To survive academic life at Medill, a cherub needs the proper gear.
One tool Charles Lee, of Canada, wishes he had brought is an audio recorder. For interview assignments he used the recorder tool in his iPhone.
“My phone is not very good but it works,” Lee said. “I don’t think a phone is that high-tech.”
Adrian Stubbs, of Georgia, also suggests having an audio recorder but warns that reporters should always have extra batteries handy. The batteries in his recorder died while interviewing a woman working at Tiny Dog Cupcake for his feature article. Stubbs ended up using a pen and notebook to conduct the interview.
“It made me feel really incompetent at the moment,” he said. “I didn’t really get nervous though because she laughed it off. I just felt really, really stupid and really bad that it happened.”
For both academics and recreation, Halah Ahmad, of Wisconsin, said headphones are useful to participate in audio or video club or just for leisure on the Fisk Hall computers.
Sometimes simple items help cherubs concentrate in lectures such as extra clothing, especially when classes are held in the McCormick Tribune Center.
“You’re sitting in McCormick for three hours and it gets really cold in there,” said Jessica Lim, of California. “You need to wear a sweatshirt to get through that class.”
Alyssa Fisher, of Florida, recommends bringing a full water bottle to keep hydrated during lectures, which can last for up to two hours.
“We’re always running around,” she said. “Forgetting my water bottle was so sad, but I have a new Northwestern one that I love.”
A fresh notebook is an important item for getting through the day’s classes, said Lim.
“I brought a notebook I had been using for the previous school year,” she said. “It worked out for maybe the first three weeks, but then I started to run out of paper by the fourth week.”
For interviews and for classes, cherubs use different types of notebooks ranging from full-size spirals to miniature steno pads. Fisher suggests students bring two, one for lecture notes and one for interviewing.
“I prefer spiral notebooks,” Fisher said. “I like a medium size where you can flip them up. That’s what I like to do when I’m doing interviews.”
Cherubs can find essentials like a notebook and pen easily in Evanston. Notebooks at the Norris University Center, for example, cost about $3.
“So much of what journalists do revolves around maintaining truth and integrity,” said Grace Lim, of New Jersey. “A notebook kind of enables them to jot things down and honor their contract to their interviewee subjects.”
