Community Partner Profile of Jessica Gagne Cloutier: A lesson from the Service-Learning Coordinator

Jessica Gagne Cloutier is the Service-Learning coordinator at East Carolina University. Her main responsibility is to support and serve as the campus liaison for service-learning. Her other responsibilities are providing support for students enrolled in classes that utilize service-learning pedagogy, and assisting faculty with the entire service-learning process (from educating them on what service-learning is [...]

Community Partner Profile of Katie Benson: Coming to the aid of the forgotten

Katie Benson is Assistant Facility Manager and Volunteer Coordinator/Fundraising for the Humane Society of Eastern Carolina. Her start in the Humane Society was a bit unconventional. She started volunteering and it than led to a full time position. “A friend of mine is on the Humane Society board and asked me to volunteer for a [...]

From Personal to Professional: Reporting on Community in a Unique Basic Reporting Class at East Carolina University

The Communications 2320 course at East Carolina University focuses on basic reporting. This includes the fundamentals of journalism, whether through print or the multimedia. The course is taught by Bernard Timberg and his evolution of the course has seen community benefit through service-learning and the development of students’ self-awareness and community awareness through personal and professional reporting.

Knight Documentary

I watched a 29 minute documentary on knights in the middle ages by Terry Jones. This documentary attempted to explore the roots of the knight stereotype, and see how close it was to the truth. My personal vision of a medieval knight was changed, due to exposure of some amazing facts.
One interesting note was how [...]

Caring Christina

Christina F. Benson, born on November 10, 1988, is a sophomore at East Carolina University pursuing a degree in Communications with a concentration in broadcast journalism. She graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts, a private school located in Winston-Salem, N.C.
East Carolina was the only NC university she applied to, and upon her [...]

Greenville Community Shelter Powerpoint

The following contains a powerpoint presentation exploring the reality of homelessness in the U.S., and examines the ways the Greenville Community Shelter is combating the issue.
The Greenville Community Shelter

Homelessness in America

Unbelievably, homelessness is a big issue in America. There are many subtopics within homelessness, such as the stereotypes related with homelessness, mental illness, as well as substance abuse problems.
A homeless person is defined as a someone who lacks a “fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence” according to PBS’ “Homeless Facts and Figures” [...]

Homeless Stereotypes

The homeless are getting more and more frustrated with the unfortunate stereotype placed upon them. Many fight to disprove this stereotype, and are dead set at showing the world how quickly life can leave anyone in their situation.
For many, when they think of the homeless they think of an older male with an overgrown beard [...]

Mental Health & the Homeless

Social justice refers to the idea of a society where justice is achieved in every facet, not just the administration of law. Social justice makes way for fair treatment and the rights to all the benefits society has to offer. Throughout this semester, we have been taking a closer look at social justice [...]

Where Do They Go?

Greenville, located in the eastern part of North Carolina, is the home of the East Carolina University Pirates. In 2007, the population of Pitt County was estimated to be 76,058. With the increase of East Carolina University’s student acceptance rate, Greenville grows every year by the thousands. Greenville is the fastest growing [...]

Exaltation and Fear – a personal account by Bernard Timberg of the sit-in and arrest at the Gwynn Oaks Amusement Park demonstration July 4, 1963, in Baltimore, Maryland

As much as I might have seen it in newsreels or on TV, I hadn’t been prepared for what was to come. You don’t know what true unleashed anger, hate, spit, violence, rocks—and fear of injury and death—are, until you experience it yourself. You really don’t know what a “mob” is.

STRIVE: a job readiness training program

With a rising unemployment rate and a declining economy, finding work has become a job in itself. The most vulnerable are those who have trouble finding work even in stable economic conditions. STRIVE is an organization that seeks to prepare the hardest-to-employ individuals for finding long-term work.
STRIVE stands for “Support Training Results In Valuable [...]

Pamlico-Tar River Foundation Battles in Beaufort

As of April 2008, the mining company PCS Phosphate has applied for the purchase of new land in Beaufort County, NC. The Pamlico-Tar River Foundation (PTRF) as well as numerous other environmental advocacy groups have condemned the acceptance of this permit due to its planned destruction of large amounts of state wetlands and stream [...]

Community Partner Power Point

Every city and town has non-profit community organizations. The non-profit organizations in Greenville is unique in it targets a wide range of people through a wide range of programs. The persons in charge of these organizations are busy and do not restrict their jobs to a 9-5. There is always a need and always a community organization ready to serve that need. President Barack Obama started as a community organizer. He too understood that one must have a united community, a community that trusted and supported the efforts and initiative of change. Greenville has that community support which makes many of these organizations successful even with economic obstacles. It takes very special people to work for as well as with the community. These people have been profiled to get a better understanding of why they do it and how others can get involved.

Mercury Levels of the Fish in the Tar River

In 2004 the FDA and EPA issued a joint advisory that suggested people should watch which fish they eat, and how much they eat due to some high levels of mercury in fish. Mercury is very toxic to unborn or young children.
Women of childbearing age, pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under 15 years old [...]

Danny “the Muscle” Demola

Danny Demola came into the world. Since growing up in Mountainside, N.J., Danny decided he wanted to go south for college. Warm weather, southern hospitality, and what Danny has to come to find, a great university.
Danny is majoring in broadcast journalism and aspires to be a sportswriter when he grows up. Danny grew up [...]

Family Legacy Item

My item is about twelve years old and has been handed down from my father to me. Golfing is one of my dad’s favorite activities since I can remember. This ECU golf towel he gave to me is special because not only do we both share an affinity for golf, but my dad went [...]

30 Seconds of Me

Hey my name is Matt, I’m a sophomore at ECU, and I am hoping to be a future ESPN sports broadcaster. I grew up in Fairfax, Virginia and East Carolina was a very appealing school so I decided to go out-of-state. My whole life I have been a diehard Redskins fan and football was my [...]

Climate Change and it’s Impact on the Pamlico-Tar River

There is no doubt about it, the climate in our world today is changing. The threat of global warming is weighing down on our society more than ever. Many people choose to ignore this issue. However, it is a problem that needs to be addressed now, before it is too late.
I have spent time researching [...]

Community Partner Profile of Laura Dickerson:Voice of Citizens Against an OLF

Some non-profit organizations have been around for years. Many of them have national organizations that serve as the blueprint for how they should be run. Citizens against an OLF is very different. It is a Grassroots Organization in Gates County, NC. Their goal is to prevent the Navy from building an outlying landing field in [...]

Storm Water Runoff Becoming a Huge Problem in Pamlico-Tar River

The Pamlico-Tar River in the recent years has been under a tremendous amount of distress with the issue of storm water runoff. Storm water runoff affects not only drinking water but also swimming areas and even the wildlife that roam the waters.
Storm water runoff occurs when precipitation from rain or snowmelt flows over [...]

Project Center Stage from STRIVE

The STRIVE youth program, or Project Center Stage, was a very interesting organization. It has a lot to do with STRIVE but they are also so different in many ways. They call it Project Center Stage because they want all eyes to be on the kids as their main focus of attention. [...]

Loose change: Fact or Fiction

The tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 affected the thoughts and beliefs of Americans everywhere. This documentary looks into a radical belief that the U.S. Government played a huge role in the Sept. 11 attacks. The film looked into questionable facts that clashed with what the government claims actually happened. The conflicting facts that had the [...]