| Sixty-six students and six advisors gathered
from all over Florida; two even came from out-of-state. They stayed
in the University of Florida’s dorms for the Summer Journalism Institute
camp. The students traveled here by car, bus, plane and even train.
Two students traveled here by bus, four by plane, one by train and 59 by car. Jessica Farner and Katherine Corder traveled the farthest to SJI. Farner is from Parkersburg, West Virginia and Corder is from Vienna, West Virginia. Both of the students attend Parkersburg High School. Their drive was about 895 miles and 14 hours, broken up into two days. “You play a lot of board games and sleep,” said Farner. You would wonder why someone would come that far to a journalism camp. “I grew up in Fort Lauderdale,” said Corder. “I might come here [to UF]." “I am visiting different colleges to find out where I want to go,” Farner said. “It was a good opportunity to go to a journalism camp and do that at the same time.” “It is weird to be the only people out of state,” Corder said. Her school has a great journalism program and most of the staff travel to different states to different camps. They are also going to attend a journalism camp in Michigan. Anthony Ramos and Tiara Tomlin traveled the shortest distance. They both live here in Gainesville. Tomlin is staying on campus but Ramos is a commuter here from home. There is also Jessica Brown and Russell Grabois who came here a great distance from Key West. Two SJI Students went home early because they had an emergency in West Palm Beach. |