This recent chat was with Megan Robertson, a very kind and bright journalist who I met on Twitter the week before. She was welcoming me to New York City and offering career advice, and the conversation strayed to her own climb up the corporate ladder. “I can think of one or two people — if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” she recalled.

That remark reminded me of the people who have invested in my own life. There are many, yet one person in particular has profoundly shaped the path of my life. I can say with absolute confidence that, if not for Bob Basil, who chairs the applied communications department and teaches at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, my story would be drastically different. It was one cup of coffee, in particular, that changed everything.

The story begins in that strange abyss that is Twitter. At some point, and I have no memory of how or when, Bob Basil and I began following each other. We may have conversed on occasion, exchanging small talk about the news or Kwantlen. I also remember applying for a number of Kwantlen’s scholarships in the fall of 2009, including the John Reiss Award in Journalism, which I later learned he funded.

That December, I was elated to discover that I had been selected as the winner of that award, as I was in the midst of a particularly difficult period in my life and the funds would help cover an enormous tuition bill that was threatening to force me to drop out of school. I also found it curious that I “knew” the funder, or at least his name, through social media. The awards ceremony was the following month, and it fell on a day that had been extremely emotional. I almost did not make it to the ceremony, and though I did, my head was elsewhere that evening.

I was embarrassed by somber mood that night, and I knew I did not clearly convey my gratitude to Bob Basil for his generous and timely investment in my future. It was, in fact, the only reason that I was able to afford to continue my education during the spring semester of 2010, and it was the turning point in my life that led to a future filled with hope and opportunities, though I did not know the magnitude of difference it would make at that time.

The desire to communicate my thanks to Bob kept nagging at me, and one or two months after the awards ceremony I decided to send him a tweet asking whether I could buy him a coffee to say thank you for funding that award. A coffee wasn’t much, but my food budget was $50 per month at the time, and I considered it a small sacrifice that would provide me with the opportunity to clarify how important the scholarship was in my life, and that I hoped he would continue to fund the award in future years.

Bob agreed, and we met up and had a great conversation about life, school and journalism. I learned that the John Reiss Award in Journalism was named after his best friend, who is the executive producer of Hardball with Chris Matthews and of MSNBC’s political programming. Bob was both encouraging and wise, offering career advice and suggesting opportunities for journalism coverage. As a freelance reporter, I was eager to find new stories, and we scheduled another meeting shortly afterward. As well, I learned that he grew up in the United States, and I was happy to have an American ally in Vancouver, B.C. My patience was sometimes tested by the anti-American sentiments in that area.

At our next visit, Bob had been planning to tell me about an anti-gang project based at Kwantlen that I could cover in my freelance work. Instead, he said, the project director is looking to hire a journalism student, and are you interested?

That led to a research assistant position with Acting Together, a research project aiming to prevent gang-related youth violence by identifying youth character strengths and recommending strategies to promote them.

Meanwhile, Bob became a good friend and mentor of mine. Several months later, he called to say he had seen my own website and would like to hire me to recreate basil.CA for him. After the job was finished, he suggested that I take on the redevelopment of Acting Together’s website. I was hesitant, as this website would be on a much larger scale than those I had worked on in the past, but I agreed to give it a try. Now, I work for Acting Together as the web editor and run the website, while continuing to make contributions to the project’s research.

I have held this job for two years now, among various freelance or temporary staff reporting gigs and contract positions that have included website development and copywriting. Because of this job, I have been able to finance the completion of my degree in four years, and have found the stability and peace in life that was evasive before.

But about a year ago, I was still nearing my fourth year in the journalism program. At my school, the fall semester of the fourth year is when students typically complete a four-week internship for school credit. I wanted to find an internship in the United States, and I wanted it to be in New York. I was dreaming big.

So about nine months before the internships were scheduled to begin, I started voicing my hope to intern in New York. It helped, I’m sure, that I had a good deal of experience and many clips by that point. I discussed it with Bob, who earned his B.A. at the State University of New York, and he encouraged me to apply for an internship at MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews. Many emails and phone conversations later, I was in. It was not simple to arrange, as my school only provided a four-week break in November for the internships and MSNBC requires interns to make a longer time commitment than that. But after many special permissions, I was allowed to miss several weeks of school provided that I kept up with assignments, and I would work through the holidays and the first week of the spring semester.

During my internship, I had the privilege of meeting and working with John Reiss, the very person who Bob’s award had been named after. I was so inspired by him and the other MSNBC employees who I came to know in that short time. I learned some technical skills, but took away many lessons about leadership, respect, hard work and especially teamwork. I was amazed by the intellect and kindness of the people I came to know, both inside and outside of MSNBC in my time there, and I knew that New York City would be my future home. The city is full of opportunities for personal and professional growth. In New York City, I would be surrounded by people like those I met at MSNBC, who I wanted to learn from, contribute to and model myself after.

Now, I live in New York City. I completed my degree last month, and my life has changed completely since that first cup of coffee with Bob Basil. I have won other awards, and met other amazing, encouraging and inspiring people. I am excited about the future, and I know I am in the right place, and I could probably not even list all of the people who have made a difference in my life in one way or another. I try to meet new people for coffee on a regular basis these days, knowing how amazing and unpredictable life and relationships can be. Though I’m just at the beginning of my journey now, just starting to look for a job and activities and a social group, I know it won’t be long until I can be that person to make a difference in other young adults’ lives, too. I plan to pay it forward.

Being the recipient of undeserved grace (from people, but also from God) has taught me about the world we live in — how much more amazing would it be if we all spent just a few moments believing in the potential of one another? It taught me that life is about togetherness, not selfishness. I can’t pen all the lessons I’ve learned from the many others I’ve had coffee with over the past few years, but I can say that life is unpredictable, as people are. They will challenge and surprise you, if you are ready to listen.

So, I encourage anyone reading this to go for coffee. If you don’t like coffee, get tea or a milkshake. But make that effort to discover the people in your world, to tell them that you appreciate them, or to ask them for advice. Maybe one cup of coffee will change your life, too.

I’m tired of reading that this or that poll has been debunked by today’s newest numbers, and then watching as the Twitterverse explodes in shock that election results were far from the experts’ (read: polls’) predictions. But day after day, more polls are released and more charts are built to show how the GOP candidate who’s rocketed into “flavor of the week” popularity would fare in a general election versus Obama or a primary versus their GOP opponents.

Sometimes, the infographics show a three-month trend, or another method of pseudo-science. These numbers should carry a warning: “This poll’s results carry a 24-hour expiration date and reflect little other than an outdated system for gauging public opinion.”

Plus: most people with home telephone service probably didn’t watch the latest GOP debate or hear the latest sound bite since it is nearly ONE YEAR until the next USA presidential election. So what clue do they have, really, about who they want to vote for? Bet you $10 — not $10,000 — that they couldn’t name all seven remaining GOP candidates. Maybe a knowledge test should be a requirement for poll participation. Just kidding.

Here’s the thing. Polls are crap. Total crap. Because they don’t reflect my demographic whatsoever. Samples, we know, are randomly selected from a list of household telephone numbers.

Home telephone service? Give me a break. I haven’t had anything but a cell phone since I moved out from my parents’ place five years ago.

So when Obama’s campaign manager says that there are 8 million registered voters who weren’t old enough to vote in 2008 but are now potential 2012 Obama voters, well, that means something to me. That means there are another 8 million young voters who, like me, are not represented in the latest flimsy poll numbers. (Though I’ll concede that some young voters might have home phones, there must many more voters of all age groups who have decided to avail themselves of the extra bill and gone cell-only.)

They could vote GOP. They could vote independent, if an independent candidate runs. They could vote Obama. They could choose not to vote. It’s anybody’s guess.

But it isn’t a poll results’ guess.

It’s a sign of the times, an admission that tech-savvy and energetic 20-somethings can provide necessary skills to aging newsrooms less inclined to adopt extra work in their already busy days. Some fondly remember the days of spending days on big stories; students now have never known that luxury.

Today, it is all about speed, website hits and the number of published stories.

It has been encouraging to see so many job openings this summer, though competition for those spots is stiff. A young age is now an asset in the eyes of many hiring editors. Those editors are keen to consider young reporters’ tech advice and newsrooms that have limited knowledge of multimedia production are eager to learn.

There have been permanent openings at a number of newspapers. And though there are few newsrooms with freelance budgets, many had a budget for vacation relief reporters approved this summer.

I started the summer off with a number of applications and job interviews, then spent a week at Coquitlam NOW. Soon after, I was given two weeks at the Richmond News, and that doubled to a month.

I haven’t been able to accept all the work I’ve been offered, but I am encouraged by the discovery that young reporters are in high demand.

Double-dip recession or not, there will be openings for me to pursue after graduating next year.

And if there aren’t, that won’t really matter: I know that nothing makes me happier than working as a reporter. It’s comforting enough to know that I’ve chosen the right career.

First, a never-ending garden with the greenest, tallest grass, aging Willow trees, and roses every colour of the rainbow. Lilacs befriended by young hummingbirds grow alongside a well-worn path of red brick. It smells gloriously earthy, of air just cleaned by a spring rain. This secret paradise is the escape of an 8-year-old girl, Anna. She is a short and quiet, but the state of her clothing speaks volumes. Her bright sundress hiked to her knees, she marches through the waist-high meadow, unashamed of the grass stains covering her white tights. ………

The imagination is the most powerful tool a person can possess. I learned this early in life. Poverty? I didn’t know that I was using paper and reading books because we were too poor for many other toys and activities. I submitted book reviews, wrote mystery stories and developed characters, like the above, for book series. I sent letters to my favourite authors and told them I’d one day be a writer. I wrote short skits and took notes on television shows I wanted to work for. There were endless pages of notes, more than I ever took during one year of university. I had read nearly every book in my local library’s young adults section before I was even double-digits.

And everything I learned, I talked about. When I was very young — perhaps five years old — I was told to stop asking so many questions. My parents must have been exhausted by my curiosity. But I wanted to know everything, understand everything, and discuss it. I wanted everyone else to want to know the earth-shattering discoveries I’d just made. Would the news or knowledge astound them, too? I thought so.

Not everyone cares to know or understand everything, I learned. But reading, writing and studying still fascinated me. Fiction became more challenging as my stories became many pages longer. How would I tie all the pieces together in the end? I wasn’t sure. I simply loved the thrill of a new blank piece of paper, or a blank computer screen that I could use to create a new world at any moment. It was my refuge. I still love few things as much as a new notebook.

High school was different for me than for most. As a homeschooler, I attended a weekly tutorial and completed homework and studies for other classes in solitude at home. There was much free time to read, write and study. There was far too much free time to fret over minute details. Perfectionism has always been a cripple of mine. It also has been beneficial.

I was a straight-A student. Teachers saw my keen interest in learning. Classmates saw my success. At times, they called it brown-nosing. I didn’t know why; I simply wasn’t one to surpass opportunities to learn and improve. English class in 9th grade completely transformed my writing skills. I still remember how monumental it was when I was told to write essays in third person and never use extra words such as “very”.

The years progressed. After English Composition, I Took American Novel & Literature and Advanced Composition. Symbolism was my weakness: my response was by registering for a semester of poetry. It was impossibly difficult, yet tremendously fun. I registered for the AP exam in English Language and Composition and passed.

Classmates struggled with spelling and grammar. Tests, too, were hard for them. But my memory must be different, as I only needed to hand-write information and study it well to recall the exact image of those words in my mind.

Meanwhile, I had taken an American Government class that required students to be prepared to share five recent news items each week. News fascinated me. I pored through it for hours each day, struggling to determine which five news events would be the best for a class discussion. I knew little about journalism, aside from the fact that the morning talk show on Fox News that lit up television screens in my home every day was excruciatingly boring.

Before graduating from high school, I thought long and hard. What was I good at? Writing was the clear answer, but I was torn between interests in so many other subjects. What did I want most in my dream job? I wanted a job that would allow me to learn something new every day. I did not want to spend my life in school collecting degrees, nor did I want to attempt a career as a fiction writer, which was not my strength.

Journalism is the solution, the amalgamation of all my passions and talents. Then, it hardly mattered whether I’d find a career in broadcasting or print journalism. And it hardly matters now. But I’m confident that my future is in journalism: it is the perfect blend of geek, adventure, research, word-art and public education.

It presented itself as shaky hands. Nobody noticed but me. I was good at hiding things.

At school, I never missed a class. I won awards for having the best grades of those in my year of the program. Other than a frequent struggle to stay awake, and a lack of money for food when I didn’t bring lunch, my behaviour was not much different from that of other students. And I was used to missing sleep and skipping meals, anyway.

Once, I went a week without eating. But I skipped a dinner every few nights. Not eating was incredibly helpful in numbing emotions, and it had the added bonus of being easier on the wallet.

I was in an abusive relationship.

I faced threats, accusations and erratic behaviour around the clock. There was no escape. I had resigned myself to a life of being controlled and manipulated.

Fear became my driving force. My days consisted of crying, throwing up, and dreaming of ways to kill myself. I’d often fall asleep hoping I wouldn’t wake up in the morning, or I’d go on long walks in the dead of the night, wishing for something terrible to happen. I knew the areas of Surrey that were said to be dangerous. But on those nights, strangely, they weren’t.

I continued to succeed in school and at work, though. Someone later told me I was using those things to avoid dealing with my personal life; he was right.

The trauma escalated. There are about a half-dozen different criminal charges fitting for what I experienced. And then, after a long period of trying to leave, I got out.

There was nowhere to go but to a women’s shelter. My conditions were vastly improved, though I was required to move every few weeks. In time, I was awarded a longer stay at one. I had a “home” for several months and assistance collecting food at the food bank. It was the most stable my life had been for years.

But the abuse wasn’t over. Emails flooded in. So did blog comments and Twitter messages. Websites sprung up spouting lies and cruel remarks. Threats and defamatory information reached many others in my life, too. He discovered, like many other abusers will, that there is no off switch to the internet: social media is a free-for-all with lenient terms of service that ignore the potential for victimization.

Police told me to abandon my email addresses and everything else connected with my prior life. I had already changed my phone number and my appearance. Now, they said, I’d need to start using a different name for everything published online. I created the name Elise Gray, and the Twitter handle @journoholic. I was sorry to leave my original username @sarahsodyssey behind — it had accumulated around 650 Twitter followers at the time. I disappeared.

Surprisingly, a number of those Twitter followers noticed. They direct messaged, asking if things were okay. I explained to those few that I was now using a pseudonym. All the while, I could see through various web tracking methods that I was being stalked. The abuser was hunting for me. He still isn’t done trying to hurt me.

My life was restored 18 months ago, when I checked into the shelter. Things have not been simple, and my revolt for those who squander money or speak judgmentally about groups of people they know little about has never been greater. Healing, it would seem, is a long process. It is still hard to find joy in things such as music.

There was a slip-up with the use of my pseudonym by a scholarship funder. The stalker found me. So it’s on to Plan B, which the police have also helped me develop.

It’s a good one.

Part of that plan includes my return to my real name.

What’s not in the plan is a personal touch of my own. Abuse is far more common than most think, and victims are often in the position of anonymity that I was in. Now, I have the opportunity to be a voice for women seeking independence from their abusers. And, after living with dozens of other abused women, I know more about stalking and domestic violence than any single abuser will ever know.

Living through hell couldn’t keep me from getting the scoop.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THIS WEBSITE

Blogging has been minimal due to the effects of this abuse. Prior posts from what was once http://www.sarahsodyssey.com have been imported here, as well as several posts from the blog I started as Elise Gray.

My portfolio page will include clips with the byline Elise Gray.

There should be no further impacts on my work due to the abuse or the stalking. The limited amount of blog posts and journalism work over the past two years are not at all representative of my work ethic.

Do you groggily concern yourself with making the perfect cup of coffee before sitting down to skim-read your PR-laden email for potential stories, check the news to play catch-up on missed scoops and phone your favourite contact, hoping for a juicy tip?

Yeah. I thought so.

Wake up, people.

Do you really contemplate how lucky you are to be reporting the stories, rather than being the story, when you’re interviewing one of Downtown Eastside’s drug addicts for a sensational sob story before heading back to your comfortable law-abiding office to count the minutes until you can abandon the leather office chair in exchange for home’s lazy-boy couch and HDTV?

Do you think about the huge opportunity you have each day to cause reform, bring justice and give light to unspoken darkness and to ground the community in real examples of ethics, morality and compassion, believing in the better intentions of people and the possibility of expanded change?

You are lucky enough to be using a computer with internet. How much of the world has this luxury? And yet you march the easy way through work more days than not.

Every single day amounts to more missed opportunities. Every. Single. Day.

You know why people don’t care to invest money in today’s journalism? We are like politicians. Full of talk, no action. Who wants to pay for something that doesn’t deliver? We promise truth, investigation, we are meant to be a check on the government and eyes, ears and a voice for real people.

Would you spend a night in the bushes to see what it’s like? No, not even with overtime pay? How are you supposed to write stories about people who do that if you don’t have a clue what it’s like?

You see, we’re all afraid of being uncomfortable. Not just physically, but emotionally, mentally and financially too. We’re hardly different than when we were little kids, afraid of embarrassing ourselves by making a public faux pas or by giving the wrong answer in class.

We’re going to have to give a little to get a little. That’s the way the world works. But what’s your end goal? Is it to have a nice cushy job, or is it to do what journalism is meant to be?

We’re going to have to try new things, try them different than the competition, learn how to use new technology and experiment with it in new ways. Yes, this will take time and money. Get over it. Investments always take time and money.

It’s about time we invest in our own credibility and take things into our own hands. It’s not about finding the right journalism model to entice readers to pay for your new Blackberrry. It’s about just getting past the useless discussions where we argue over what we should or shouldn’t try.

Just freaking try it already. Then tell me it’s a good idea.

Organizations are systematic. They create policies, crunch numbers, build hierarchies and they make cuts according to an assumed lack of value. But managements wrongly continue to depend on financial reports as an indicator of value.

Haven’t we learned anything from web startups? What do Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube and so many other revolutionizing internet startups have in common? They started from nothing more than a little entrepreneurial thinking.

While journalists loll around arguing the merits of newspaper-funding ideas, they are stuck thinking in the past. So, please, I’m tired of hearing about how to “save” journalism, because the only ones who are talking about that are talking about a journalism that is already dead. You see, none of these huge internet startups began from the mindset, “Let’s see how we can do something like so-and-so, but change one or two things.” Side note: Microsoft tries to do this all the time and fails. No, successful startups threw out the old ways of thinking about how things are done, and they started from scratch.

Let’s face it: the newsosaurs aren’t going to be able to tweak this or that about our current newspaper model to make it self-sufficient for continued generations. It will be entrepreneurial thinking, and a complete head-to-toe makeover, that keeps journalism fresh, desirable and valuable.

Back to our new favourite social media icon: Old Spice man, a.k.a. The Man Your Man Could Smell Like. If you haven’t heard of the campaign due to visiting Mars or otherwise being absent from all communication this past week, a refresher can be found here.

It worked because it wrapped all of the keys to capturing an internet-literate audience into one nice package: communication, transparency and authenticity. And maybe I am alone in this mindset, but I don’t think the idea was all that phenomenal; I just think it was previously tossed aside as absurd. Why don’t news television stations, for example, have popular figures responding to individuals with emotionally charged comments? It’s because it would destroy the age-old constructed perception that news anchors are at a level above community members. Journalists are terrified of the thought of losing this construct, but how long can one pretend bloggers do not exist?

COMMUNICATION

We all know journalism cannot continue to be a one-way street. We realized this years ago, with the introduction of blogs, Facebook and other self-promotional tools that leveled the playing ground between consumers and producers. On the one hand, an individual’s use of these tools is egotistical; on the other hand, it signifies a desire to be valued. If interviewees will get a newspaper to see their quote in newsprint, of course they will want feel valuable in the online world, too. But what is value? It is more than monetary (back to my beginning statement), it is also worth measured by another party’s recognition of one’s merit. What Old Spice man did different was he didn’t just acknowledge the comments of individuals; he thoughtfully considered their comments and responded with recognition of their words and intelligence. Everyone wants to feel like they are important, like they are more than another face in the crowd, right?

TRANSPARENCY

Old Spice wasn’t playing any tricks with the videos. We knew they were ultimately advertisements, yet the product was not shoved down viewers’ throats. Again, consumer intelligence was being respected. In comparison, how often do newspapers publicly wallow in self-pity and ask for continued support? Readers aren’t stupid. They are human. If Old Spice man, with his down-to-earth human embodiment, conversational comments and facial expressions connected with a human audience, don’t you think a more personal approach to running newspapers would work better, too? I believe newspapers could increase their reputability by publicizing their methods in producing content and making ethics-related decisions. Editors and reporters should be allowed to be human in their web presence, and newspapers should even promote their staff’s individuality by branding staffers through photographs, biographies, Twitter accounts and blogs grounded in real-life emotional responses on their website.

AUTHENTICITY

With good improvements to communication and transparency, authenticity will follow. Newspapers have a tendency to gut their publications of any emotion in order to remove bias. It does not have to be this way. The Old Spice campaign improved authenticity by responding to emotional comments with emotional, if constructed, responses and by using a consumer-friendly channel: ‘home video’ styled YouTube clips. And, in fact, the video comments were about the value a consumer could find in Old Spice, or the value that the Old Spice man found in individuals and their online comments.

We’re back to value again. Only time will tell if the Old Spice campaign returns an immediate yield of new sales, but it has solidified the brand as one to be reckoned with in its own field of products.

Newspapers asking “How will we make money from this?” aren’t doing journalism right. It’s not about how we did make money, or how we will make money. It’s about how we will elevate our brand by throwing the old rules out the door and trying things that might seem silly. Like having a half-naked man in a towel respond to flattery with flattery. And, while I have no objections against journalists using this method, most reporters should probably keep their shirt on or risk an adverse effect. Just sayin’.

Writing is every newspaper’s foundation. Stories require writing, photos require cutlines, multimedia requires titles and usually uses written introductions. Are journalism schools beginning to minimize this foundational skill to make room for multimedia? I believe they are.

Journalism schools know it’s their duty to train students in all aspects of journalism: writing, audio, video, photography, layout and basic web design. But they don’t know how to properly allocate time so that a journalist’s most important asset remains at the top of the training planner while still instilling knowledge about and the value of new media technology. So every school fumbles with their scheduling decisions and builds students in the way they believe is best. Have they stopped to decide why? As far as I can tell, they believe multimedia skills will be instrumental in our future careers because many of today’s career journalists have a limited knowledge of these skills. Are we just obsessing over this stuff to show traditional journalists up?

I absolutely agree that I need to learn these skills, but I wonder how much time I should be putting into learning and practicing multimedia skills in order to keep my priorities as a student in line. The answer will be different for each student, according to their career goals, but most students don’t know what their career goals are until they are years into their education. This leaves the onus upon journalism schools to decide for students what they will want and need to learn.

I asked Kirk LaPointe, managing editor of the Vancouver Sun, for some feedback on what a journalism student’s priorities should be. He said, in an email, “It all starts with writing. The technical skills should only be sought once you’re happy with your writing and with the understanding of reporting. Practice that extensively before worrying about anything else. But once you’re ready, I think you should learn editing — text, audio and video. When you learn editing, you generally master creating, too. As for software, well, it’s changing almost every month. Learn social media, some SEO techniques, and probably Flash. Then just be open.”

“I’d also encourage students to get their own URL, to move heavily to Twitter and Facebook as information and distribution channels, and to blog extensively to get their voice,” he added.

What do you think? Are journalism schools losing focus on journalism’s most important skill? Where do you think a student journalist’s priorities should be?

#Collegejourn, for those who don’t know, is a Twitter hashtag that college journalists originally used to identify their comments as being a part of #collegejourn’s conversation. Hashtags can entered into the Twitter search box for easy access to the conversation’s history. #Collegejourn conversations now take place weekly at www.collegejourn.com and through interspersed Twitter chat, always branded by #collegejourn.

The chat group decided to create an international reporting assignment during one of the weekly chats in August. We wondered, as all curious journalists should, what we could discover by studying one subject locally and comparing our results with those from all other corners of the world. Isn’t that the true meaning of “context” anyway?

So the brainstorming began. What would be internationally newsworthy and relevant? What would yield unique results for every location?

We decided to offer two variations on the same subject: one for features and multimedia, another for hard news.

1. The feature assignment’s subject is “What does health mean in your area?” With this subject, you’re at liberty to determine whether you want to report on mental health, physical health, healthy/unhealthy habits, local health news or anything else the word “health” connotes. Detailed guidelines are listed here, with a link to the Google group and the reminder to “be as location-specific as possible.”

2. The hard news assignment’s subject is “How does health care on my campus compare to others around the world?” Read the guidelines listed here and join the Google group to learn about the specific data we are collecting on each campus. The final product will answer questions like “What health services are available on-site?”, “How far away is the nearest hospital or clinic?” and “What ailments are most common at my campus?”

We are still determining where to collect completed assignments but have formed several web sites to share resources and continue discussions at.

Check out the Publish2 group, the Wired Journalists group, the Help Me Investigate investigation (contact us for an invitation to join), and the Google group.

Suzanne Yada wrote a blog post here,urging journalism students to “Take up the assignment. Use this opportunity for one of your journalism classes, produce a piece for your college media outlet, or just jump in because you want the unprecedented experience for your resume.”

Josh Halliday collected related links on the Online Journalism Blog, saying “We’re wanting contributors from all corners of the globe to join in.”

My next step is to contact various journalism schools with project details. Spread the word about the assignment and join in. We’re welcoming guidance from journalism professors and pros too, so don’t be shy!

Think bigger. Outside of my cubicle, outside of the library, the school, the province, the country and outside of my perception of ideas are a world of other journalism students. How strong could we be together? What could we discover about our world by dissecting, researching, reporting on and sharing one theme hundreds of different ways?

Earlier tonight, #collegejourn discussed the possibility of such a project. It will be a global collaborative journalism project: one theme, many stories, open to all. Two different approaches surfaced in the discussion, one being reporting on an internationally relevant topic such as the environment, and the other an investigation of a culturally-defined word. I love both ideas, though I suggested that the latter, using a word like “victory,” could offer some fascinating results. How cool would it be to see stories, slideshows and videos from all over the world depicting what victory means to one place? The key, of course, would be selecting a word that invokes emotion and would offer unique sociological and cultural definitions.

We want to include everyone we can. If you’re interested, pass the word around to fellow students and journalism instructors. If you have ideas on how to pull it off, please share them! We began sharing ideas for the organization of the project but the whole plan is in an early stage right now. What might be a good way to host our global collaborative project? Do you have any topic suggestions? Do you like the idea?

Are you in?! Suzanne Yada blogged about the idea here. Take a look at her thoughts; we’d love any input or advice.