Day-in-the-life Story

For my day-in-the-life story, I decided to follow Ryan Joy, the director of Legislative Affairs, to detail his involvement in the Student Senate as well as several other academic and social outlets at the University of Northern Colorado.

The most difficult part of this assignment was maintaining a flexible schedule throughout the assignment. My original assignment for this story was to cover a student rally being organized by Joy on behalf of the Associated Students of Colorado, a student-run association that is seeking to advocate for increases in higher education funding for universities throughout Colorado. However, this assignment changed just before the deadline, as Joy was unable to organize the rally at UNC. So, at the last minute, I decided to write a day-in-the-life story that focused on him and his efforts to further this cause at UNC.

The easiest part of the assignment was getting together with Joy, who provided me with a majority of the background information that I needed for the assignment. Since this story mainly focused on Joy as a person – both in Student Senate and as a normal college student – a bulk of the information for my story derived from face-to-face interviews that I conducted with him, although much of the additional information about ASC’s rally was garnered from information that I gathered at prior Student Senate meetings.

The most enjoyable part of this assignment was following Joy through his daily routine and taking meticulous notes detailing his actions and surroundings. This experience allowed me to notice the small details that have the ability to transport the reader into the context of the story and them a more personal reading experience.