It started with a cheese medal and ended with a software start-up. Team 5 had an interesting first story. As the deadline neared and sources lacked, we needed a miracle. Luckily, Jared found us a start-up Screenwriting company that was located right here on campus: SoCreate.   

Initially Team 5 was going to write our story on the Cal Poly Creamery, and that fact that it just won a medal for it’s “Grand Gouda” cheese in a national competition. However, we had to change our angle once Mustang News reported on the story. So, our team moved toward a feature of Cal Poly’s creamery based on the release of 30 new Ice Cream flavors. Unfortunately, the creamery advisor was out of the country and the students did not know enough about the flavors to ask our pressing questions.

As the deadline neared, we found SoCreate. Jared, Nick and I ran to the Startup Career Fair in the Chumash Auditorium on Monday, April 15th. There we met Amy Pruett who invited us to the office on Wednesday.

Jared and Nick were humbly welcomed into their office. The walls are soon to be covered in murals that represent old classic films and the staff were all very welcoming and excited to see us. The office is to reflect one of their bigger goal: fostering creativity.

“What our software is going to do is bring the creativity back to what is supposed be a creative process.With our program, we feel like we are going to open up a world of new screenwriting possibilities to people of all backgrounds.”             -Courtney Meznarich

We went to the office to decide what exactly the software had to offer. We wanted to know what made So Create unique, and the inspiration to create such a software. Our angle was going to be a feature on this unique company in the Technology Park at Cal Poly.

“So when I first encountered this particular problem, my initial instinct was to figure out what I could do to fix this, because I was so frustrated with the whole screenplay design.”                    -Justin Couto

We interviewed Justin Couto, the CEO of SoCreate and Courtney Meznarich, director of community outreach and some of the employees working on the software. Hannah also was able to meet with Randi Barros of the Science, Technology and Society (STS) department at Cal Poly.  

SoCreate will not be launching until Summer 2019, but they are moving at the right speed to meet the deadline. Although there are other screenwriting softwares on the market, SoCreate is unique. It greatly simplifies the process. And on top of their software, SoCreate has a blog with tips and tricks that have to do with screenwriting. They claim that SoCreate will change film making for the better.

This project forced us to think on feet, work hard and work fast. It definitely allowed us to come together as a group and create a story that was unique and interesting. This was a rocky start for Team 5, but it means that things can only go up from here.

Once we got wind of the fact that multiple students were selling pictures of their feet for money we knew we had to know more. “It was interesting learning about a community I didn’t know about previously” Erin Gabel who did audio and video for our story said. None of us had heard of this before. “I really enjoyed taking a taboo topic with all of our negative preconceived judgments about it and flipping it all on its head. I feel that I have a deeper understanding of sexuality and how people can creatively make money.” Leah Castillo.

Finding anonymous sources was a huge struggle of ours. Leah posted on a few Cal Poly class of 2019, 2020, 2021 Facebook pages and ultimately that is how we found our sources. However, there were many internet trolls having a field day with our topic. My personal social media account posts also were also not taken seriously, which added another obstacle for our sources and audience research.  Although I did have a significant amount of people legitimately ask me how they could make money selling pictures of their feet. I thought this was interesting and found this article online which I have somewhat jokingly sent back to them.

Multiple sellers we were talking to who were initially okay with being a named source backed out. Since one of the things that drives people to selling feet pictures is the anonymity factor, it was difficult to convince people to feel comfortable being identified.

Finally once we found George, who is comfortable being named and was open to talking about his experience, Leah and Erin did a video interview of his process in taking pictures of feet.

Again though this was a creative struggle because there was not much to take pictures and video of since his process is rather simple.

When we went to interview Queer and Gender studies professor Steven Ruszczycky, he was not comfortable being filmed, so we could only record audio which limited our audio-visual opportunities. The interview with professor Ruszczycky was beneficial in shaping our story. He helped us to understand where fetishes originate and the ways they are sexualized and normalized in our culture.

For our final source I interviewed a female Cal Poly student who has sold multiple feet pictures. The way she normalized her experience really illustrated why people do this. “My favorite thing about this story was that we got to see the different perspectives from each gender selling feet pictures. They both brought very interesting things to the table.” Dante DiFronzo our written reported said.

College students are always looking for new ways to make money and with minimal effort, which is why many people get started in the business. I talked on the phone to our anonymous Cal Poly student source and she brought up an interesting point about how it takes a lot for people to be willing to take pictures of their feet for money but that it is out of necessity. said “It is kind of crazy the degree that like people our age in college will go to be able to afford a very practical lifestyle.”

This process was definitely not easy but the final story is something we are all proud of.

A store in downtown San Luis Obispo transforms junk into art.

Now, substitute “a store in downtown San Luis Obispo” with “four students from Cal Poly” and you have the basic premise of our group’s experience with this story.

Tabata Gordillo, Jay Serrano, Kelly Martinez and I had a bit of a rocky start with our story. We had originally planned to cover JunkGirls, a store in downtown San Luis Obispo. The story had an important meaning and great potential for visual components. However, we weren’t able to conduct an interview for unexplained reasons.

“I think the hardest part of this process was having to pivot story ideas last minute,” journalism senior Kelly Martinez said. Once our first story idea dropped, we had to quickly come up with another. We were working on an unforgiving timeline that would’ve eaten us alive if we didn’t think fast.

Then, like Disney magic, two words came into Tabata’s head; party princess. One of my friends, Grace Trotta, dresses up as princesses and superheroes for children’s birthday parties and special events. I interviewed Grace previously for another class about her princess endeavors and knew she would be an amazing interview subject for this.Grace is obsessed with Disney. I knew we could get amazing visuals for this story because the first time I went to her apartment, I couldn’t look anywhere without seeing Rapunzel or pink. When talking to my group members about Grace, I tried to encapsulate how much of a character Grace really is. I don’t think they fully understood until they met her.

We all went to Grace’s Disney-filled apartment to conduct the interview and see her transform from a Cal Poly student into Sleeping Beauty herself. Grace greeted us at the door, bare-faced and eager. We all went up to her room, where she casually propped herself on her pink duvet for the interview. Jay set up the camera, Kelly opened her notes, and it was interview time.

My group had asked me to attend the interview to help make Grace feel more comfortable. “I don’t think that will be a problem,” I said, “Grace is an actor. She’s more comfortable in front of the camera.”

Once Jay turned on the camera, words began to flow out of Grace’s mouth without care. Unlike her poised demeanor as a princess, Grace Trotta is unabashedly candid and unfiltered. The hilarious and heartfelt stories Grace told unintentionally created some trouble for Jay. “The hardest part for me was matching words to video,” journalism senior Jay Serrano begins. “Grace has a lot of interesting stories, but you can’t really use them in video well unless you’re there filming it – the b-roll will feel out of place.”After the interview, Grace started putting on layers of make-up. “You have to absolutely cake your face in make-up,” sophomore communication studies major Grace Trotta explains. “Otherwise you’ll wash out and look like a potato. I’ve looked like a potato once or twice in my day.” Grace opens up the left side of her closet to unveil her princess costume closet.

The rest of her clothes are jammed to the right carelessly. The hand-sewn dresses, however, are neat and in order. “Some people buy Coachella tickets,” Grace says, “I buy $275 Elsa wigs.”

I think Grace’s take on party princesses made all of us think a bit more deeply about the profession. Princess narratives often include a passive, unrealistically gorgeous woman (by Western standards) who sits around and waits for a prince to save them. Grace, however, uses her role as a party princess to inform kids about topics like feminism and consent. When she dresses up as Cinderella, whose only claim to fame is losing her shoe at a party, she highlights the princess’ compassion and kindness. “I love how she uses this platform to educate kids about important issues,” journalism senior Tabata Gordillo said. “That’s definitely not in her job description, but it’s really important.” The interview was over and we all left the princess in her Valencia Apartments tower. When we pivoted to this idea, I thought that this story was going to be a bit of a fluffier piece. Who wouldn’t love to read a story or watch a video about a hilarious Cal Poly student dress up as Disney princesses? But Grace took it to a whole other level – which is why you should never underestimate a party princess.

It’s interesting to hear that one of our own could possibly be competing in the 2020 Summer Olympics. Zachary Donnefield by far had the scoop on his buddy Christopher Blevins, an American cyclist, and Cal Poly student. Zach’s basis for this feature story was based on how Blevins as a student-athlete manages the stresses of campus life, training, and a professional mountain biking career. Plus our team’s reaction toward the story was positive.

As the strategy and engagement coordinator, some of my tasks was to contact and interact with the community. Right away I had difficulties with the social network engagement section of the assignment. I chose to reach out to people on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, all three social platforms are platforms that I have little to no engagement in. This proved to be the least successful and I quickly found out how crucial and essential it is in gathering information and insight from our potential audience.  

People were definitely interested in our story topic, plus everyone I talked to was unaware of Chris Blevins a professional student-athlete that has a shot at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Students want to read about how he manages to be a student and compete at their skill level. One has to be highly talented to be in the Olympics. I decided to crash Cal Poly women’s basketball head coach Faith Mimnaugh’s office because she definitely has experience with student-athletes and helping them with time management.

“I’m excited to hear that a student has the potential to represent the United States and that he’s wearing the green and gold,” Mimnaugh said. “I’m interested in hearing about his training regiment and how he applies it within the school.”

Week one had passed and by this time we were supposed to have footage and stills from Zach’s trip to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California. Christopher Blevins took first place, but it was nearly impossible to gather our content.

“Chris was super busy with the competition which made it hard for video or pictures,” Zach said. “I did manage to get an autograph on my chest though!”

By this time I had dubbed Blevins “The Real Deal”, all the information that I read about this guy on him competing since the age of five. When I was five I could hardly color within the lines.

So I sat down with Zach and Caitlin to find out the scoop on the difficulties of reaching and scheduling interview meetings with our sources.

Meeting up with our intended sources and managing busy schedules is all part of the journalistic process. This had us on standby and ready to literally pounce on our subjects. Caitlin and Kaylin are no longer surprised by this.

“As senior-slash-seasoned Mustang News reporter, it’s very doable and we just have to coordinate everything,” Caitlin said. “If we go into it knowing exactly the shots we need, and exactly knowing what we’re going to ask him [Blevins] the video only needs to be under two minutes, then we can pull it together.”

Kaylin also had a tight deadline to meet, she managed to write a rough draft the night before having it critiqued early the next morning.

“After listening to the interview, I realized how well-rounded of a person Chris is! So I wanted to make sure I capture everything he does including his music, volunteer work and of course biking,” Kaylin said.

Everything after that seen to just fall into place, Zach and Caitlin had already conducted their interviews and had scheduled a video and photo shoot with Blevins, and Kaylin had a “good to go” on her rough draft. Kaylin said that writing an article that could possibly be published on Mustang News is tricky, but having a structure and outline really helps.

Chris Blevins proved to be a great person, an excellent student, a superstar athlete, and a talented musician. Not all plans go to plan, but through the whole process we persevered through the long waits in gathering our story content and manage to bring together this story

As we sat in our small circle going around sharing ideas, round and around we went brainstorming. We weren’t set on anything quite yet and then Bianka mentioned Latin Night at The Graduate. All of us looked puzzled and confused. “What is Latin Night?” We all asked. Bianka went on to explain, “The Graduate has a night dedicated to Latin music called Noche Caliente”, similar to line dancing also held at The Graduate. Seeing that all of us had no idea that this event even existed besides Bianka, we decided to dance with it a bit.

Where oh where to start? Luckily Bianka acted as our guide. We set out and began story boarding. What types of photos should we take, how will we capture video, who do we interview, when is the event, and what is the general view of the event. Thanks to Abby, she helped to create our story board to get us going (story board).  With Abby’s story board, Maddie set out to gather interview questions. What do we really want to know about Noche Caliente? Maddie included questions that would help give people a general sense of what the event entailed and what it’s really about ( interview questions).

With interview questions in hand, camera in another, our group set out to Noche Caliente to show not only our journalism skills, but our dance moves as well. A regular attendee, Manny Aguirre explains why he enjoys attending this night filled with dancing, “But when I go for Noche Caliente, we walk in, we get on the dance floor and we don’t really step off the dance floor until we leave and that’s what makes Noche Caliente special for me”. Here is a peek of what Noche Caliente is and what it’s all about (Video/peek). The night was filled with laughter, dancing, and above all else a great time with great people.

Our play time was over and the real work began, with just one interview left, editing, and writing our team worked hard to piece our story together. As we ran down to the wire we hit a speed bump. Abbie sent us a message in the group chat saying, “Yeah he never got back to me…”, our final interview, the DJ had flaked out. The next day Maddie sent a message saying, “They’re not getting back to me. Might just drive to The Grad today and see if I can talk to anyone”. I think we are all a bit stumped like Nicole said “Hmm that’s so strange”. Not only stumped, but it was definitely stressful. Regardless of our speed bump we were able to sort it all out and pushed forward. Down to the wire with still a few more things to edit we danced our way to the finish. It was fun to cover something that most of us in the group had no knowledge of and it opened all our eyes to a new world. With so many fun events sometimes other events get overshadowed and Noche Caliente is definitely a hidden gem.

From inception to publication, this story has been both eye-opening and inspiring. Our group came to this topic of student-parents after personally interacting with a few of these individuals in our classes. We wondered about their day-to-day lives and thought about the difficulties they must face. If my teammates and I feel stressed enough as college students without children, then what must it be like to raise one or even multiple children while also working toward your degree? So we set-out to answer our questions.

It was a concern that speaking with student-parents would prove difficult. But from the beginning, we received help, tips and referrals for who would be best to interview. Student-parents responded to us with what felt most like excitement- somebody was telling their story. We went to the children’s center to talk to them about the resources they offer student-parents. They were initially interested in the story but upon email, they became unresponsive. We sent a follow-up email several days later and still, no response. We eventually returned to the children’s center to follow up in person. This ended up being a successful trip because we were able to catch the manager Tonya who was very responsive and followed-up our meeting with a phone call to confirm the best time to meet for an interview.

Our first interview was with Felix, married parent of one. His interview was very positive and he spoke very appreciatively of his situation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dhgy8bXsQ2iNBDM4unhCR3jBZ4WuQufd/view?usp=sharing

“Every student is dealing with a different challenge and this just happens to be mine,” he said. “I see this as a blessing more than anything.”

He said he has a system with his wife, who works as an elementary school teacher nearby. Felix cares for their son in the morning before his class and his wife cares for him in the afternoon when she gets off work. They don’t use the child center.

My teammates and I found Felix really positive. He had such a grateful attitude.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uPtCBCSwscMKYvrMdAgGdwcYpLrnnfK_/view?usp=sharing

Next we interviewed Abby, single parent of two. Her experience was very unique and seemed extremely challenging. Her partner recently left and no longer helps raise their two children.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SL8xtHjGR8lt5vdsCuQ8QFe-mmf2VwEE/view?usp=sharing

Her kids go to the children’s center during the day while she goes to class and they all live with her mother-in-law while she finishes school. She cried extensively during the interview.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w4x8TnyAOEmwOQDhD0mch2dh6gG8BFHu/view?usp=sharing

My team and I walked away feeling thankful for the lack of stress in our lives and inspired by her dedication to her degree and family.

One of my teammates Claire Blachowski said she spent the entirety of her seven-mile run the next day considering her own priorities.

“Interviewing student parents will be one of the most memorable interviews during my time at Cal Poly,” Blachowski said.

Another teammate Casey Sublette really valued the time we spent with these student-parents.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” Sublette said.

Another teammate and writer of our story Sophia O’Keefe said the experience was unique for her too.

“Meeting and talking to the student parents really put things into perspective for me about their difficulties,” O’Keefe said.

Social Media engagement was a bit more difficult than I figured it would be for such an interesting story. We did not receive any serious responses through Facebook, Snapchat or Twitter.  The one response we did receive was a joke.