery list, every word functions as an indispensable piece of that purpose, culminating in a final, true statement. The power of this purpose is a potent, sacred freedom, and my time as an Ohio University student will only bring me closer to that final, complete message. Yet, it is the last few months that have presented me with the true capabilities of journalism, as it was during this time I began writing for both local and school publications.
Starting in October of 2007, I began working as a political beat reporter for Examiner Publications, the popular newspaper in my area whose circulation exceeds 46,000. My specific beat covers the Carol Stream Park District and School District 93, and my work, which ranges from tax reports to uniform policies, has given me a perfect snapshot of the journalism world. My first event, a school board meeting, took place November 8 of 2007. The meeting was a controversial one, as news had previously leaked that the board was planning on changing the start times of the elementary and middle schools—without notifying the parents of such a decision. The meeting was an angry one, with parents charging the board of working behind closed doors, elitism, and failing to represent the communities they claimed to represent. Going home that evening, I knew I had a story on my hands. The writingprocess, however, was bumpy. Thinking back to that event now, I can easily digest the proceedings and plan out my article: I would start with a lead, write a brief explanation of the situation, use a couple of the more incendiary quotations from the parents, and then offer a quotation from the board to remain balanced. This all seems logical and natural NOW, after six months on the job, but then, as a novice reporter with no experience, it was a daunting task, as I frantically copied quotes, summarized points of view, and prayed that the story would be adequate to my editor’s standards. Also beginning in the fall of 2007, I began reporting for the ECCO, or, the Elgin Community College Observer, ECC’s student-run paper. The fine advisor to the paper, Lori Clark, thought well enough of my efforts that I was promoted to the role of News-Editor for the spring 2008 semester.
Along with my duties as a staff writer, which included the contribution of two articles per issue,
I also edited all the news articles and any other stories needful of attention. Editing has been a great experience, but reporting is where my heart lies, and the ECCO position has given me a grand opportunity to see firsthand the versatilities of journalism that I wrote of in my second essay. Just this last issue, for example, I wrote a feature story in which ECC faculty responded to the Ben Stein movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” and a front-page news story that covered an immigration debate that had taken place at the school. And the effort, by both myself and the staff, has certainly paid off. On April 10 and 11, the ECCO competed with 20 other junior college newspapers at the annual Illinois Community College Journalism Association conference, where professional writers and journalists alike critiqued our papers and then awarded the most outstanding entries in 14 different award categories which covered topics such as photographs, articles, layout, etc. In total, ECCO took home 10 of the 14 awards at the conference. I was fortunate enough to have been the recipient of two of those awards, placing third place in opinion writing (a piece I composed on the ridiculous nature of Christmas music before Thanksgiving) and winning first place in features writing (a spotlight I wrote about the Culinary Arts department at my school). Moreover, the ECCO placed second in overall excellence. Working with the Examiner and ECCO showed me how important on-field experience is with journalism and it only heightened my anticipation of attending the Scripps School of Journalism at OU,where I will no doubt receive top-tier guidance. I would now like to further elaborate on my specific career goals of arts and entertainment and a columnist position. My aspirations as a columnist areself-explanatory. Consider Christopher Hitchens, for example, one of my favorite writers and intellects.
I first discovered Hitchens with his 2007 book god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and from that point, I was hooked, reading Hitchens’ various writings on American politics, global crises, and literary critiques. These vast writings appeared in a wide variety of publications, such as Slate.com, the Nation (pre-2003), and The New York Times. Can the heaven in which Mr. Hitchens presides be any more obvious? With a command of language that is both feared and respected, the man has a freelance range that causes me to salivate. He observes, he considers, and he develops opinions,
putting the thoughts to paper and publishing them as poetic musings from an experienced observer. Like I said, the man is living a freelance dream, and I myself can only dream to replicate such influence. I, like Hitchens, have a deep love for politics and philosophy, but if I were forced to make a choice of where my true passions lie, I would undoubtedly choose the arts, specifically the respected fields of music and film. It all started with my junior year in high school. Junior year was the dawn of a new era for my career as a student—the first Advanced Placement courses of my academic life. One of the courses, an AP English course that focused on American Literature, will forever rank as one of
the more challenging and influential courses of study of my life, and the one that changed my worldview for all time.
In this case, it all started with Jurassic Park. I know, upon first glance it is nothing more
than a dopey Steven Spielberg movie, but under the scrupulous eye of my AP teacher, a Mr. Gary Lorber, the film was a complex examination of science and the dangerous consequences that advances in the field can bring to humanity. Through Lorber’s tutelage, I as well as my fellow classmates began noticing several unique patterns of the film: Richard Attenborough, as the head of the park, wears white, a symbol of his supposedly divine powers to create life; Jeff Goldblum, a scientist visiting the park, wears black, a symbol of his extreme opposition to the unnatural science of the park; in a pivotal scene in which the antagonists of the film, the velociraptors, pursue the protagonists through the ceiling of an office, a computer screen flashes menacing computer codes across the raptor’s head, a direct connection with technology gone awry; and, most prominently, when Attenborough picks up
the protagonists, following a rescue by the T-Rex, the camera focuses on the door of his jeep, in which the logo of the park, which reads “Jurassic Park,” has mud smeared over the “j” and “ic” of the first
word, resulting in the phrase “urass (your ass) park.” After this point, there was no turning back, as I had been fully exploited to the wonderfully elaborate world of rhetoric; and, it continues today, as I frequently delve into complex books, films, and music, searching for various themes and meanings in the work. To do such activities on my own time is a pleasure. To do it for a career is a bloody miracle. Though I write of these passions and aspirations with focus and clarity, such precision is a characteristic I have longed and struggled for, and I would like to continue and conclude this essay in the next prompt with an explanation of why I truly and honestly apply for this scholarship.
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