Week One, in which our intrepid grad student receives his instructions...

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step."- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching.

     I really like Lao Tzu's quote and I have always recited it to myself before I enter into a new endeavor. I think placing it at the beginning of this blog seems appropriate considering that I am about to enter into yet another new chapter of my educational journey. This summer I have the distinct honor and pleasure of working for the Florida Frontiers radio program produced by the Florida Historical Society under the direction of Dr. Ben Brotemarkle. My role is to produce four, five minute segments that will be aired on the program. What this means is that I will be doing all the research, interviews, and editing. I cannot wait to start.
     One of the requirements of the internship is that I keep a blog, explaining what it is that I am doing and learning, week to week. So here I go, taking that first step, and letting the general public know what it is that I am up to. This first week I met with Dr. Rosalind Beiler and Ben Dibiase on Tuesday to get us all on the same page as to what the instructional, educational, and internship-inal requirements were. What I took away from the meeting was that I have to first budget my time, and let's face it as a graduate student if I have not learned this quintessential skill yet I might as well go back to being an electrician. The second thing I took away was that there is going to be an inordinate amount of reading which will translate into taking many, many, many steps during my journey. It is from this reading that I will then be able to write the fifteen, or depending upon my ambition, twenty page paper on the application of what I have learned and what was applied from the reading. The last thing I took away from the Tuesday meeting was that this internship is going to be exciting. I, a lowly graduate student, get to produce four segments for a history program that gets aired on several radio stations around Florida. Oh, I also set up a meeting with Dr. Brotemarkle on Friday.
     In that meeting I got to throw some ideas around for my segments with the Bens, Mr. Dibiase and Dr. Brotemarkle. So far I came up with segments on the eighty-eight year football rivalry between St. Cloud High and Osceola High, the Citrus Tower, Ronnie's Restaurant, and the Orange Line Railroad. I also pitched some secondary ideas in case the others did not work out. Dr. Ben and Mr. Ben liked all of them so I at least know that I am headed in the right direction on all this. I also obtained my "roving reporter/historian" equipment; microphone, recorder, etc. 
     So now I know what is required of me in this assignment. I shall strive to do my best in performing these duties and also to keep you, the dear reader, abreast of what exactly is going on during these weeks culminating in the final day which will occur on August 2nd. I hope you all share in my sense of excitement and awe in the coming weeks as I create these radio segments and also as I read, read, read. There is never enough time in the day to read everything necessary but that is what late nights and coffee are for.