A visit to Paris for a lot of is a dream trip. For a gaggle of 9 college students and two professors from Grady Faculty, their journey to Paris to cowl the Paralympics was all about work expertise.
“I really like not sleeping,” stated Ana Escamilla, solely half-jokingly, of the 17-hour days she spent writing information and options in regards to the Paralympic Video games for the Related Press. “I really like simply with the ability to work and produce and create on a regular basis and being put in a high-pressure state of affairs the place you’re surrounded by your work. This expertise undoubtedly solidified that that is the sort of atmosphere that I need to work in for my skilled profession.”
Escamilla was one among 4 writers and 5 photographers who spent six days reporting on the video games. The AP printed 20 written options and 175 images to a worldwide viewers.
The professors who coordinated the journey and served as liaisons with the AP have been Welch Suggs, affiliate director of the Carmical Sports activities Media Institute, who labored with the coed writers, and Mark E. Johnson, principal lecturer, who labored with the photojournalists. Suggs and Johnson met every day with the AP to debate protection plans, then guided the scholars on enhancing copy and captioning images, more often than not on a really tight turnaround.
“This isn’t about tourism or research overseas,” Suggs stated of the expertise. “That is about college students who went to do a job, and so they rose to the event and produced wonderful stuff. It’s going to have a long-lasting affect on how the Paralympics are seen on this nation.”
The Paralympics in Paris marked the third time AP has labored with Grady Faculty college students, together with the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and the 2023 Girls’s World Cup in Australia.
Ana Escamilla interviews Craig Conover, an influencer who was invited to the Paralympics by the USOPC to function part of Crew USA’s Creators mission. The interview came about at Crew USA’s Excessive Efficiency Heart (HPC), the place the para fencers and sitting volleyball workforce have been working towards within the background. (Photograph: Avni Trivedi)
“Your contributions added depth and selection to AP’s textual content and photograph protection of the Paralympics,” stated Karl Ritter, deputy international editor of worldwide sports activities for the Related Press, in a letter afterward to college students. “To be trustworthy, this collaboration exceeded my expectations, and I can solely say ‘merci beaucoup’ to you and your supervisors for the way seamlessly you built-in with AP workflows.”
Funding for the journey got here from the school’s donors, together with the John Huland Carmical Basis in Atlanta and the Division of Journalism’s Carter Endowment for Journalism Excellence.
Paralympic preparation
The months main as much as the Paralympics have been stuffed with honing expertise and studying in regards to the competitors.
The scholars have been chosen following an task in November 2023 the place they lined the Continental Athletic Convention soccer championships at Georgia Gwinnett Faculty. Their work was evaluated by a panel of college and trade professionals who didn’t know the identities of the scholars submitting work.
The scholars chosen for the experiential studying alternative enrolled in Suggs’ summer time course, Adaptive Sports activities within the Fashionable Media Panorama. In the course of the class, college students discovered the historical past of the Paralympics, easy methods to function Paralympians and their elite athleticism, AP type because it pertains to the Paralympics and important storylines for every sport. College students have been assigned to create a information base for every sport with guidelines and biographies about key athletes that have been used as assets in Paris.
For Felix Scheyer, a third-year pupil majoring in journalism with a deal with photojournalism, the category helped put his interplay with the Paralympians into perspective.
“The category gave us a framework of speaking with the athletes in ways in which spark curiosity and taught us how to have a look at the Paralympics extra holistically,” Scheyer stated.
Felix Scheyer frames a photograph earlier than the Paralympic Video games Opening Ceremonies on Aug. 28, 2024, held at Place de la Concorde. (Photograph: Nathalee Simoneau)
The workforce of writers together with Escamilla, Julianna Russ, Jack Leo and Gabriella Etienne, additionally traveled in April to New York Metropolis to cowl the Crew USA Media Summit hosted by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. In the course of the occasion, the scholars met a number of Paralympians, attended panels in regards to the competitors and began writing options.
A number of of the photojournalists together with Samantha Hurley, Scheyer, Nathalee Simoneau and Avni Trivedi, traveled to Minneapolis over the summer time to realize expertise photographing water sports activities throughout the U.S. Paralympics Swimming Trials.
“A part of this journey to the trials was about exposing them to the entire number of swimming within the Paralympics, as a result of you’ve gotten so many athletes with so many alternative talents,” Johnson stated. “A part of it was additionally for them to begin to get to know a number of the athletes and a number of the coaches and trainers in order that they may perceive the deeper tales. They have been there to not simply make good motion images of athletes and competitors, but additionally to be taught to search for the quieter moments away from the pool. It’s the quiet moments that present the teamwork, the connections … and people are the pictures that, to me, actually assist inform the story of Paralympics.”
The photojournalists, who additionally included Madeleine Mertens, had one other barrier to arrange for: the truth that they have been making footage with borrowed cameras.
Canon generously leant the scholars top-of-the-line R3 cameras and lenses, together with tremendous telephoto lenses.
The scholars have been capable of observe with the cameras per week earlier than journey, and frolicked shadowing AP photographer Emilio Morenatti earlier than the video games started.
“Emilio was deeply linked to those video games,” Scheyer stated. “Our task for the day was sure, to take footage, however principally to observe how Emilio labored as a result of he talked quite a bit about entry and the ways in which we get entry. It was fascinating watching him work.
Assist and confidence
Every day, the scholars have been paired to journey collectively to the venues and canopy their assignments. This collaboration fostered connections with each other.
“It was simple for us to collaborate,” Escamilla defined, “as a result of everybody introduced one thing totally different to the desk from a piece standpoint. From a private standpoint, we might all get dinner at midnight collectively. After a protracted day, it was actually good to hang around and have everybody share every thing that they’d happening throughout the day.”
Gabriella Etienne interviews Noelle Lambert, a Paralympic observe and subject athlete, on the USA Excessive Efficiency Heart. (Photograph: Nathalee Simoneau)
Scheyer agreed: “Everybody labored their method there and earned their spot on the workforce, nevertheless it was it was unbelievable seeing the ways in which we labored collectively and the ways in which these golden pictures turned golden moments, that turned golden alternatives for everyone on the journey to see the affect of the work that we have been doing.”
For Gabriella Etienne, a political science and public relations pupil who’s incomes a Sports activities Media Certificates, this journey tied into her profession aspirations of working in sports activities labor regulation, with a deal with ladies in minority protections.
“I really feel like this was a extremely useful area for me to be a part of and I’m tremendous grateful to be part of it,” Etienne stated. “This was an amazing alternative for me to be taught extra about how minorities have been represented, or not represented, in sport as a result of Paralympians are athletes who don’t get as a lot protection, or possibly don’t have as a lot advocacy on the market.
“I feel being part of this program is only a testomony to the arduous work that the Carmical Spots Media Institute does to help their college students,” she continued. “I step again and inform myself, ‘Wow, that is a tremendous factor that I acquired to do working for the Related Press and having my byline on their web page.’”
Scheyer additionally appreciated the connection and respect the skilled photographers gave him.
“It was actually stunning to see how I used to be revered and the way I used to be form of simply taken underneath the wings of all the opposite folks,” Scheyer stated. “I imply, it was wonderful simply with the ability to discuss to those photographers.”
Whereas every pupil had reflections of favourite tales written and transferring footage made, it was the tales of private objectives achieved that made probably the most affect.
“I feel the most important realization was that I used to be doing what I wished to do and I used to be having enjoyable, which was actually impactful,” Scheyer concluded. “This has been a job, however I actually had a blast in Paris. I might go house drained, however so completely satisfied that I might go to sleep smiling, and I get up and do it once more. And, I feel that I felt like I belonged in a method that I haven’t earlier than. I had been given the instruments, and I used to be utilizing them. I wasn’t scared to get the photograph or step exterior that field or discuss to that individual. The whole lot simply clicked for us in Paris.”
