App State Spring Forward

During the spring forward I went to the journalism panel. When I walked in the room there were 3 women sitting behind a desk. There were about 20 people in the room. It took place in the attic room of the student union. The women talked about their personal experiences and how they got to be where they are today. Each one of the women had different backgrounds and worked many different jobs throughout their early career. They all went to school and got degrees. One of the women brought up the subject of freelancing and I Learned a good bit about that. Freelancing is taking over a part of the journalist field. They talked about how it doesn’t really pay all that well but it does help the portfolio. They said it’s important to get specific details when doing freelance work because some people won’t give you enough details and you’ll have to go back and ask more questions. This is a waste of time and could be taken care of on the front end.

The women went to Appalachian State University and talked about their experience there. They have done work locally as well. For instance, one lady worked with Appalachian Voices and other local organizations. It was good extra money for her but obviously wasn’t the best paying gig. One of the ladies said that she did freelance work while she was a student. But it wasn’t a huge paying job either. She said it was a “side hustle.” Honestly, I feel like they spoke about freelancing too much. It was good to learn about journalism though. I am not a journalist nor do I want to be, but it was educational for sure. I learned that some magazines like NC State, Duke and other big magazines pay pretty well. These magazines can pay up to 2 or 3 dollars a word. That’s a pretty good pay if you write up to 100 or more words.

The women talked about things to do after getting a bachelor’s degree as well. They recommended that you should go work in the field after school. They said it was a good idea to get some work experience. Furthermore, if someone wanted to go back to school after their bachelor’s degree, they should get work experience first. Employers want to see that you went out into the real world and got some real experience before going back to school. They also said that the experience that you get in the real world might take you further than your degree. A journalism degree can only take you so far but if you get that real world experience you can learn a lot in a short amount of time.

Overall I think the Spring Forward at Appalachian State University is a good idea. At the end, the women had business cards to exchange. They also had internship and job offers to talk about as well. The journalist majors that were in that room could have gotten their dream job after that meeting. I think that would be very special and beneficial. It is a great thing for students to be able to meet people before they graduate.