STORY 3 GREEN WEEK

1. Story length 700 minimum, 800 words maximum. Deadline: 10 a.m. Friday, or earlier. Because of our Green Weeks lectures and discussions, your stories must focus on an issue related to sustainability, environmental protection, climate change.
2. Audience: Regardless of your topic or issue, remember that you are writing for a campus audience, and that your story must be connected to campus activities, resources, sources and/or student reactions.
3. You can start with a basic news lead, but I urge you to be more engaging and creative in starting your story. Support your lead. Use a good quote early that pushes your story along. If you can, include at least one paragraph of description — observation, sound, emotion, etc. This will not be possible for some of you.
4. You must have a nut graf. This may come anywhere after the third or fourth graf, but not much lower. Be sure to put it in bold so that I know you know you have one. As discussed at length, your nut graf or grafs must tie into the larger mission or goals of mitigating global warming or promoting sustainability.
5. You must have at least four sources in your story — at least three people quoted along with research, observation, etc. Ideally, you will have more.
6. Think of your story as having a beginning, middle and end. Be creative, but do not make anything up.
7. No first person writing. No exceptions.
8. Try to end with a good quote. Do not end with a personal summary or opinion. Avoid advocacy.
9. Photo optional. Use one if you can find one. Place it in the Word doc or send separately.
10. A Reporting Index, as spelled out in the syllabus, is required at the end of your story in the same file. List all the people you interviewed, all your research online or elsewhere, even if it doesn’t appear in your story. You index should have at least five bullet points. No Reporting Index, no grade.
11. Write a headline for your story. Then save your story as Last name Story 3.docx and send to me as an email in Word. No Google docs, please.
12. Reminder: Set all quotes off as separate paragraphs. Failure to punctuate quotes correctly, or place attribution accurately, will result on a  grade deduction. Please consult the textbook if you need to. FOLLOW AP STYLE.

For story three I want to look at sustainability on campus through the lens of food. I learned in a food politics class that our diets have a more profound impact on the environment than many people would assume. I know the university has made many changes since my freshman year with regards to dining and I am interested in how those changes may have been aimed at reducing our carbon footprint. I can reach out to Provost Kersh, my professor for the food politics class, as well as Dedee Johnston for information about what exactly the university has done and what we can expect to gain from it.

For my Story 3, I want to talk about carbon footprints of organizations. Large organizations have a growing responsibility to work in the fight against climate change. And, with carbon emissions as one of the greatest contributors to climate change, I want to talk about some of Wake Forest’s initiatives, and what other initiatives/ carbon credits look like for companies across the world. I plan to interview a member from the Office of Sustainability, or a Wake Forest faculty member regarding Wake Forest’s carbon footprint, and perhaps another business manager at a company to see what their company’s carbon footprint looks like and how they’re working to combat climate change as an organization.

For story 3 I would like to write about the 0ffice of Sustainability has moved their Earth Month to an online platform. Earth Month began March 22 and will continue until April 22. In my story I want to address how the Office of Sustainability will reach out to our Wake Forest community and what resources they will provide online for people to participate.

My other story idea is to write about how the Office of Sustainability hosts engaged learning projects that happen all over campus. They connect like-minded students and faculty with a common goal of reducing Wake Forest’s carbon footprint. These projects take place throughout the year and in various locations on campus– ranging from the garden to the mail room.

How do u plan these engaged learning programs? Are they student led, how do students access them, are they part of class curriculum? 

For this story, I would like to focus on how sustainability is applied in every discipline on Wake Forest’s Campus. One of the future goals of sustainability efforts on campus is to reach students irrespective of their major in order to help both students and faculty understand sustainability through various academic lenses.

I would like to interview key players in the Office of Sustainability such as Professor Johnston as well as students and faculty who integrate the concept of sustainability into their education, regardless of expertise.

If this topic seems too broad, I have a few other ideas I can work with.

My idea for story 3 is about transportation sustainability at Wake and Winston-Salem. I want to study how public transportation and electric transportation can help with the environment. Also, I want to know how WFU and Winston-Salem can improve the public transportation system together to make it more user-friendly thus become a plausible alternative to private vehicles.

For Story 3, I am thinking of writing about the relationship between students / faculty and sustainability on campus. The presentation talked about raising public awareness as a way to decrease energy use, and I’m wondering how this works on campus and how students feel about it. Also what could be interesting is to see how students use these sustainable options on campus. For example, it’s great that mostly all the restrooms on campus have dual-flush toilet handles installed, but how many people just press the flusher down with their foot regardless because it’s easier? I have no idea how I would go about finding that out, though. I don’t really know what I want to write about yet, I’m still working on it. Hoping to fine tune what’s going on in my brain after tomorrow’s class.

One of the ideas I have for story 3 revolve around the idea in the difference of approach to climate change between generations. For instance, I see in my own home a difference between my parents’ and I’s approaches. Also, on campus there seems to be a difference between student and faculty/staff approaches to climate change. I intend to develop this with sources of graduate students I know and their observations, as well as interviewing professors who would offer valuable input.

For my article, I would like to focus on sustainable eating. I have noticed that the Pit and Benson don’t seem to compost and this seems to be a missed opportunity because there is a lot of food wasted. I would be interested to see if composting on Wake’s campus could be a possibility, and perhaps it could be incorporated into Campus Gardens. I would be interested to talk to the people who are in charge of dining services to find out if composting on campus would be a possibility. Additionally, I want to focus on the businesses that are serving students in Benson. They only serve food out of non reusable containers, which seems like a waste. Would it be possible to have reusable dishes? Does Wake know what their sustainability practices are or are they independent? If they are not environmentally conscious, is it possible to rent out those spaces to food companies that have the environment in their mission?

My story 3 idea is in regards to the on-campus renewable energy plans. I do not know much about what exactly is in place, but I want to learn more, such as solar panels, heating, wind, etc. I plan to interview the main people who are spearheading this projects.