Amy and I had a blast in Philly, where I received recognition for the Scholastic Journalism Division’s Honor Lecture. Photo courtesy of Bradley Wilson
Every year, I volunteer to present sessions at the Kettle Moraine Press Association’s Summer Camp, a week-long event on the UW-Whitewater campus that gives high school students a chance to learn from pros and professors in advance of their school year.
After I’d finished up with my sessions, one of the college kids who had helped with the workshop approached me with a few questions. He was the editor of the Royal Purple, the student newspaper on campus, so we talked a bit about open records and crime reporting. Then, he paused.
“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” he began.
“Sure. Go ahead.”
“You taught at Ball State, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Well… I don’t know how to say this, but… What the hell are you doing at UW-Oshkosh?”
My first instinct was to say, “Dude, you’re at Whitewater. This is like Spud Webb calling Muggsy Bogues short.” I stopped short on that and started to laugh as I explained how life led me to where I am today.
A moment of levity before things really got out of hand. Photo courtesy of Bradley Wilson.
That experience with the high school kids and the subsequent diss on my place of employment kind of kick-started my approach to the AEJMC Scholastic Journalism Division Honor Lecture I gave about a month later. Since I got word that I’d received this major honor, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what to say and how to say it.
I also found myself trying to avoid being a massive hypocrite, as I spent about 99.3 percent of my time lecturing students that they need to think about the audience, they need to avoid making everything about themselves and they need to actually make a point that matters.
Based on what I heard back from the people who attended the lecture, I figured out how to dance the line between what I think matters, why I think the division itself is amazingly cool and what I thought might be helpful to them.
The folks at the SJD recently posted the text of the Honors Lecture. See if I pass the muster.
