Feature on ASI had rocky beginnings

We first starting working on this project two weeks ago. It started with an idea given to us from Austin, the editor in chief of Mustang News. He gave us the idea to report on Associated Student, Inc. (ASI) because the new elections were coming up. We then formulated the idea to do a feature on Jasmin Fashami and what’s she’s done in the past year. We also decided to report on what’s coming up next with the new presidential election. We had a suspicion that Mark Borges would win, but we weren’t sure. Then, Borges won, and we had to interview him as well. Borges said “to be stepping into Jasmin’s shoes next year, he has big shoes to fill.” 

Connor McCarthy interviews Mark Borges/ Jared Smith

Reporting on this story was hard from all aspects. Visually speaking, we had no idea what we were going to do. We ending up compiling b-roll of the ASI building and an interview with Borges for the video. For the written aspect, we decided on a feature about Fashami and what she has done over the past year. 

It took a while to get all of the interviews rolling because people are busy and don’t always get back, but when they did we knew we had a story.  Before we knew we had a story though, we went to the ASI elections, filmed, and watched who would be the next year’s ASI president.

Jared Smith films the announcements of the new ASI elections/ Taylor Powell

 

In doing my own research for what people would be interested in finding about ASI, we discovered that not many people knew what ASI or even knew who the current president was. As it turned out, if we would’ve had more than 40 percent of students vote, it would’ve been the largest turnout in Cal Poly history. But we got a different result entirely. 

The moment Mark Borges was announced as ASI president for next year/Jared Smith

The voter turnout showed us the importance of reporting on ASI and giving insight into what they do.

This shifted our focus on the story to showcase what ASI does, while still featuring Fashami as the main character.

Each team member also got an insight into what ASI does. Our interactive member Taylor Powell said that it was “cool to learn more about ASI.” Our word member Nick Gonzalez reiterated that. “It was interesting to see how ASI presidents operate behind the scene,” he said. “There’s a ton of work and communication involved that most people don’t know about.”

This was a hard visual story to tell and our visual person did a great job getting it together, but Hannah Hobelman said that she was “barely staying afloat,” as she had to work, go to class, and find perfect times for the interviews she had to go to.

In the end, the story came together nicely, but we had a rocky start getting interviews, and gauging interest. We were glad that we were able to educate others on a topic that not many at Cal Poly seemed to know about.