This week I got to finish up an article about textbooks for the college issue of the paper. For this article, I did two interviews: one with a policy and data wonk an activist, and the other Point Park’s USG president Robert Bertha. 

One thing I like about the City Paper is that they allow first person writing in articles – throughout my internship I decided take advantage of this, including for the lead of this story:

“A look at my Amazon order history shows that when I was an incoming freshman at Point Park University, in 2014, my family and I spent $254.84 on textbooks. I distinctly remember how proud I was, at the time, of how low I was able to get the price. 
Not long into my first semester, a variety of factors made me realize I didn’t need to spend even half of that. 
The rising cost of textbooks and the staggering amounts of money students and their families spend on them every year remains a pertinent issue, but there are ways of reducing that burden.”

As for my weekly Critic assignment, I got to go to this Italian festival in Bloomfield – the “Critic” was a high school teacher who is a big fan of the City Paper. Always nice to see that kind of excitement.