Let’s See How Far We’ve Come

Written by QCR

For our sixth class we were fortunate enough to start off by skyping with Antoinette Grajeda, a reporter for an NPR affiliate in Fayetteville, Arkansas by using the fancy technology in the Watt center. We had been learning a lot about interviewing from our textbook and Dr. Thyroff but this was a unique opportunity for us to pick the brain of someone who conducts interviews for a living. Antoinette provided us with a lot of great advice on how to start interviews and also helped ease our apprehension towards bad interviews by telling us about some of her own interview blunders and how she adjusts when an interview isn’t going how she planned. By the end of our half hour conversation with her we all felt much more comfortable with the idea of interviewing on our own.

For the second part of class we got to be participants in a foucs group so that the other CI we have been working with could practice conducting one. This started after we took a break to devour the Chik-fil-a platters so kindly provided for us by Dr. Thyroff. Focus groups are one of the data collection techniques we have been learning about so it was a great experience for us to see how a real one might be run. In the focus group we talked about yoga and what we like in a class/studio. What we didn’t know was that in the back room there were some local studio owners who are planning on opening a studio in Clemson listening in. It was a long meeting but also a really good one because we all left feeling better about interviewing and excited for the new yoga studio Clemson will be getting!

Lauren, March 2017

 




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