Goodbye Narnia, hello to The City That Never Sleeps

by Yong Kim

I grew up in a city just south of Seattle where snow usually accumulates no more than a few inches, if at all. So imagine the horror of going back to Whitworth in Spokane, Wash. after winter break to a record snowfall of over 6 feet and counting. With our school's lampposts resembling the ones from Narnia, we now have the snow to go along with it too.

It is a relief to say that I will escape the snow briefly this January by going

 on an off-campus study program to New York City and Washington D.C. with 11 other students. The program is called Media Impact in the contemporary U.S. Society. 

 

I must confess going to New York City and D.C. is a somewhat big deal for me. The only state I've been to excluding Washington is Oregon – sad I know.

We will be meeting with prominent media groups and specialists: the president and CEO of PBS, executive vice president of NPR, executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review and the editor of The Onion to name a few (links to all the organizations we will be meeting is provided under the "Links" section on the left). 

 

We will also be in D.C. during the inauguration of our 44th president, along with an estimated 3 to 5 million additional people. The trip is going to be exciting for so many reasons. 

 

Our flight is scheduled to go to New York City in less than 24 hours. I will try to blog every other day and post things I have either learned, seen or experienced along with 11 other students, so check regularly.