This year's crop of 1st year Journalism students gather in Macdonald Hall during SAIT's Student Orientation day Thursday, September 2, 2010. Pictured is Chantelle Kolesnik (left) and Adam Bowen (right), doing their first assignment for the year. Photo by Kevin Udahl, SAIT Polytechnic
story by Jim Cunningham
A little scared but still up for the challenge to come, about 60 fledgling SAIT Journalism students gathered in McDonald Hall Thursday for their first taste of the program.
The new class came from all over the map. Students interviewed listed hometowns like, Victoria, Saskatoon, Prince Edward Island and even New York City.
But wherever they came from, they came bearing hopes of a bright future in Journalism and Communications, dreams of careers in news photography and writing, and plans to use the Journalism credential as a springboard to further education, or a basis for freelancing and travel.
"I am using Journalism as a foot in the door for broadcasting," said Danielle Harder, a proud graduate of Notre Dame High School in Red Deer, who plans to combine her studies this year with a place on the SAIT Trojans women's volleyball team.
Harder played several sports at Notre Dame and lists rugby as her favorite, but unfortunately SAIT doesn't field a rugby team. So she will apply herself to spikes and blocks instead, along with news leads and F-stops.
Adam Bowen, who grew up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium in New York's South Bronx, came to Orientation sporting a gaudy Edmonton Oilers' shirt.
"I like being an antagonist, and stirring the pot a little bit," said Bowen, who comes to SAIT fresh from an English degree at the University of Calgary.
Bowen, who obviously loves sports, says he hopes to use his Journalism studies to get into sports reporting, in Canada, or in the U.S.
"I love to write," he says, adding that while he's a big hockey fan, baseball and his hometown Yankees, are No. 1.
Amy Fehr of Grande Prairie, Alta. has her eyes trained on a career as a traveling freelance photographer.
Her appetite has been whetted by trips with members of her church to Cuba, to clean polluted beaches.
Between runs collecting garbage from the sands near Cojimar, Cuba, she focussed on capturing the action with her camera.
Lisa Vander Wekken, who grew up in Clive, a rural village about 20 km. east of Lacombe, Alberta, also hopes to learn to use her camera to make a career for herself.
Vander Wekken says she chose SAIT because "it was close to home but not too close."
She says she loves taking pictures, but not just any kind of pictures.
"I like to shoot the the world as I see it," not posed stuff, she says.
The students had a chance to meet instructors in the program, to chat with one another, and ask questions about everything from equipment, to timetables.
"You have a very powerful job ahead of you," Journalism chair Willem Sijpheer told the group.
"The people who control information are some of the most powerful people in the world."
Rand Ayers, dean of the Information & Communications Technology department at SAIT, told the students it was okay to be a little nervous on their first day in their program.
That nervousness will soon give way to excitement, as they begin to immerse themselves in their program, he said.
Along with meeting their instructors and getting information, the new Journalism class also toured the campus and enjoyed lunch before heading home.
They are due back for their first day of real classes next Tuesday.
