Agricultural journalists gain experience overseas
by Lauren Dye, posted Sept. 9, 2009
Julia Shuck is standing at the finish line at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, watching as top athletes from around the world compete for those prominent gold medals. She has been assigned the dream job of escorting top athletes such as Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, U.S. gymnastic superstars, to be interviewed after their events.
Shuck, an agricultural journalism senior, got to experience the 2008 Beijing Olympics firsthand through one of the numerous study abroad opportunities available to University of Missouri students.
Shuck has traveled to thirteen countries in the last three years and has been able to experience the differences in agriculture, language, traditions and journalism throughout the world.
Shuck spent eight weeks in Beijing during the 2008 Olympics.
“I was able to expand my journalism skills by interviewing top athletes and working in the Olympic newsroom,” Shuck said.
Shuck also traveled to New Zealand and Prague through the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources study abroad programs. In Brussels she was able to learn about European agriculture policies.
“The confidence I gained by participating in study abroad gave me the independence to take a trip to Switzerland for four days on my own.”
Shuck’s favorite memory from her various trips includes a day in Switzerland that she decided to track down a waterfall. Shuck set out on her own down a little path off the beaten trail where she ran into a community holding a town festival that reminded her of her own county fair. Shuck proceeded to find her waterfall and on the way back she stopped at the festival and took in the sites and culture of the people around her.
“Even though I didn’t speak their language I was able to watch their interactions and felt that sense of community I had always felt in my hometown of Perry, Mo.,” Shuck said.
Abby Grimmett, an agricultural journalism senior, has also taken advantage of study abroad. Grimmett spent the past summer living in London and working for the London Bureau of CBS News and taking classes through Imperial College.
Grimmett was able to gain hands-on experience by working in the newsrooms, covering events and learning about international affairs. During her time overseas, she was able to visit York, Liverpool, Prague, Czech Republic, Paris and Greece in between her internship and school.
Grimmett recalled her favorite memory as the day before she left to come back to the United States. She had completed her internship a few days earlier but was called back to CBS to help cover a shoot for the 40th anniversary of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road.
“Not only was this a once-in-a-lifetime experience, since the Beatles are one of my all-time favorite bands, but as I stood in the middle of thousands of people, I felt like I had made the complete circle from start to finish and truly experienced London,” Grimmett said.
Both MU students said the experiences changed their lives and opened their eyes to who they really are.
“Study abroad was a very empowering and liberating experience that makes you feel as if you can do anything because of the confidence and independence you gain,” Shuck said.
Grimmett said the experience changed her life.
“I learned more about myself than ever before because of the extreme situations I was put in,” Grimmett said. “You also learn the type of person you want to be and the kind of people you want to surround yourself with.”
Shuck noticed journalistic differences of more government control in foreign cultures than in the United States.
“In China the media is government owned and citizens believe anything the government says,” Shuck said. “I think they’re more unethical in order to sell newspapers, rather than because the government is communistic.”
Grimmett observed journalistic style to be more relaxed and media outlets were governmentally funded but not controlled.
“The style and perception is much different and the newsrooms are much more laid back then in the United States,” Grimmett said. “BBC is the prominent media outlet and is funded by the government but not government controlled. Citizens pay a fee to BBC each year to receive television service. Like the United States, England has a free press. The thing I found most interesting though is that in London it is acceptable to read tabloid news and take it seriously, unlike in the United States.”
Both MU students think that one thing everyone should experience while in college is study abroad.
“You see if you can be on your own, you can earn credits and it’s cheaper than taking the same trip independently,” Grimmett said.
Shuck said the best advice for students she had was, “study abroad, get an internship, get involved and learn to network.”
