Naomi Klein speaks at Northeastern

This past Thursday, Canadian author Naomi Klein spoke at Northeastern University. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the event, but it feels great to be part of an institution that brings such distinguished people to its campus.

According to this story by news@Northeastern’s Greg St. Martin, Klein spoke about the urgency that is needed when it comes to dealing with climate change, a topic she analyzes extensively in her latest book, “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate.” The story is peppered with quotes from Klein’s talk, and it does a good job of summarizing the key points of the discussion for the benefit of those of us who couldn’t be there.

News@Northeastern is a very well-organized page that keeps NEU faculty and alumni aware of all the interesting things going on within the university. Aside from reporting on campus events (like Naomi Klein’s presentation), it frequently highlights students who have received awards of some sort and sheds light on investigations being undertaken by the university. Overall, it’s a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about the university’s activities.

Northeastern beats BU 71-65 in an exciting season opener

This Sunday I went to the Northeastern Huskies’ season opening game against the Boston University Terriers. Sports are definitely a big part of the American college experience, and as a big basketball fan, I was not going to miss this one. The rivalry with BU made it more exciting; not only are both teams from the same city, but BU held a narrow 72-69 lead in the all-time series between them. Northeastern, however, has had the upper hand recently, and before Sunday’s game, they had won seven of the last 10 meetings.

The Huskies started the game well, moving the ball effectively to try and get open shots. It was close throughout the first 10 or so minutes (BU held a 23-21 lead), but I noticed two troubling trends: they were missing a lot of layups, and David Walker wasn’t getting enough touches. I didn’t know any of the players before the game, but it was clear from the outset that Walker was the best guy on the floor that night. Good things happened whenever he got the ball; either he made a three, got an assist, or drew a foul. The Terriers took advantage of these Northeastern mistakes and carried a 36-27 lead to the second half.

About midway through the second half, Northeastern finally realized that Walker was their key to victory. They passed him the ball more frequently, and he hit a three-pointer to give the Huskies a 51-50 lead, their first since the very early minutes of the game. BU fought back, but after Walker hit consecutive threes to give Northeastern a 60-58 lead, it was over. The rest of the team was spurred by his efforts, and they held the Terriers to 1-7 shooting during the last four minutes of the game.

Going to the game was a wonderful experience. I sat with other Northeastern fans and witnessed the passion that these people feel for their Alma mater’s team. The victory made it sweeter, and I especially enjoyed seeing the team turn the game around. I’ve said that one of my main reasons for being such a big Celtics fan is their “never say die” attitude, and the Huskies displayed that perfectly on Sunday.

Northeastern University screens documentary “A Band Called Death”

Northeastern University’s Film Enthusiasts’ Club held a screening of the documentary “A Band Called Death” this Saturday. The film tells the story of three brothers from Detroit who formed the rock band Death in their parents’ house in the mid-1970’s. Although success eluded them in their youth, they are now considered an innovative group that helped lay the groundwork for punk rock. This critically acclaimed feature had been on my to-watch list for a few weeks, so I jumped on the opportunity to attend this showing, especially when I saw that director Mark Covino would engage in a Q&A session with the audience.

The event took place in afterHOURS, an entertainment venue located in the Curry Student Center.

Their calendar shows that afterHOURS plays host to events of all kinds.

The documentary began playing at 4:15 pm.

Not everyone who was present was watching the film, but at least they refrained from speaking loudly and didn’t bother those who were paying attention.

Drummer Dannis Hackney spoke candidly about the band’s origins and history.

Director Mark Covino got in touch with Mitch Macro, the secretary of the Northeastern Film Enthusiasts’ Club, when he saw Macro’s review of the documentary. “Mark just kind of tweeted at me, like, ‘hey, thanks for writing the review, glad you liked the movie’, and everything. We started talking back and forth on Twitter, and I asked him if he wanted to come to Northeastern to do a screening with us.”

“I really like how the movie puts an emphasis on family and how their music has transcended generations. It’s a fascinating story and it was put brilliantly on film by the director.” – Brian Hamilton

“When you think about ‘A Band Called Death’ you don’t think about such familial connection and love. I was shocked and excited by how much of a role that played in the film”. – Mary Tobin, President of Northeastern University’s Film Enthusiasts’ Club

Covino spoke with students for more than an hour after the film was shown; elaborating extensively about the filmmaking process and entertaining everyone with revealing anecdotes.

Northeastern University helps its students find internships

Believe it or not, I didn’t come to Boston just to see the Celtics. Shocking, I know, but still true. Before entering my final year of undergraduate studies, I was researching colleges to determine where I would like to pursue master’s degree. I eventually discovered Northeastern University’s graduate journalism program and immediately fell in love with it.

This Friday, I saw firsthand why Northeastern’s career services are currently ranked #1 in the nation. Career adviser Mike Ariale spoke to a group of about 75 students during the workshop “Internship Search for Graduate Students”, and I was lucky enough to have front a row seat. As part of my assignments for this blog, I tweeted during the event, and you can see my tweets below:

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515548183716724737

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515548856378216448

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515549179121520641

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515550661132713984

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515550853722570752

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515552192938668032

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515552857547112448

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515553538240708609

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515554438413824000

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515554902572298240

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515555417561530368

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515559182834368512

https://twitter.com/titoyuca/status/515559514503122944

Covering an event via Twitter helps journalists develop multitasking skills and enables us to work on our concentration and patience, making us better journalists in the end. This not only convenient for us, it also helps newsreaders (by letting them get updates in real time and allowing them to interact with reporters) and society at large (because a world with better journalists is a better world).

You have to pay close attention to what’s happening if you’re covering an event on Twitter, especially if people are speaking. This ensures that you won’t misquote anybody and that you can still know what’s going on while you write your tweets. All reporters need to be careful with this, but I had to be extra careful on Friday because I was there out of my own volition and not just to complete an assignment. It would’ve been a shame if I missed anything Ariale said; he was giving out extremely useful information that I’ll undoubtedly need to revisit in the future.

While tweeting, you also have to make sure that you don’t forgo grammar for the sake of rapidity. In other words: don’t get too caught up on tweeting too fast; spelling everything right is more important. Writing a grammatically correct message under 140 characters in length while trying not to miss anything that’s going on around you might sound like a daunting task, but it’s a challenge that pays dividends through repetition.

This workshop and this assignment serve as proof that I made the right decision in coming to Northeastern, and I’m proud to attend a school that goes the extra mile in helping its students. The fact that it’s located in the same city where the Celtics play is just another one of its benefits.

How it all began

Two events that would change my life forever happened in the summer of 2009. In July, Rasheed Wallace – my favorite basketball player at the time – signed with the Boston Celtics, and in August, I decided that I wanted to study journalism. I started my bachelor’s degree in Cultural Journalism at the University of Puerto Rico in January 2010, and like I said in my previous post, began to follow the Celtics religiously.

To this day, I am a voracious reader of anything related to the team. I always check The Boston Globe’s sports section, as well as SB Nations’ “CelticsBlog” and ESPN’s “Boston Celtics Report”. These pages provide content that ranges from hard news and post-game coverage to statistical analysis and trade rumors (and everything in-between), so they are essential reading for the true Celtics fan. For those who wish to dig even deeper, CelticsLife and CelticsHub are also good sources of information.

By keeping up with the latest news on the team, I became acquainted with the Boston media and determined that I would eventually work in Bean Town. It’s not a coincidence that I ended up in Northeastern University to pursue my master’s in journalism, but I find it fitting that the writing sample I submitted with my application was a blog post I wrote in 2012 about how Ray Allen betrayed the Celtics when he joined the Miami Heat.

My love for the Boston Celtics is clearly and inextricably linked with my passion for journalism. With this blog, I intend to share both of them with the world, and now that I am living in Boston, I plan to take full advantage of this opportunity.