Final

New London

In 1646 New London, CT was established. It was named after London, England. New London was originally a whaling town that is why there are whales throughout the whole town. It is located just under an hour away from the state capital. And less than 25 from Rode Island. Located on the corner of The Thames River and Long Island sound is one of the biggest cities in the state. Something that makes New London different from other cities is this town has been rebuilt, not always from the ground up, but still rebuilt a lot in the town’s history.

One of the first times New London was built was because it was burned down by a man named Benedict Arnold, who was British, and betrayed the Americans. New London holds one of the few famous forts in countries history, Fort Trumbull. He burned the fort down along with the city. He killed many people and destroyed the city. It took a few years but the rebuilt the town and the fort.

The next big disaster that had a huge impact on the town was the hurricane of 1938. This hurricane is considered the state’s worst natural disaster of the 20^th century. It happened on September 21^st.  Residents of the town didn’t know the hurricane was coming because of inaccurate weather forecasts. It ripped through the town and took out many homes, buildings, and caused a huge number of deaths. What is now known as Ocean Beach was once beach front property. Many homes were there and after the hurricane none remained. There are many pictures of the town before and after, and it is amazing to see what the town did to rebuild itself. Boats, big ferry sized and even bigger ones, crashed up through the docks and were land driven. It was a terrible disaster.

Since this hurricane, two more big ones have occurred; Hurricane Irene and the following year, Hurricane Sandy. Irene arrived in 2011, knocking out power in the town for almost a week. It destroyed houses and other buildings. Not as bad as the 1938 hurricane though. And in 2012 Hurricane Sandy came through. It tore up beaches and some buildings. One of the saddest parts of the town that was destroyed was row of beaches that were all one beach but separated into four. Now a year later, it is still not fixed yet and back to its original form.

The town has now taken a lot more cautions since these two hurricanes to be more prepared for future ones. The town is good when it comes to losing power. And houses near the beaches are boarded up more carefully. There is really nothing the town hasn’t gone through that it come back from. Years later this town will still be running and always rebuild itself after anything that happens to it. 

Two Lyndon State College students are curious about what a public college president’s general schedule looks like so they interviewed Lyndon State College’s president, Joe Bertolino, last Tuesday.

Being a college president is not an easy job, which needs to put lots of effort and energy to manage the entire school and he even plays an important role to push the school into a brighter future. Dr. Joe Bertolino began his career as president of Lyndon State College in July 2012, and this year is his second year at Lyndon State.

“I often compare the second year as students’ sophomore year in college,” Bertolino said when he was sitting on a comfortable couch and being interviewed. “People are used to seeing me. ‘It’s Joe.’”

When the freshness wears off, everything is not as exciting as the first year; Bertolino’s schedule stays the same.

“I don’t control my schedule and I can’t make appointments. Darcie does not allow me to do that,” Bertolino said. Darcie Miles is the executive assistant to the president.

Generally, Bertolino’s daily schedule consists of lots of back-to-back meetings. He said that he is not a morning person, and most of his work starts at 9 a.m. When he got this interview on Tuesday afternoon, he has various meetings scheduled before and after it, and then he has personal training at 6 p.m.

“This is actually a light day because I don’t have anything after 7 o’clock,” Bertolino said cheerfully.

Although Bertolino has lots of meetings every day, if the time permits, Bertolino prefers walking around the campus, attending students’ events and saying hi to different folks, offices, and faculties. If he is off campus, he will attend plenty of events, meetings, and speaking to some groups.

Bertolino is usually invited to community events and fundraisers to talk about the college. Mostly, he would talk about the community, the programs the college offers, and why he thinks that Lyndon is a special place.

Once the job gets stressful, he will stop what he is doing and then take a walk around the campus.

 “This is a good reminder to me why I am doing what I am doing,” Bertolino said. “Students sometimes don’t realize it, but they actually give me lots of encouragement.”

Bertolino mentioned that he held a hundred events at the President’s House, such as student dinners, dinners with athletes, student leaders and other events last year. For instance, every senior who is going to graduate this December and next year will be invited to the President’s House for dinner before the end of the academic year.

Bertolino said, “I would say being a president of a college is a life-style.”

Final Project Topic

For my final project I am going to work alone.
I am going to do a tour of my home town. It will be a mix of video and pictures. I think I will use the site Meograph, the website I was assigned to do a demonstration on earlier this semester, but if the project becomes to complicated I will just make it into a movie.
My sister helped me video tape it while I was driving, so I could take about what the video was showing and I could be safe too. All the other pictures were taken by me.

Video Project1

Two college students took a tour in the Fire Department with an assistant chief in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, Saturday afternoon.

Mark LaRose, an assistant chief working in the Fire Department for over a third of his life, gave Julia and I a tour talking about the Fire Department’s history, facilities, and his personal experience.

The Fire department was established on October 31, 1843, with the first house company called “The Torrent.” The department has processed five separate volunteer companies through the town during several decades. Currently, there are 10 full-time employees and 20 paid on-call fire fighters.

The building has two floors, the top floor has both the working area and the bedrooms, and the bottom floor has three fire trucks. LaRose showed a place with some comfortable sofas and a television where they usually relax and hang out. Normally, they go to work, have lunch in the kitchen, then watching the news on the sofa, and do their daily work.

LaRose showed his room, which is shared with his co-workers. On the wall, several photos present the strong and close relationships between him and his colleagues of thirty years.

“Fire fighters are like brothers,” LaRose said.

 When LaRose was pointing to the big and black alarm surrounded by the photos, he mentioned that the alarm brought a loud sound not only in the daytime, but during the night. He also said that he tried to sleep when the alarm rings during the early morning when it isn’t his responsibility. He would like it if the alarm didn’t ring during the entire day.

LaRose then leaded the tour walking down to the first floor and started introducing three different fire trucks, Engine one, Rescue two and the ladder fire truck, also called The Tower.

Engine One contains 12.5 gallons water and Rescue Two has more efficient fire equipment for rescue purposes like vehicle rescue.

I was curious about what fire fighters need to wear on the fire call, so I asked LaRose for the information. He turned to me and asked with a smile on his face, “Do you want to try the uniform on?”

The uniform was too large for me to wear and it was heavy as well. I also put the helmet on and the oxygen bottle on my back. It took a long time for me to put all the equipment on, and finally, I seemed like a real fire fighter with a poorly-fitting uniform.

In addition, before I tried it on, I thought it was easy and convenient for fire fighters to rescue. However, it was beyond my imagination. It was difficult for me to walk and to run. What’s more, it is also hot with it on.

According to this experience, I thought that under a high-stressful, serious and hot situation, fire fighters need to not only wear heavy and uncomfortable uniforms but to protect themselves as well. Also, they try their best to solve the problem and save lives.

“It is our responsibility, and it is our job,” LaRose said.

Video Project1

Video Project 1

In this video project we are going to focus on the Fire Department in St. J. We are going to start off with what the inside of the department looks like, then talk to the fire fighters about is this what they wanted to be when they grew up (when they were kids). We are going to ask them for some fire safety tips for college students. And we will end with them giving us some stories of their times in the fire department. We will say now, that things may change. Because we haven't gone yet to see them, we may find a better way to end the video project or start it off. We will be doing the recording with Yolanda's camera/phone. The paper will probably be done by me. The video will have its own sound from the recording because their will probably be talking in the background, and maybe we will get lucky (although it will be a bad thing if it happens for someone else) the alarm will go off and the trucks will be called out.

Exercise 14

Online Newspaper:
The Day

The Day, is my town paper. It is what I read when I am home. When you look it up online, it doesn't have the full show or news cast. But it does have clips of what the local news cast has.

If you go to the Multimedia tab on the website, you can see a list of either videos or photos. It shows you the latest video that has been posted.

There is also one more thing that they have online that is not on the actual newscast. If you run the mouse of the multimedia tab, then over the video tab you will see another option that says Live Lunch Brunch. This is a concert and interview series that is only recorded and done on Thursdays at 12. It is a live recording of bands who come into the studio and play. And any band can play, they can sign up online.

Everything looks good. I think the online newspaper is kept up nicely and it is very professional looking. I really like the Live Lunch Brunch. I think it is unique and separates this paper from any other online paper. The packages are the same length of time as all the other packages online. The videos are the same length as average news reports, maybe a little longer. And the topics of the packages are interesting because they are what people who get the paper want to see. The latest video is titled Two Schools One Campus. The two schools they are talking about are in my town, I didn't go to either one of them but I had friends go to them. And I found it interesting. One school is the New London High School and the other is The Magnet School. They are connected by a hallway. It is the same same but different. It is pretty cool and I actually like to watch that package. Videos on here include sports, political, and other topics that deal with the town of New London and The New London County.

I really liked the online newspaper of The Day.