Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize winner and renowned author, spoke at Roger Williams University about his experiences as a journalist and author. His most recent nonfiction story, “Mountains Beyond Mountains” was the central topic of discussion.
The book focuses on two main issues, the global health crises, tuberculosis and AIDS. Kidder shadowed Dr. Paul Farmer, an ambitious doctor hell bent on establishing clinics and hospitals in Haiti. The success of his novel has led to traveling throughout the country in order to speak to college students who have read the book as part of the school’s curriculum.
Kidder evokes relaxation and serenity. He is an approachable professional who was truly encouraging to the Roger Williams students who attended his discussion. His set-up was atypical for speakers. He did not lecture; instead chairs were placed in a circle. Kidder made the situation a welcoming environment.
Aside from talking about “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” Kidder touched upon his life as a writer. Kidder has written several books and had work published in magazines throughout his lifetime. He explained that writing a book is an enormous commitment. Research can almost seem endless; in fact, research is supposedly the fun part. It is commonly the editor, at least in Kidder’s case, who determines when the research ends and the writing begins.
Kidder’s writing career began during his sophomore year of college. He felt strong impulses to continue writing after taking a class focusing on Short Stories/Fiction. Aside from his intuition, the thought of being his own boss proved to be an appealing perk.
Kidder seems to be a pretty good boss. With a Pulitzer Prize under his belt and several successful books, his career is what a writer strives to achieve. His inspirations for all of his pieces come almost accidently though. He believes inspiration comes from everywhere and anywhere, but a good writer or journalist must go out into the world and experience things first hand to find a good story.
“Writing is the only real thinking I do,” Kidder commented.
The first step I did was figuring out how I could represent the necessary words as images. I began with the Yes and No since they appear the most frequently on the graphic. I chose to do a thumbs up symbol for yes and thumbs down for no. At first drawing a thumbs up/thumbs down was no a problem but as I continued the project the drawing got more tedious. I am still happy with how the thumbs looks though and I do feel that is a universal sign. The next step was drawing turf grass. It is difficult to display turf grass in a creative manner aside from a simple bed of grass. Hopefully the image I created is effective!
There is the large starting image on the left side which then branches off into yes and no(thumbs up/thumbs down). Since the yes side stops after only one box I chose to use a not allowed sign. Since stop signs are not necessarily universal I thought that the image I created would be better. The box on the no side consists of a thermometer with a degrees symbol of 90 degrees or above. All of the information comes from the paragraph given in class. Continuing off the thermometer branch is dry grass. Off of each dry grass branch is a pest in grass, a.k.a. destroying grass. Choosing a graphic for the pest was the most challenging. I am not a wonderful artists and therefore had to choose a fairly simple image. My pest most closely resembles a caterpillar but I still feel as though the image gets the message across. Branching off the pest in grass is the proper treatment for the turf grass.
At first I did not understand the purpose of the project; it is difficult to think of symbols that will be able to reach the entire world. For most people, including myself, if a symbol is familiar to you then it is very difficult to imagine it not being familiar to someone else. Choosing universal symbols was the most challenging step for me, but helped me to think outside of the box. This project has proved to be very beneficial in order to improve my visual communication skills. I feel as though if I can create graphics about turf grass I could probably do several different topics.
I had oddly enough decided to do a geographical map. Initially I was leaning towards doing a concept map, but decided against it. I chose a fairly simple geographical location to map because I have never mad a map like this before. I did not want to broad topic. I chose to map a small section of Bristol. My first step was finding map of Bristol that showed a close-up image of the town. I used the website Mapquest becase the site allows users to type in very specific locations.
I began mapping out the street I live on, State Street. I made that street name the most prominent because it is the most important street to me. Despite the map being geographical, I wanted personal touches added to it. Another location I marked on state street was the restaurant Nacho Mama's. I love the food there and frequented the restaurant often during the summer.
My map only extended to the portion of Hope Street in the direction towards the Roger Williams campus. The other streets included in the map are prominent Bristol streets. Included in the streets is Hope, Church, High, Wood, Constitution, Union and 1st. On each street, with exception of Union and Constitution, I put marked a specific place in Bristol. To find the exact locations of each business or restaurant I searched for their addresses on google and then on mapquest. It was tedious, but the purpose of a geographical map is accuracy.
I wanted the map to have a lot of color. Since geographical maps are often times dull in color, I wanted to do something different. I really enjoyed this project. I thought that it would be easier than it was though. I thought that I new the exact locations of all of the places I chose to highlight but I did not. This map was completely different than a mind map, but still compeltely useful to further my knowledge about the importance of Visual Communications.
My problem in the center of my mind map is Post-Graduation. The first mind map I did was very practical. I was thinking of tangible things such as location, people, and money. I did have difficulty letting myself think freely. The 20-minute mapping period went by very slowly. I took a lot of pauses and time to think instead of just writing. After waiting an hour, I returned to my map and added a little color to it using colored pencils. In my mind though, I knew I did not love this map or particularly care for it. I think that is because I didn't allow myself to fully reflect.
I returned to the project 24 hours later. I had the same problem in the center of my mind map, post-graduation. This time I decided to use a different approach. My subtopics were from the emotional side of me. My key terms were Stress, Fear, Change, Strength, and Loneliness. All of these ideas are abstract an intangible. My new approach proved to be more successful than my previous mind map. I was able to think more freely and let my ideas flow naturally. I got better results from the second mind map than the first, possibly because my concepts were driven by emotion rather than practicality. I do feel as though mind mapping is a helpful tool for problem solving. While my problem can't exactly be solved by mean of a mind map, it made me feel less overwhelmed. I was able to organize my thoughts in some sort of way. Rather than having all of these thoughts floating around in my head, I wrote them down and now have a firmer grip on my worries. While I do still have stress about what I will do after graduation, like most seniors do, I know that I should not let my fears get the best of me.
The small town charm of Bristol, Rhode Island is hard to resist. The open town green is complete with a picturesque white gazebo and small playground for children to enjoy. Bristol, located half an hour outside of Providence, is a small beach community. The perimeter of downtown Bristol is edged by beautiful bay views. Sailboats bob in the water as they overlook the adorable town.
Along Hope Street, downtowns Main Street, are beautiful homes overlooking Bristol’s calm waters. Hope Street is home to some of the most historical houses in Bristol, and each street is decorated by scenic colonial style homes. Each home, although architecturally unique, is banded together in a special and tasteful way.
Driving along High Street, a road parallel to Hope Street, may seem frustrating, but the beauty of Bristol redeems itself for the redundancy of the six stop signs lining the street.
At the end of High Street and the corner of Oliver Street is my home away from home. I am currently a junior at Roger Williams University and have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to live off-campus. I live on the third floor of this three-story home. Aligning every inch of every street in Bristol are vibrant green trees and sidewalks.
Bristol is home to some unique cuisine. Amongst my favorites are Leo’s, a delicious but affordable Italian restaurant. The Wrap Shack, a hole in the wall sandwich shop, it has the most amazing wraps! Its unique flavors make it one of Bristol’s most tasty and cheap restaurants. Two amazing and incredibly cheap breakfast spots include the Sunset Café and Manny’s. Of the two though, Manny’s is the best. Anywhere that sells a chili cheeseburger for less than $5 is a favorite of mine. Manny, owner and executive chef is a cynically charming man. He has a comment for everyone and holds nothing back.
For something on the go, the delightful Beehive Café offers a relaxing setting and delectable baked goods. Its tucked away location makes it a favorite of locals.
To say Rhode Islanders love coffee would be an understatement. In order to satisfy Bristolians coffee cravings there are multiple coffee-spots. Along Hope Street is the gold-plated Dunking Donuts, a small but quaint spot. Further down Hope Street on Route 114 is Sip n’ Dip, a Rhode Island favorite. It’s appropriately placed on the edge of the water.
Downtown Bristol has a variety of stores to satisfy those who love to shop! Favorites of mine include Striper Moon and Kate and Company. For those on a budget, Roxie’s consignment fulfills any shopaholics needs.
A strange but delightful feature of Bristol is the abundance of churches and barbershops.
It seems as though along every street corner there is a place of worship or a hair salon.
About two minutes outside of downtown Bristol is Colt State Park. The beautiful park is frequented by an abundance of Roger Williams University students, myself included. Upon entering the park, a strong aroma of sea salt and freshly blossomed flowers fills the air. The long and winding roads seem endless, but in reality only last a few minutes before the water appears. Seagulls squeak above in the sky while runners run by with their dogs. Each and every inch of the park offers a variety of luxuries. On summer days people are often seen grilling hamburgers and hotdogs while enjoying their food at the green picnic tables overlooking the striking view. If you drive a few minutes past the most popular hang out area, you will find a beautifully weathered willow tree. It stands alone in a giant open field towards the back entrance of the park. The willow tree shares its location with a giant old castle, an enticingly haunting structure. The park itself serves as a personal sanctuary to all Bristol inhabitants. It untainted preservation makes it one of Bristol’s most charming landmarks.
Bristol is one of the most spectacular places to live, I feel blessed to have been able to enjoy it for the past three years and look forward to another great year hear.
Design Rationale: When this assignment was first assigned I thought, what am I passionate about? There are many things I love. I love music, food, clothes, the list is endless, but what I really love is Bristol, Rhode Island. The adorable town which is home to Roger Williams University was one of the main reasons I chose to go to school there. I had always told my mom that I needed to find my Stars Hollow, the fictional town in the show Gilmore Girls.
Since freshman year I have loved Roger Williams. I have made wonderful friends, taken classes I enjoy, and loved living in Bristol. I had always known that I wanted to live off-campus my junior and senior year, so last year me and two of my friends decided we would make it happen. I studied abroad in Italy fall semester of this year. Italy was so amazing and wonderful, but I could not hide my excitement about returning home to live in my apartment on High Street.
I began this project with my storyboard. I mapped out what I wanted to take photos of. Bristol has so many great aspects in it so it was difficult for me to narrow it down to just a few. My slide show is a bit long, but I did not feel that I could have cut it down anymore than I had. My next step was going around Bristol and taking pictures of all my favorite spots.
Once my pictures were taken I edited them in iphoto to enhance them. I put all of the photos into powerpoint to make a slide show.
After my PowerPoint was created I wrote a script. I had so much fun writing the script! I have GarageBand on my computer so I recorded my voice at home and them opened the sound file on Audacity on the school computers. Once my voice was in audacity I had to add a background noise that I felt matched the slide show. Originally I had ocean waves in the background. They were too loud and did not seem to be the right fit for the slide show. Instead, I decided to chose a smooth jazz song. I fits in nicely with the slide show. The song is not too overpowering, but sets a nice tone underneath my voice. The jazz clip was 7 minutes long, I only used 4:18 because that is how long my slide show is. I went through all of the necessary steps in converting the clips from WAV files to MP3 in audacity and iTunes.
The hard part was over. Now, I had to convert my PowerPoint presentation to a JPEG and move my MP3 version of my voice over to the desktop.
I opened up the program SoundSlides and uploaded my PowerPoint slides and sound clip. I had no trouble doing any of this. Once the SoundSlides were created I saved the project to the desktop and used the program FileZills to upload the presentation to the web. This was the first time I had used FileZilla without any problems. I went to a website which allowed me to upload my website to my blog and my project was complete.
Prior to starting this project I was really excited about it. It is always fun to work on a project about something you are passionate about. Since my last project was the BiBi Card, this was a very nice change of pace. Once the project actually started, my thoughts had changed. I had some difficulty choosing a background noise and my slide show is not timed perfectly with the voice over. If I could change anything, I would re-d0 the timing for about 5 pictures. Overall though, I am happy with how this project came out. A lot of projects are trial and error and this one was no different. Had I had more time to complete it I think it would have been perfect. With each project I have done throughout the semester there has always been something I've wanted to change and this one is no different.
I have never worked in Dreamweaver before so I was very nervous about this project. I took a communications class in high school and made a website but that was 4 years ago and if these programs are constantly updated.
To begin this project I opened up 5 blank Dreamweaver documents. I saved each of the documents under different names; index, contact, about, location, and frequent designers. I began working on the index document, also called the homepage. I put a horizontal list of the index, contact, about, and location at the top of each of the 5 documents. Since I could not remember how to link each page the easy way for each of the 5 titles in the 5 documents I had hand type in where I wanted each title to link to. At the bottom of Dreamweaver there is a Link box that appears once the title is selected. For each index I linked it back to the homepage. For each of the contact I linked it back to the contact page. I continued to do this for all of the titles. It seems like it would take a long time, but it went fairly quickly.
Once I completed the navigation portion of the website I typed in the proper information into each document. The homepage does not have any information. I attempted to put pictures on my website but had difficulty getting uploading them onto FileZilla. The information for each link or document, came directly from my brochure.
My final link on my website is a direct link to Anthropologie's official store website. I simply did the same thing I did for the other links to work. At the bottom of Dreamweaver I pasted the link to the store's website into the link box.
After completing the website in Dreamweaver, I had to upload my website onto the internet. I used the program FileZilla to do this step. I have used FileZilla before, but I had so much trouble getting my website to work properly. At first I was typing something wrong, then when I was sure everything was correct, FileZilla would not connet. I was very frustrated, but evertually I got it to work. It's always a relief when something you have worked hard to do finally works properly.
If I had more time to complete this project I would have definitely figured out the how to properly post pictures. Although the only requirements for the project were to make sure the links worked correctly, I do not like the bareness of my website. I would have loved to use the pictures I thought I uploaded correctly.
I am very happy to have learned how to make a successful website. It's incredibly cool that I know how to post things on the internet that are active for users.
I am a junior at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. I am studying media communications with a focus in journalism, with a minor in international relations.
These are some samples of my work. Please contact me at: sbourbeau882 AT hawks DOT rwu DOT edu.
Thank you!
