Emily: I thought this was a really great and thoughtful story about the evolution of Gennaco’s career. I believe this is something very relatable for current students who are struggling with the aspects of the future and career readiness. The message that anything can be achieved with the mindset and that interests can manifest/harmonize into the workplace. It reminds me of the benefits and my own passion for being a writer. It was an interesting, but smooth, move to open with a quote and I thought it was creative. I think your header could be beefed up in order to grab the readers interests a bit more. One other suggestion is maybe the inclusion of a digispace employee and their input on what it is like to work closely with Gennaco. One little highlight I loved about this was the addition of how Gennaco smiles in her opening quote.
Maddie: Love the title! Playful and plays into the person you’re interviewing. The story itself is playful, uplifting, and gives insight to a figure many students have limited to no interaction with. Personally, I love Jeanette and many of the dining hall staff here at UNE. They’re friendly, kind, and care about the student body. You truly embodied this through this paper. I think one thing you could do is flesh out the angle just a bit more. You provide a great background into who she is, I think it could be a little condensed so you can feed more into the “main point” of your article. From my reading, I believe the direction your going in is the passion that Jeanette has for the student body, her impact, and overall love for her job. The one quote you included is great and I think more student voices would make the impact Jeanette has even stronger. One other person I think you could look into is Stu who is (I believe) the head of the dining hall staff. His words on who Jeanette is and her integrity as an employee could bring a even larger perspective to your piece.
Pete: Similar to Maddie, I really like the title you have for this story. It gives us a little idea of who he is before even beginning the story. I think it also grabs the readers attention in a way that asks “who is this guy” by not including his name within the title. I myself, wanted to keep reading to know who you were talking about. You did a great job in portraying character and personality through the story. What I think would emphasize the quotations even more is if you can include something such as “with a smile” or “and laughed”, it’s small but really highlights the quotations that much more. I find your angle to be sharp and you do well removing yourself from the narrative despite this being someone you know quite well. The backtracking into his past was well done and I especially liked the part on how he knew Coach Swallow before his time at UNE. The room for suggestion I have is to read over your story again and make sure there isn’t any grammatical errors left and that first/last names are all capitalized. I think it’d be very interesting to get another student athlete quote (or quotes) to flesh out his character more from other perspectives. Cotner already seems like a great guy, but the use of others opinions will make that ring clearer.
