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Today is the final day of the conference and I am sad it is over. I had a very good six days and wish it was longer. I feel the experiences I had here, whether it  was a speaker or going to the museums, were all very informative and gave me a much better understanding of journalism as a career. I know how hard the people work in journalism, which I didn’t realize before I came here. I also made a lot of good connections here and made some good friends. I am glad I decided to come to the conference and even though the food, besides at Southside, wasn’t that good, it was worth it.

Wednesday was a very exciting day. We had Chuck Todd come and speak to us. He was very interesting and he really gave me a good feel for what it’s like to work at the White House. You could tell how experienced he was just from how he answered his questions. After that Dean Flagel gave us a very funny look at applying to college. We then went to the Pentagon City Fashion Center where we ate lunch and shopped around for a little bit. Then we went to the Library of Congress while we waited to go into the Capital. The rooms we saw within the Capital building looked very cool. The style used in each of the rooms was used well and it gave you a feeling of being in a historical place. And after that we returned to Mason where we had an interesting speaker about the advance in journalism.

 /Users/craig/Desktop/podcast.mp3

Today we had 3 different speakers who all gave very different views of journalism. The first speaker was Jennifer Carroll she spoke about how to keep up with the changes in journalism. She was very brief but she used her time very wisely. After she finished the Deputy White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, came and we had a press conference. He opened with a brief statement about Obama’s policies. And then asked for question, and unlike all the other speakers we were free to ask questions by just raising out hands and in no order. It was a much better way to ask question and I felt the students were more involved and interested in the speaker. After he finished we had a panel with Lauren Anderson, Josef Sawyer, B..J. Koubaroulis, and a movie critic. Then we came home and made podcasts, which is posted with this blog. It was hard because we were laughing the whole time but it was a good experience. The Gala tonight was so much fun and DJ Smokey was very entertaining.  Hugh Fink was also a very interesting character and since I am familiar with his shows I enjoyed his speech a lot.

Tuesday we went to the National Press Club and had a panel of speakers who were very interesting and gave a good view of how the media is changing. On our way to the American History Museum we passed the White House and got some nice pictures. Then we went into the American History Museum which was very cool. My favorite part was the 3rd floor with the interactive section. I made a very cool floating object that magically sank when you squeezed the bottle. We also completed a circuit with people and got shocked. I also took a picture of a sign that says Ford Avenue because I live in Fords right off of Ford Avenue so I thought it was really cool that the sign was in the museum. Then we went on a night tour of the monuments and I got to see my favorite, the Lincoln Memorial. I also got a cool picture, from the Vietnam Memorial, of the Capital building.

That is the interview we did on monday. It was a great experience, even though it isn’t that good, because I am interested in broadcast journalism so that was a good way for me to practice. Monday we also went to the Newseum. The Newseum was very interesting it showed some very interesting events from the media’s view. My favorite part was the 9/11 exhibit and the roof deck. Being that I am from New Jersey I remember seeing the smoke from the towers after they fell. My aunt was working in World Trade Center  7 that day so my family was very worried but she was fine. So the exhibit really jump out at me because I remember it so clearly. The deck was very cool too, we had a great view of the capital and a cool overview of the buildings on the mall.

Today was fun meeting new people and Brian Lamb’s lecture. The week seems like its going to be exciting and lots of fun.