For my final story I wanted to do some research and reporting on mental health trends and eating habits on campus as we approach finals week. I have overheard various conversations with people talking very harshly about their bodies, in conjunction with anxiety felt towards the end of the year. The stress of finals week is making it easier for many to neglect food and sleep, exacerbating the existing body-dysmorphia problem on campus.

I wanted to interview students from the different years. I also intend to interview the counseling center to inquire on whether or not there have been more students visiting recently. I wanted to use this localization to look into different research that has been conducted on the negative impacts social-media and our perfectionist culture is having on cognition/mental-health nationwide.

By: Griffen Dresner

At the center of Wake Forest’s campus lies the Pit; a lively buzzing dining hall where Demon Deacons hunt for their meals each and every day.

While most students may not know it, the Pit has changed its infamous hamburger recipe to a new “Blended Beef Burger”, gradually implementing it over the past few months. The new burger has a 30% mushrooms and soy base, leaving 70% of it untouched.

Sophomore Christian Desminome, who eats “.75 burgers per week,” said he did not notice the sign that indicates that the recipe changed.

The Office of Sustainability has been making a move towards an all-campus plant-based dietary effort. The new Blended Beef Burger is the first attempt made to target the fast food sector; one that often is based on livestock ingredients.

This grand shift in a core component to most student’s diet has happened without their full understanding. Most students are completely unaware of the drastic ingredient change within their burgers.  

Freshmen Shi Williams interviewed by Dresner

Video taken by Christian Odjakjian

Hunter, a Freshman student who declined to give his last name, was asked what percent of the new hamburger now consists of Mushrooms. “I think almost 100%,” Hunter said.

Although sustainability efforts have helped to drastically reverse Wake Forest’s carbon footprint. Many students are dissatisfied with the dietary changes.

Freshman Sam Moore gave the most telling response of what a consistent burger eater thinks of the new recipe.

“I eat about two burgers a week here,” Moore says. “I know there was some change with the hamburgers because now they suck,” Moore said.

Relevant Articles:

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/burger-king-has-meatless-impossible-whopper-it-healthier-original-ncna991536

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/technology/burger-king-impossible-whopper.html

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/4/1/18290762/burger-king-impossible-whopper-plant-based-meat

For Story 3 I wanted to look into the study abroad programs that are sustainability-oriented. I aim to focus specifically on professor Silman, and Catanoso’s Peru program that is focused on educating students on the effects of climate change as a result of Amazonian deforestation. I would like to look into the specifics of what is being done at a local level here at the University with landscaping, and then broaden out the scope of influence by discussing the international work being done through Peru.

I have decided to change my  New York Times reporter. I now intend to cover Patricia Mazzei’s writing.

Brief Context –

Mazzei is the Miami bureau chief, covering Florida, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. I chose her as my model because she was born and raised in Venezuela, the same place of my own heritage –I hope to articulate a similar unique perspective to my writing, as she is able to within the paper. Her style is simple, but she uses a lot of emotive language throughout, keying into human right’s issues, especially related to gender.

Patricia Mazzei predominantly covers sociopolitical affairs in Florida and Puerto Rico. Her articles are chiefly written in a way that elicit strong emotion by addressing wider social concerns such the impacts of Opioids and human trafficking.

Her leads are very impactful. She often writes in the perspective of victims and uses strong quotes.  She tends to choose the classic style news lead when the topic she covers has inherently impactful notions such when Trump addressed president Nicolás Maduro.

Her articles are extremely in depth, exploring multiple perspectives on the given issue and always assessing its national implications. The length of her articles tend to be longer, following this general format: news/perspective/news/perspective etc. She is very good at pin pointing the wider effects of Southern Floridian social issues, as she recognizes the unique Hispanic diversity within the region and how this population is increasingly becoming more influential in general American politics.

Mazzei makes an effective use of quotes, often times incorporating shorter single-worded quotes within her sentences to reinforce a paragraphs overall sentiment.

Mazzei’s nutgrafs tend to be located in the fourth or fifth paragraph. This style is effective because she gives detailed explanations of the current “news”, allowing readers to know its inherent significance, and then broadening its scope to open readers mind’s to how it’s wider impact has national implications.

Her sentence structure is very powerful because they always end strong, leaving readers to think seriously about her news.

I find her articles to be extremely insightful and interesting, especially since she is covering a region that directly impacts my own community. I appreciate her writing style because I recognize my own voice within it. Her articles are easy to read and to understand – she makes them accessible to the populations she writes about.

Mazzei’s use of personalized perspectives gives color to her articles, adding a powerful element of the human within them – this allows readers to feel more connected to her pieces as they come to life, giving reporting more “humanly” significance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/us/robert-kraft-trafficking-florida.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fpatricia-mazzei&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

I intend to localize the current Venezuelan aid crisis. I would like to articulate how significant it is to Floridian state politics as well as national foreign policy, and how little our campus seems to be aware of the issue.

I think that the hook would be to focus into the young Venezuelan students that have always been at the heart of the movement (students our own age) – I want to start it off as a feature news lead with a comparative narrative of a young adult’s life in Venezuela right now, to shed light onto our very own “Wake Bubble”.

Extra input: Thousands of people are starving whilst the Venezuelan military sets humanitarian aid food on fire — Venezuela is almost a bordering country to the United States and has significant influence within the entire region (both in South American and in the Caribbean).

I would like to interview several members of OLAS organization (Latin American student Organization),

Leaders of the Honduras Aid (HSS) club (to see if they’ve considered the political similarities between Honduras and Venezuela)

Venezuelan students on campus: Isabelle Kaufman, Valentina Roa,

I would also like to interview Latin American professors,

My New York Times idol is Isabel Kershner. She is an author and has been reporting on Jerusalem since 2007. Previously, she was a Senior Editor for The Jerusalem Report Magazine. She has also commented on Middle Eastern affairs for BBC and on other reputable news broadcasting organizations.

I was first drawn to her news articles because I aspire to write invigorating and challenging stories about Middle Eastern politics– especially since I am a woman from the Middle East.

Her writing spoke to me because she clearly isn’t afraid of leaning into the harder conversations in regards to the Palestine/Israeli conflict. She reports the facts, and this could help the public reevaluate their beliefs on the issue. She has a very strong moral tone within her articles, reflecting the sensitivity one must feel when considering the conflict. She also uses a vast amount of evidence which helps to establish her credibility (a vital component especially when juggling with a topic this dense). Although Isabel doesn’t write as often as other reporters for the Middle East, her articles are able to challenge the status quo each time.

Here are some of her recent articles:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-violence.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/world/middleeast/palestinian-government-resigns.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/world/middleeast/israel-attack-syria-iran.html