CONSECTETUR ADIPISCING ELIT
CONSECTETUR ADIPISCING ELIT
Introduction
What we thought about focusing on EOP as our final project
By Natalie Ragusin
When Professor Herbert Lowe asked our digital journalism class in October to get tickets for an academic symposium related to the civil rights movement in Milwaukee, he said it would be a great primer for our final project. He began the next #loweclass session by playing a trailer to a documentary about a Marquette University program that most of us knew nothing about.
We watched the trailer – about the documentary, “Answering the Call: Celebrating 45 Years of the Educational Opportunity Program” – intently. We had no idea that black students were not always welcomed at Marquette, or that a campus program existed to help low-income, first-generation students access a high-quality college education. We readily agreed that this was a perfect fit for a final project. Professor Lowe assigned us to watch the entire documentary as homework and to write a blog post about our thoughts about EOP. He also instructed us to consider how the class could collectively capture its 45th anniversary.
What follows are excerpts from our blog posts, with themes ranging from emotion to pride to relationships to storytelling ideas. With one exception, we are all journalism majors.
Let’s start with my blog post:
“I am glad we are staying in the Marquette community for our final project. I also think it’s important to meet other students and members of [EOP] through this assignment. It is very inspiring to see students so grateful to receive an education. I truly admire the values and goals that these students set for themselves. This program gave young people the opportunity to go somewhere after possibly feeling lost after high school. And I’m very excited to work with such people.”
Junior Roque Redondo shared a sense of relief in having a different kind of final class project:
"You know you’re getting to the end of the semester when your professors start talking about final projects and final exams. Usually the sound of these words creates frustration and anxiousness because it symbolizes a great amount of tiring and boring work coming our way. That’s different for our journalism class. Last class (Lowe) introduced the students to the final project topic: EOP. Students were quickly impressed and wanted to get into it as soon as possible."
Sophomore Elizabeth Baker noted a sense of pride after having watched the documentary:
“I imagine I’d be hard-pressed to find a Marquette student who does not feel an overwhelming sense of pride in this university after watching … ‘Answering the Call.’ Each one of its 38 minutes inspired, intrigued and interested me.”
Junior Dewayne Gage shared his experience as an EOP student:
“My first meeting with financial aid counselor Jacqueline Walker ended with a warm hug – a hug that you could only receive from your mom or grandmother, a hug that said everything will be OK. Along with the financial assistance, there is no price for the support system that EOP provides for me and every other student in the program.”
Junior Henry Greening discussed ideas of how we can portray EOP’s story:
“Not everyone was an EOP student, so we must make people see why this is important and draw them in. Students and alumni love to look at the past, either in nostalgic memory or in curiosity of what once was. I think that this project could be a great opportunity both to recognize those who came from difficult situations and were given an opportunity to better themselves and make careers because of EOP, and also tell a story of Marquette’s history that may be often forgotten.”
Junior Caroline Roers wanted to focus on the individuals of EOP:
“The final project sounded perfect. Putting a face to a program that helps thousands of students is exactly what I love about journalism. ... However, I think while we do this we should keep in mind that though we are profiling these people, the project is not about these faces. It is about the opportunity that made these ‘faces’ brilliant.”
Junior Jenna Ebbers wanted to connect emotion throughout the process:
“I think it would be beneficial to include some personal story or anecdote that each person can share from their experience at Marquette, adding emotion into the project.”
Senior Madeline Pieschel wanted to find out how EOP graduates have impacted their communities:
"[We] should include through video or text how these individuals ended up giving back. EOP helped them out and it is more than likely that they have helped out in return and given back to the program, community, or their families and high schools. This show's that the vicious cycle of poverty and lack of education in families can be broken through opportunities like EOP."
Sophomore Brittany Carloni asked vital questions regarding data:
“I want to know the graduation rates of students in the program. What has the program enrollment been throughout the years? What states and cities are students coming from? What are they majoring in? What kinds of jobs do they get after graduation?”
Senior Robyn St. John made an input of outstanding data that compels:
“Milwaukee has been noted as the No. 1 most racially segregated city in the nation. This puts the EOP program as an awe-inspiring opportunity on a local level.”
Junior Madeline Kennedy had similar ideas about EOP and their successes:
“One thing I want to pursue in the final project is rates of diversity. How successful has EOP been with increasing diversity on campus? Are there similar programs at other Catholic universities that have experienced similar success?”
Junior Devi Shastri shared her emotions of connecting with EOP’s diversity:
“When I learned today that our #loweclass final project would be about EOP on campus, the lower class first-generation Hindu woman inside of me jumped for joy. It supported what I have been slowly realizing about diversity on campus: it exists, but you have to look really damn hard to find it.”
Junior Estefania Elizondo, a communication studies major, described EOP as a “Sputnik moment in this university’s history”:
“It is because of my current involvement [as a tutor] that I begin to see and hear echoes of the past when the challenges EOP had to face in [1969] are some of the same challenges that I am faced with this very day. Rewind [45] years into Marquette’s history and you would find yourself in the midst of the civil rights movement – a particularly significant moment in which the university and the city of Milwaukee played an important role.”
Well, as you can tell by this website, the ideas and approaches our class initially had for this final project changed and evolved as the semester ensued. Our feelings and pride about EOP did not.
Let’s start with my blog post:
“I am glad we are staying in the Marquette community for our final project. I also think it’s important to meet other students and members of [EOP] through this assignment. It is very inspiring to see students so grateful to receive an education. I truly admire the values and goals that these students set for themselves. This program gave young people the opportunity to go somewhere after possibly feeling lost after high school. And I’m very excited to work with such people.”
Junior Roque Redondo shared a sense of relief in having a different kind of final class project:
"You know you’re getting to the end of the semester when your professors start talking about final projects and final exams. Usually the sound of these words creates frustration and anxiousness because it symbolizes a great amount of tiring and boring work coming our way. That’s different for our journalism class. Last class (Lowe) introduced the students to the final project topic: EOP. Students were quickly impressed and wanted to get into it as soon as possible."
Sophomore Elizabeth Baker noted a sense of pride after having watched the documentary:
“I imagine I’d be hard-pressed to find a Marquette student who does not feel an overwhelming sense of pride in this university after watching … ‘Answering the Call.’ Each one of its 38 minutes inspired, intrigued and interested me.”
Junior Dewayne Gage shared his experience as an EOP student:
“My first meeting with financial aid counselor Jacqueline Walker ended with a warm hug – a hug that you could only receive from your mom or grandmother, a hug that said everything will be OK. Along with the financial assistance, there is no price for the support system that EOP provides for me and every other student in the program.”
Junior Henry Greening discussed ideas of how we can portray EOP’s story:
“Not everyone was an EOP student, so we must make people see why this is important and draw them in. Students and alumni love to look at the past, either in nostalgic memory or in curiosity of what once was. I think that this project could be a great opportunity both to recognize those who came from difficult situations and were given an opportunity to better themselves and make careers because of EOP, and also tell a story of Marquette’s history that may be often forgotten.”
Junior Caroline Roers wanted to focus on the individuals of EOP:
“The final project sounded perfect. Putting a face to a program that helps thousands of students is exactly what I love about journalism. ... However, I think while we do this we should keep in mind that though we are profiling these people, the project is not about these faces. It is about the opportunity that made these ‘faces’ brilliant.”
Junior Jenna Ebbers wanted to connect emotion throughout the process:
“I think it would be beneficial to include some personal story or anecdote that each person can share from their experience at Marquette, adding emotion into the project.”
Senior Madeline Pieschel wanted to find out how EOP graduates have impacted their communities:
"[We] should include through video or text how these individuals ended up giving back. EOP helped them out and it is more than likely that they have helped out in return and given back to the program, community, or their families and high schools. This show's that the vicious cycle of poverty and lack of education in families can be broken through opportunities like EOP."
Sophomore Brittany Carloni asked vital questions regarding data:
“I want to know the graduation rates of students in the program. What has the program enrollment been throughout the years? What states and cities are students coming from? What are they majoring in? What kinds of jobs do they get after graduation?”
Senior Robyn St. John made an input of outstanding data that compels:
“Milwaukee has been noted as the No. 1 most racially segregated city in the nation. This puts the EOP program as an awe-inspiring opportunity on a local level.”
Junior Madeline Kennedy had similar ideas about EOP and their successes:
“One thing I want to pursue in the final project is rates of diversity. How successful has EOP been with increasing diversity on campus? Are there similar programs at other Catholic universities that have experienced similar success?”
Junior Devi Shastri shared her emotions of connecting with EOP’s diversity:
“When I learned today that our #loweclass final project would be about EOP on campus, the lower class first-generation Hindu woman inside of me jumped for joy. It supported what I have been slowly realizing about diversity on campus: it exists, but you have to look really damn hard to find it.”
Junior Estefania Elizondo, a communication studies major, described EOP as a “Sputnik moment in this university’s history”:
“It is because of my current involvement [as a tutor] that I begin to see and hear echoes of the past when the challenges EOP had to face in [1969] are some of the same challenges that I am faced with this very day. Rewind [45] years into Marquette’s history and you would find yourself in the midst of the civil rights movement – a particularly significant moment in which the university and the city of Milwaukee played an important role.”
Well, as you can tell by this website, the ideas and approaches our class initially had for this final project changed and evolved as the semester ensued. Our feelings and pride about EOP did not.
This website was created as part of a fall 2014 digital journalism course in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. Led by instructor (and EOP alumnus) Herbert Lowe, #loweclass consisted Elizabeth Baker, Brittany Carloni, Thomas Conroy, Jenna Ebbers, Estefania Elizondo, Dewayne Gage, Henry Greening, Madeline Kennedy, Madeline Pieschel, Teran Powell, Natalie Ragusin, Roque Redondo, Caroline Roers, Devi Shastri and Robyn St. John.