UCM ‘Backpack’ Journalism Students Spend Two Days Experiencing Sedalia

This past weekend, three student journalists from UCM's The Muleskinner spent Friday and Saturday in Sedalia as part of a Backpack Journalism project utilizing Amtrak's River Runner as a transportation device to help gather information for news stories.

Their news gathering actually began on the train ride from Warrensburg to Sedalia. Even though the Lincoln Service River Runner arrived in Sedalia about a half hour behind schedule, that was not a problem for the student journalists, who interviewed other passengers on the train Friday morning.

Carolyn Crooker, Sedalia Convention & Visitors Bureau; Kyle Herrick, Sedalia Area Tourism Commission; and Joleigh Cornine, Sedalia Main Streets, greeted the three UCM students when they disembarked.

Their agenda included the Lamy Building, Hotel Bothwell, the Trust Building, Pettis County Courthouse and the Mozark Music Fest, which was held at the Missouri State Fairgrounds.

The Backpack Journalism Project provides students with practical learning while covering stories for UCM's Muleskinner along Amtrak's Missouri River Runner route. The students are gathering, composing and formatting their multimedia stories from all stops along Amtrak's Missouri River Runner. The project is patterned after “Backpack across Europe by Train.”

Crooker explained that the VCB serves on a marketing committee with Amtrak MoPAC, and Dr. Julie Wille Lewis (UCM Journalism Department) is promoting a program called Backpack Across Missouri, patterned after a similar project in Europe.

“We have a lot of history here in Sedalia that we will able to show them,” Crooker said as she awaited the student journalists' arrival at the Amtrak Depot.

Crooker added that she hopes the students' stories will have a positive impact and show Sedalia in a good light. “We want ours to shine,” she said of the City of Sedalia.

Linda Alviar is a sophomore at UCM. She said that the Sedalia visit was one of the River Runner stops across Missouri. “We are going to explore different cities and just see what each city has to offer,” Alviar said, adding that this was the first travel day for the project. “So our goal is sort of to capture all of Sedalia.”

Alviar, who serves as news editor at The Muleskinner, noted that several train passengers were very eager to talk to the student journalists on the way to Sedalia. “It was a really great experience and a really smooth ride,” she said of the 30-mile trip. “It was actually really convenient to get here.”

She added that she was very excited for what the backpack project will turn into. “I have never actually visited Sedalia. This is my first time here,” Alviar told KSIS. Alviar is double majoring in digital media production and international studies.

Sadie Staker is a UCM graduate student working on her masters degree.

“My job here is to supervise and direct the undergraduate students. But I'm also excited to do some interviewing and filming as well. I'm new to Missouri and excited to explore it through this project,” Staker said.

“I think there's a sort of spontaneity about backpack journalism that's very exciting, because you don't always know who you're going to meet or where you're going to end up going, so it's kind of an adventure in a way,” Staker said.

Staker said that the ultimate goal is to produce a video series, and each stop will be its own little video. “So I think we're going to focus on collecting all of our footage over this weekend, and once we go back to our newsroom at UCM, we'll sort through it all and edit,” she said.

Staker's home is in Cedar Rapids, (Marion) Iowa. “I've never been to Missouri before so it's cool to be here,” she stated.

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Branden Sholes is a sophomore at UCM, majoring in digital media production.

“Everybody has something they want to talk about,” Sholes noted. He volunteered to be a part of UCM's Backpack Project. “It's been fun. I'm happy to be here,” he told KSIS while being interviewed inside the Amtrak Depot in downtown Sedalia by local media reps.

So what is Sholes' goal, careerwise?

“Ooooh, that's a hard question. I really just want to do audio and photography and like, the media stuff in some way shape or form,” he responded.