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For many college students, an internship means driving off campus. But for three University of Alaska students, one internship meant flying halfway across the world to a war zone.
Three students and one professor from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, embedded for three weeks in the Diyala province of Iraq. The four journalists got their share of experience while embedding with the Ft. Wainwright, Alaska- based 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, at Forward Operating Base Warhorse, located near the city of Baqubah.
While embedded, the students and their professor went on many missions that included air assaults, palm grove clearing operations and key leader meetings. They created video, print and radio stories that were aired in many of the major media outlets in Alaska. They also contributed to a daily blog called "Short Timers".
Their professor, Brian O'Donoghue, said the missions gave the students a full picture of what the brigade is doing. It allowed them to see the challenges and achievements made in the Diyala province. This, he said, will give the students experience that will make them better candidates for jobs, no matter the career field.
"That experience is going to give them a leg up in the professional world. It may even do so if they go into something other than journalism," O'Donoghue said. "It will be something that they reflect upon as well. It's potentially a life changer."
For student Tom Hewitt, there was more of a reason than just credit hours to embed in Iraq.
"I feel like a lot of the organizations, almost all of them that are covering this war in a conventional sense, they tend to have some kind of political agenda," Hewitt said. "They tend to have some kind of agenda when they are reporting the war and you never really get a good feeling for whose coverage isn't biased just because so much of what's coming out has somebody's personal stamp on it. I wanted to get a good feeling for what's going on...on the ground here."
One student, Jessica Hoffman, got her share of excitement. While covering a story on dog handler training, she was suited up in the "bite" suit. She experienced first hand what it is like to be attacked by dogs, not just once but four times.
By the end of their embedding experience, the team had published more than 40 stories and blogs on their Blogspot, most of which were aired or published with major media outlets.
The stories covered topics ranging from what life is like living in a war zone, to real life missions "outside of the wire" in Iraq. O'Donoghue said the knowledge gained from these missions will make an everlasting impression on all of them.
"I think it gave them all an amazing experience of trying to report complex stories in an unfamiliar environment on a daily basis," O'Donoghue said. "That is something that not every journalist has the opportunity to test themselves on and this has been quite a test."
| Date Taken: | 08.29.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 09.16.2009 06:26 |
| Story ID: | 38836 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 243 |
| Downloads: | 221 |
This work, Student Embeds Find Journalism Experience in Iraq, by SSG Christopher Bruce, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
