I want to do a story on greek life and the disparities between Panhellenic sororities/IFC fraternities and the NPHC – which is basically white greek life vs. black greek life. There is a distinguished difference in the resources that both groups are provided, and the opportunities on this campus. My challenge will be to pick just one of those issues to hone in on… but I think I’m going to focus on the removal of the barn – which was one of the only spaces that black sororities and fraternities could throw parties in, and go from there. I plan to interview the director of sorority and fraternity life and members of both organizations.

I want to write about Winston-Salem’s food shortage problem. Winston-Salem is a food desert, meaning that its citizens are not getting access to the fresh produce they need. I find it fascinating that a school as wealthy as Wake Forest, where 22% of the student body comes from a household income of over $600,000, is located in such a devastatingly poverty-stricken city. H.O.P.E, or Helping Other People Eat, is a Winston-Salem based non-profit organization that delivers food to members of the Winston-Salem community who are unable to feed their families. Some Wake Forest students participate. I would like to talk with them, as well as the adult volunteers. I would also like to interview Wake kids, because I doubt many of them are aware of how truly impoverished Winston-Salem really is.

I would like to do a piece on someone and tell a story through it. Not sure who I want to use yet. Profiling is the thing I am going to do.

I’m going to localize the Sri Lanka bombings and subsequent religious tensions by talking to RUF leaders about religion on Wake’s campus. I will also talk to a professor from the Religion Dept. to gauge the presence of religious tensions on Wake’s campus. Are we more secular? How does the student body feel about Religion?

A group of students and faculty members gathered on Monday (location: Lower Quad) to discuss their motivations to end white supremacy at Wake Forest University. I was going to use the localization of the New Zealand attack that was carried out (or any thing related because there is  A LOT) and relate it to this movement on campus (and in America)  that has been growing and leading to the need for intense coversations.

I remember my friend saying that there was a student who held a sign at the talk that read “Tradition is the answer” and wore a make-americas-great-again hat He was also mentioned in an article (un-identified though).

I believe parallels can be drawn between the increase in polarization that leads to many  injustices (terrorist acts, admission privilege, and a president who embodies getting away with anti-racist remarks) and the way these students/faculty of color feel about the polarization on campus that keeps building up tensions.

With presidential  elections coming up and this movement on campus that aims to eradicate white supremacy I feel like a lot can be said about the mentality shift that we’re seeing ever day in the news.

I read the Winston Salem Journal covering this talk as well as the Old Gold and Black and it’s interesting the different perspectives brought forth. I also am planning on interviewing some of the sources mentioned as well as members of this group (students and faculty) to see why exactly they feel so divided in a university that claims to promote diversity and inclusion.

For story 5, I would like to localize the Sri Lanka bombing by speaking with my politics professor Dr. Devotta. He is originally from Sri Lanka and worked in the hotel that was targeted for several years. He also enjoyed frequenting the St. Anthony’s church that was bombed. I think he could bring the issue close to home for Wake students by talking about his fond memories of the landmarks and also offer a more objective international relations perspective, being a politics professor. I am still giving thought as to who I should speak to before him to inform my interview.

For this assignment, I am thinking of doing a localization of recycling in Winston-Salem. There is almost no global market for recycling, and since we primarily have privatized recycling this hits individual companies. I don’t think people generally hear about recycling as a market, just in the context of throwing away trash.

In Winston-Salem, our recycling goes to Waste Management and they have no place to sell it to. WM is barely breaking even right now and I want to write about the issue of recycling as a privatized industry and people’s knowledge.

For sources, I could reach out to WM, speak with people in the Office of Sustainability, and talk to students about their knowledge of the issue.

I plan to report on the “5/20/19 Are You Ready” signs that are all over campus. From students that I have spoken with already, many people felt the signs were put up in poor taste and stressed out graduating seniors. Upon inspection of the link that is posted on the sign, one learns that it is actually advertising for a masters program at Wake. I would like to find out how this idea came to pass, and if it has been in any way successful so far.

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.

For story 5, I want to draw a connection between some of the work I did in my Politics Senior Seminar and this final story, creating a localization out of the continual trend of growing political polarization in the U.S.. A Pew Study released after the 2016 election highlighted some troubling findings: Not only is the nation far more polarized than ever before, but also moderation is not bridging the gap and people find it more polarizing to even sit down and talk with someone of the opposing view. I think there are two potential paths I could take this story down…

1) Whether or not the university’s “Call to Conversations” have been effective. While effective is hard to define, I think it’s worth seeing if they’ve at least managed to open dialogue in a civil way. I would focus on student and faculty that partook in one of these conversations for their perspectives. I would then link this to the national trends.

2) Take a broader approach to the localization, and report on whether or not classroom conversations in the Politics Department have been civil and lead to open divulge, or if the perception of teachers and students is that classroom divulge has often led to a greater divide. I will also compare this reporting to the national trends.