Poynter

Well, I'm here. St. Petersburg Florida at the annual Poynter Fellowship. It's amazing plain and simple.

It's spectacular. I'll post some photos later, but for now, I'll I can say is it's absolutely, stunningly beautiful. It's, as Sara Quinn, one of our advisers/teachers/mentors said, a "Spa for journalists." The room we work in is beautiful. The paneling is all from one South American tree. Everything is ordered in such a way to create a calm and quite place for journalists to work and learn more about journalism. The technology is all state of the art, more or less, and we have access to it 24/7.

And that's just the building. I can't say enough about the people. I'm surrounded by college journalists that are so incredibly passionate about what they do. Every last one of them has something I can learn, something to teach me. The pure level of dedication to journalism is inspiring. I love being around the energy of it because it pushes me to work harder and learn more.

Yes, I'm pumped. It's only the second day, however, I've already learned so much. Today we were assigned to our "beat" teams. Me and four others spent a good three hours walking around trying to learn as much as we could about our assigned section of the city. It was hard, but interesting. My team mates were all very fun to be around and to work with.

Florida is hot and muggy, which doesn't bother me much. I love the heat. It's a very laid back, relaxed seeming town.

Tomorrow I'm waking up fairly early to go start working on my project which will be some sort of multimedia (most likely) package. I'm working with a lady named Anika Anand. Anika is from the University of North Carolina. It's going to be a fun project.

It's going to be an intense two weeks. No doubt about it. Our schedule is packed with classes and trainings. When we aren't in class we're expected to work on our projects.

So, I'm off to bed. I'll blog more, no doubt about it and I'll get some photos up, promise.