Out-of-Class #1: A Question I Received ...

... from one of youze that I received this week:


Omar,
 
I probably should have come to you sooner about this, but I wanted to try and see if I could come up with any ideas first. Other than a short visit over winter break, this is the only extended time I have  been here in Sterling, or even the state of Colorado. I am not familiar with the community. I could come up with events, and features, because I have been trying to participate and be involved, but figuring out a trend is very difficult.

I do have a couple of ideas, but they are not comprehensive enough to fill up a tip sheet. I wanted to ask if you have an advice, or if either of my ideas are decent enough to attempt to pursue. In the county I am currently living in, two towns are having water problems, resulting in the town of Iliff going weeks without water (similar to the city of Sterling 2 years ago), a 4 day flood warning a few weeks ago, and water rights disputes with North Sterling Reservoir and Parker Water. That is one idea, but I am not entirely sure if it would qualify as a trend. The other idea would be on foster children. This idea is even more vague. Quite a few people at the church I go to take in foster children. This is also not much of trend.

I would greatly appreciate some guidance here. Thank you for your time and patience!
 

Here was my reply (which I'm not sure made it to the student; my computer has been acting extremely fritzy today):


You have two good ideas already in hand -- how communities are dealing with drought, and how the community is participating in fostering.

We have this idea that news always has to be something spectacular, like Watergate or 9/11. But far more often it's simply spotlighting something hidden in plain sight, that affects people subtly or severely.

Like this recent Time magazine cover story: citing stats showing Americans are taking less vacation time than ever, it explores why that's happening (job insecurity, worsening benefit plans) and what it means (more stress):




Regarding drought reaction, The New York Times has an ongoing series on that exact issue, with stories essentially offering anecdotal angles of the myriad ways the drought is impacting day-to-day life out West:



I think the two ideas you have certainly fall in the solid topic range.