Ace, reporting for duty

As I mentioned in a previous post, my absolute favorite part of my job is getting to interview different people. Everyone has such cool stories. I'm convinced that if everyone could just be a reporter and take the time to listen to others, the world would be a much nicer place. Of course, then I'd probably be out of a job. Anyway.

February was the first issue in which I've had a long-planned feature story. The "theme" of the February issues is education, and my two feature stories are about research going on at universities in the Columbia and Greenville areas. For Greenville Business Magazine, I met with a professor at Furman University and spoke with a professor via telephone from Converse College about research on self-presentation and impression management. It's interesting stuff. You can read that article here.
 
For Columbia Business Monthly, I had an hour-long telephone interview with a professor at the University of South Carolina about her research on racism and its effects on stress. It was a hard conversation to have, and an even harder story to write. For the most part, I think it turned out okay. You can read that one here.
 
I also had two smaller, last-minute stories - one in the Greenville magazine on fitness centers opening in the Upstate (talk about making me feel inadequate!), and one in Columbia about insurance technology across the state. Whew. My late December/early January was a bit nuts, but it all turned out okay in the end.
 
Being a reporter is immensely frustration - people cancel interviews on you at the last minute all the time, to say nothing of the demon known as "writer's block" - but it's (eventually) rewarding. So here are the latest fruits of my labor. Enjoy!
 
xoxo,
E