Portfolio BY : J ordan K elly
Article 1
Mardi Gras Florida’s biggest party with great concerts, parades and food will be going on at Universal Orlando starting on Feb. sixth and running on select nights through April 16th. Mardi Gras is a carnival held in some countries on Shrove Tuesday, most famously in New Orleans. This year’s concert lineup at Universal includes artist such as Hunter Hayes, Diana Ross, Bare Naked Ladies, Nate Ruess, Fall Out Boy, Kool and the Gang, the Fray, Adam Lambert, Shawn Mendes, 3 Doors Down, Reo Speed Wagon, T-‐Pain, Jessie J and Yandiel. “I am definitely going to see Hunter Hayes, Fall Out Boy, The Fray and T-‐Pain. I really wish Plies was added to the list though,” Kelsey Smith, senior, said. The concert lineup is in addition to the Mardi Gras parade, which will feature 12 floats, dancers, stilt walkers and tons of beads. Also, the French Quarter Court Yard sizzles with New Orleans cuisine and live music. “I would rather go to Mardi Gras than a regular concert because it is like a huge party. Although, I hate the teenage boys that vape in the crowd,” Smith said. The Mardi Gras concerts, parade and French Quarter music are included with your Universal Studios Admission or free to annual pass holders. Florida residents can also purchase tickets for $69.99. “Throughout my years of attending Mardi Gras I have seen Shawn Mendes, Jessie J, All American Rejects and Pitbull.” Andrea Febres, sophomore. “I love this year’s lineup, I might just have my dad renew my pass so I can go again,” Febres continued. All of the concerts take place on the Music Plaza stage and start around eight or eight forty-‐ five. The parade begins in the Hollywood area of Universal before the concerts starts. “I have been waiting to see Fall Out Boy since I was like ten and now they are at Mardi Gras. I can’t wait!” Smith said.
Reflection of Article 1
This is one of the articles that displays my best performance because it is quick and to the point. That is what news is supposed to be, minimal fluff with lots of facts. For example, I could have added more fluff about what Mardi Gras is and why it is celebrated. Instead, I kept to Universal’s aspect of it without veering off on how other people celebrate. Even though this article is a little short of word count, it flows and is filled with quotes. I am proud of this article because I worked to make it as long as possible. At the time Mardi Gras hadn’t happened yet, so there was not much of me to build an article on. I twisted the perspective of article, making it seem as a review of past experiences while encouraging people to attend this year. I found the right people to interview by making sure they had previously attended Mardi Gras. Overall, I still think that I should have found more information to make this article longer. I could have gotten details about some of the artist performing or what Universal does to make Mardi Gras a success.
Article 2 Maintaining Motivation It was a Monday morning, early and gloomy. Students were moaning and groaning as they trudged their way through another day of school. Having no motivation to get anything done, just waiting for the bell to ring at two forty-‐five. Students are approaching the time of year where they really just cannot wait for summer. Testing season is coming up and they have already given it their all. The only things students can focus on is what they are going to do on spring break. “In order for students to stay motivated I recommend that they keep up with their grades and have a plan on what you want to become early so you can work for it,” sophomore, Kailee Janae said. According to collegeboard.org, they think that high school students should focus on high impact activities, create new challenges, set attainable goals, find a social support network and acknowledge accomplishments in order to stay motivated. “I would not have made it through this year with out my friends and family,” Janae said. Between waking up so early, balancing academics and a social life it can become very difficult to keep up with it all. Sacrifices will have to be made and you will most likely be as tired as a one-‐legged man in a backside-‐kicking contest. “I think people loose motivation at this time of year because of all the tests and stuff, it can be kind of daunting to do well on the tests and complete the classes as well,” sophomore, Grace Gillen said. “I will be spending a lot of lunch labs in Mrs. Kent’s and Mr. Lastowski’s rooms to prepare for the AP test.” In a recent poll, Cengage learning asked college students: What keeps you going throughout the day? 32 percent said the motivation to graduate and 27 percent said a positive outlook keeps them going throughout the day. “What motivates me to stay in school is that I get to learn about things I am actually interested in,” Gillen said. Having interest in the subjects you are learning is a necessity because if not, you will most likely find yourself asleep and failing. As much as students think they can afford to slack off, we cannot. Titans, we are almost to the end, this is the last stretch and I believe that we can all make it with a little motivation and a little dedication.
Reflection of Article 2 I am most proud about this article because of the creativity I put into it. I tried my best to make the lead grab the reader’s attention, and make the end of the article inspiring so it impacted the reader in some way. Using scene setter leads automatically grab the reader’s attention because it makes them want to further understand what the writer is attempting to get across. This article demonstrates good journalism writing because it is creative, yet important. Also, I used many statistics alongside my quotes to show facts as well as opinions. I feel my personality shines through this writing piece because of the hinted humor and word choice. In journalism, it is important to have style in which I exhibited in this article. If I could change something about this article, I would have smoothened out my transitions and came up with a more creative headline. After reading it later on down the road, I feel that this article is very chopping and adding transitions would help soften it up. Also, I could have been much more creative in my headline by saying something like, “You Can Do This Titans!” or “Only a Quarter Left.” All in all, this article shows my personality as well as my knowledge of using quotes and statistics to make my article strong.
Article 3
Ms. UHS Sweetheart On the day before Valentine’s Day, hearts were getting passed around and new traditions were beginning at University High School. After receiving 300 hearts, Brianna Marson was announced UHS’ Ms. Sweetheart. “When I won Ms. Sweetheart I cried, me and my mom both,” sophomore Brianna Marson said. “It felt really good. I was so happy and honored.” Marson said. Brianna is a sophomore at UHS and has Down syndrome, but she does not let that stop her. Down syndrome is a wide range of developmental delays and physical disabilities caused by a genetic disorder. “I think Brianna was perfect to be Ms. Sweetheart because she is very friendly, her school and friends are important to her and she is very outgoing,” Brianna’s teacher, Miss. Gear said. This year is the first year UHS has done this event. Each student was given a heart on a string during their second period. The students were then to give their hearts to any girl of their choice. The girl with the most hearts at the end of the day won. “We worked very closely with the MULTI VE students to cut out one heart for every student,” said junior class council teacher, Jessica Green. “The junior class council worked hard to help me cut ribbon for each heart and group them for every student.” Green also said that junior class wants to do a very similar activity for St. Patrick’s Day with clovers. Each student will get one, and at the end of the day the male student with the most clovers will be this years Lucky Charm. “We wanted to just do something fun for the students to enjoy. We wanted them to have something to help build school spirit and have a tradition that could be theirs,” Green said.
Reflection of Article 3
This article may not have all the creativity it should, meet word count, or use correct grammar but this was truly my favorite article to write. It was an honor to be able to interview Briana and write about this new tradition started at our school So, I am proud that I got to have that experience and write about it. This article demonstrates good journalistic writing because by now I was familiar with the quote format. In the beginning, I would put the title of the person in the wrong spot or put said right after the quotation mark. By this article, it had been pounded in my head and I stopped making mistakes like that so frequently. Also, I put a lot of time into getting quotes from the right people in this article. I wanted to get opinions from everyone that was involved. Doing this did not leave me much time to write the article though. Therefore, it is short, not very creative and could have been a lot better if I had learned how to manage my time. Looking back, I would have put more time into my writing than my interviews.
Personal Essay: Roots Everyone comes from different backgrounds and different areas of town. Where I came from has formed me into the strong and mannered woman I am today. I have lived in the same house ever since I was born with my mom, dad and brother. I live on Surrey road, across from Debary Elementary School, where you would expect everyone to keep to him or herself and to be a quiet neighborhood. But, I know all my neighbors and they all have helped raise me. They taught me how to swim, cook and were on the side of the road cheering me on when I could ride a bike without training wheels. Located on little Surrey Road, the house I lived in wasn’t very big. I didn’t live in a gated community that had beautiful green grass with a plethora of bedrooms. Instead, I live in a three bedroom, two-‐bath house with more sandspurs and weeds in the yard than grass with neighbors who came over unexpectedly. But, I would not trade it for anything else. I could ride my four-‐wheeler in my back yard or around the figure eight that my neighborhood created. I could have a kiddy pool in my driveway without any complaint from my neighbors. My whole neighborhood was like one big happy family. I could walk into any house on my street, and make myself at home. Us all being so close had its ups and downs. I will admit, most of my neighbors were drunks, besides my parents and a couple down the street, but they all meant no harm. Growing up around alcohol did nothing but make me want to drink it less. I didn’t want to be like neighbors when they were in that state of mind, and I am thankful to have learned the effects of alcohol. My neighborhood was filled with kids, and I made some of my closest friends on those streets. The two who affected my life the most were, Shelby Brown and Sam Baldwin. We were like three peas in a pod, and spent every second of the day together. We rode our bikes to and from school together, did our homework together, had sleepovers on school nights and barrowed each other’s clothes. I remember every Christmas after we would open our gifts; we would run into each other’s houses and share what we got. Also, on Christmas Eve, my neighbors would host a party where he dressed up like Santa and she dressed up like the elf. Santa would read us Christmas stories and the elf would give us a present. We all thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread, but we also didn’t know that it was our neighbors. Anyways, Sam and Shelby were my partners in crime; we would always pull pranks on our siblings and sometimes our parents, which got us into a butt load of trouble but it was worth it.
Not only did I grow up in a small neighborhood, I grew up in a small town called Debary. Debary was the perfect town to grow up in because it was smack in the middle of everything. You could drive thirty minutes to the beach or drive thirty minutes to Orlando. Being in the mist of the two big attraction cities did not affect it though. There was not much to do in Debary, which meant there were not many tourists, and it seemed like everybody knew everybody. You could walk into the Winn-‐Dixie and find at least three people you know. I believe that growing up in a town like this had a huge impact on the person I am today. If I had grown up in a huge city, I would be used to the fast life with lots of strangers and cars, and lots of keeping to myself at the grocery store. Instead, I have small talk on almost every isle and wave when I pass someone on a jog. I feel safe in my small town and when I enter myself in big cities I always become more aware of my surroundings because I am not use to it. Also, I love Debary because it is filled with adventures. My friend Marina and I must have covered every ounce of dirt in that town. We would spend our summer days walking around the trails, fishing in the river and building forts in the woods. It was like our own little Narnia. Growing up in a small town forced me to go outside. Most of the kids my age who grew up in big cities couldn’t walk around and play in the fields because there wasn’t any. There were too many grocery stores, roads and construction that ruined where they once could adventure. But, I could walk everywhere and had huge places to roam. Once, in sixth grade, Marina and I built a fort in the woods behind her neighborhood. It was about as cool as the Swiss family Robinson tree house. We spent so much time there, and would collect golf and tennis balls and keep them there. About five years later, we went back to our fort and everything was still the same as we left it. Not one tennis ball had moved nor had any branch we built been broken. That example exhibits that Debary is a small town. Our fort would have been torn down by now and covered by a Wal-‐Mart in any other town. Not only where I grew up affected my life, but whom I grew up with. I was raised in my little house with my brother, Dalton, who was five years older than me. Dalton always had friends over and they were always doing something crazy. I may have only had one brother by blood, but I had a million by heart. When I was little, I never wanted to hang out with them because they would pick on me constantly. But then, I began to learn how to hold my own and I loved hanging out with them. We would always go on the boat together, they would take me shooting, come to my dance competitions and come on all of our family vacations. I learned a lot about boys through hanging out with them. They taught me that high school is really what you make of it and that in high school most boys are not looking for something serious. I am so thankful to have grown up around them because they have saved me a lot of time and heartache. I know the day I do bring a boy home, he will be getting like a police interrogation from all my brothers friends so they can make sure he is
a good guy. Even though my brother has moved out, his friends still come around to help my dad and hang out. We have Sunday Funday every week, which entails a huge family dinner and usually corn hole or a bonfire. Every time my friends drop me off at home, they ask, “Who are all these people?” and I just laugh because I know my home is like no other. Overall, where I grew up defines whom I am as a person because it has shaped me to be adventurous, caring and taught me many life lessons. I owe the person I am today to my roots. I would not be the girl I am today with out them. My small town has sure left its mark on me, and I know I left my mark on it. Growing up in a southern environment is like no other. I wouldn’t trade my crazy family or my mom’s sweet tea for anything else. I couldn’t imagine growing up any other way, and I am thankful for all the lessons and memories I have to cherish forever.