Carmine Colangelo, Caitie Parmelee, Olivia Balsinger, Quenton Narcisse, Bob Wyss, Courtney Robishaw, Gwendolyn Craig and Purbita Saha
The University of Connecticut’s Environmental Journalism class in the Spring of 2012 spent the first half of the semester learning about the Florida Everglades, doing research and preparing for the trip to Florida. The trip lasted five days during the university’s spring break and the students talked to experts and tramped the Everglades. The students spent the second half of the semester preparing news stories and multimedia reports. Partial funding for this trip was provided by the University of Connecticut Office of Undergraduate Research and by the University of Connecticut Journalism Department.
Participants in the project were:
- Olivia Balsinger is a 4th-semester journalism and psychology double major in the Honors program at the University of Connecticut. Olivia is a staff writer for the news section of the Daily Campus as well as a tour guide at the Lodewick Visitors Center. She is interested in pursuing a career either in print journalism or perhaps continuing her education and teaching in some capacity.
- Carmine Colangelo, a 21-year-old student at the University of Connecticut who has a double major in journalism and history. He is from Willington, Conn. and plans to graduate in May of 2013 to pursue a career either as a sports writer or a magazine writer in the music industry.
- Gwendolyn Craig is an 8th-semester journalism and English student at the University of Connecticut. She loves photography, the outdoors and birds. Gwendolyn works part time for a family law attorney, and teaches figure skating on the side. She is graduating in May, and hopes to become an environmental reporter.
- Quenton Narcisse is a 21 year old senior double majoring in Journalism and English at the University of Connecticut. Quenton is a featured columnist for the sports department at The Daily Campus, as well as a computer technician at Huskytech. His hobbies include blogging, video and food. He hopes to pursue a career as an online writer and filmmaker.
— Caitie Parmelee is a 5th-semester journalism major and history minor at the University of Connecticut. She is from Storrs, Connecticut, is interested in public policy, and hopes to work with children in third-world countries after graduating in May 2014.
- Courtney Robishaw is a 4th-semester student at the University of Connecticut majoring in journalism and political science with a minor in environmental studies. She is vice president of philanthropy for Alpha Epsilon Phi and a staff writer for the student newspaper, The Daily Campus.
- Purbita Saha is a senior journalism and ecology major at the University of Connecticut. She aspires to become a conservation biologist someday, but also wants to hold a side job as an environmental reporter. She previously was the editor of the Arts & Entertainment section of The Daily Campus. Saha’s interests include bird watching, insect collecting, biking, singing, tweeting and mastering awkward situations.
- Bob Wyss is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut and a longtime journalist specializing primarily in environmental coverage. He has taught courses in editing, reporting, magazine and feature writing, press history, environmental journalism and science reporting. Before joining the university in 2002 he was a writer and editor at the Providence Journal.
Technical assistance was provided by Paul Lyzun, instructional developer for the Journalism Department.