Capstone Class Mimics Real World

When I began the journey through journalism 421, my beat development senior capstone, I was honestly terrified. I didn’t know how I was going to write a story every two weeks, let alone stories that weren't handed to my by an editor but rather found through my own sources and research. The class far surpassed any of my expectations or fears—in a very good way. Because of this class I feel perfectly capable of developing a beat of my own in the real world. I anticipate the process being even easier without 15 other credit hours and 26 novels to read weighing me down.

One of the most rewarding parts of the beat development process was forging relationships with sources and finding story ideas through them. It was extremely gratifying to discover very interesting people and events happening on campus. A whole other side of the university was opened up to me. I undertook several aspects of the School of Fine Arts as my beat: the administration, art museum, and architecture/interior design department. I had never set foot in the architecture and interior design building before this semester, nor taken an interest in what amazing projects the students and staff were undertaking.

A couple of my stories were not only written for the class deadline, but for our student paper as well. This doubling of expectations put pressure on me to really work ahead for each story. I found it very frustrating when my grades and the good graces of my editors were in the hands of sources who may or may not return my phone calls or emails in a timely fashion.

Welcome to the real world, Megan.

-- Megan Milstead
Nov. 27, 2007