Hidden Gems of Gainesville

As most of you may know, I am studying Telecommunication - News at the University of Florida, also known as broadcast journalism. When I first started at UF, I had no idea what I was entering. Once classes began, the program exceeded my expectations of what I would be learning. My thoughts on Telecommunication was that I was going to learn how to be on-air and work with cameras. Well, I learned that and so much more. I am learning how to become a journalist; that entails writing stories about current events, going out in the greater Gainesville area and finding stories and reporting on them, and covering breaking news. I love it, and I am hoping to find a job at a news station once I graduate college. I couldn't have achieved this much without the help of the Center for Media Innovation . Their goal is to develop the newest journalism and communication forms. They are creating new ways of telling the stories that journalists tell, to create new means of disseminating strategic...

Recently, I finished reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. Amazon gives an excellent synopsis of the book: "The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas." I didn't take me a long time to read it because it was so good! To me, it shows a new way of understanding how change occurs so quickly and unexpectedly without any knowledge of where it came from. Gladwell goes into such depth as to how ideas and behaviors sometimes increase and dispe...

This is my last year at UF, and I'm graduating in August. I have made some great friends and colleagues. Quan McWil is a transfer student just like me, and he was one of the first people I met at UF. He has worked so hard at WUFT to get to where he is. Quan has the most creative stories and the best standup! He knows how to tell a story and cares so much about it. Lauren Staff always had the best stories of the day in the newscast. I love to read and watch her stories on Gator Gymnastics. I have only had a couple of interactions with her, but she always was so nice and has a great attitude. Abby Murphy is someone I aspire to be! She has created such a great brand for herself. Abby wants to work in the entertainment industry, and I totally see her doing that. She is the entertainment beat reporter; she has a podcast on GHQ  and so many other things. Every time I see her, she looks so put together. I can't wait to see these three strive after college!

It's always great to see my classmates working hard, and achieving their dreams and goals. There are more women in UF's College of Journalism and Communications than men. Three students including Sofia LaFrance ,   Kara Spierto  and Alyssa Bethencourt . All three girls are graduating this semester, and I couldn't be more proud of them. Sofia and Kara are aspiring sports reporters and do a ton of work with ESPN Gainesville . They shoot and write recaps and play-by-plays for college and high school sports. Alyssa hopes to work on the producing side of a network show like Ellen, The Wendy Williams Show, etc. She is also FOX's college ambassador  and worked as a production assistant there as well. I am so proud of these girls and can't wait to see them strive!

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to give you all a life update. The past couple weeks I have been working on a lot of news stories for school, and a lot of them have been turning out pretty great. I have put some of the best ones on my blog, including: new parks in Gainesville  (I also have a video on it), Stormwater Planters  and I recently did an investigative story on the plastic ban in the city. I also have a reporter reel with all my best stories and anchoring clips. I also will put my paper resume in this blog so you can see what I have achieved so far the past two years I have been at UF. I am graduating in August and I'm starting to look for jobs...but don't worry, I'll always make sure to update my readers even after I graduate. ;) Tessa Bentulan Tessabentulan@gmail.com • (305) 790-8482 • Gainesville, FL Objective ·         Seeking an entry-level MMJ position at a local news station or radio station Educat...

Hi Everyone! As you may know, from my "About the Author" blog post, I am a broadcast journalism student at the University of Florida. I will be graduating this August, and I am currently looking for a job. I am looking for a job with the media - I would like to either work as a reporter at local news station or in production, behind the scenes. Any feedback you may have is greatly appreciated! You can email or call me if you would like to talk to me about opening entry-level positions you may have at your company. Thanks! Here is my resume and a link to some of my most recent work as a reporter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk5xLz8hpjs

Over the weekend I went to Starbucks in Tioga Town Center , and as I was getting closer to the coffee shop, I noticed a heard of greyhounds in the front of the building. Almost every Saturday, Greyhound Pets of America - Gainesville chapter has meet ups with dogs who are up for adoption. They also have greyhounds and their owners, who were adopted through GPA, come to Starbucks to catch up. They had three dogs up for adoption : Caesar, Euro and Dude. They were beautiful dogs and they're so friendly, they just wanted to be loved and pet all day long. If you ever have the chance to head out there or if you just are in need of some affection from a friendly hound, Tioga Town Center on Saturdays is the place for you!...and maybe you'll even adopt one ;) Also, if you're a dog lover and have kids check out my previous post about reading with dogs at the library:  https://hiddengemgnv.blogspot.com/2018/10/reading-to-dogs.html        

The Newberry Branch Library  hosted an event where children and toddlers can play with goats. Not only did kids learn how to interact with goats but they were able to feed them milk from a bottle, learn how to milk a goat and what products can come from goats milk. There was between 40-60 parents and children at the event in the small field next to the library. For some kids, it was their first time ever seeing a goat. They had goats from a variety of age ranges: newborn baby goats (born two days prior to the event!), mama goats and some goats that were a couple years old. The library host the event twice a year. The next one will be in December - goat storytime. Kids can read to goats! The library has had similar experience with dogs as well that's ever week at the Alachua library branch. Here is an article from WUFT about the goats from 2015:  https://www.wuft.org/news/2015/12/17/children-milk-goats-at-newberry-branch-library/ And here are some photos! ...

The City of Gainesville and GAI Consultants sought help from residents to guide future parks, trail and public space design throughout Gainesville!  Two open house events were held to discuss design standards for parks and public spaces. These standards help define the unique character of Gainesville’s parks and public spaces, and include park furniture, signage and other amenities.  The architect on the project says they have been holding interactive meetings for about a year now, and plan to do them twice a year. Check out their website for any further information about upcoming meetings.  Here are some photos of the ideas Wild Spaces and Public Places had in mind:  Interviewing architect Sarit Sela about the meeting, and future plans for the park.

As Gainesville re-invents S. Main Street, it's planning an environmental bonus for the corridor. They're planning to use the stormwater runoff to add a touch of green. It's part of an overall 8.5 million dollar project, and S. Main Street will get the special runoff system with a series of stormwater planters. The first two planters should be finished by the end of the week. The next time you're in the area, you might want to check them out. ;) Take a look: https://youtu.be/T2SyBKOx8po

I enjoyed reading this book, because it gave me a lot of good advice for my blogging website, it answered some of the questions I had about what makes a good book. Most people who go on a website are just looking for what they need, and if you make things to complicated they get confused. In the first chapter, author Steve Krug writes exactly that. Most people don't want to have to go online, and go through the process of figuring out how to work the website before even getting to what their looking for/what they actually need to do. The BBC says the average attention span is about eight seconds; this means that if you make it complicated, website-users are bound to leave the site. You want to make sure your website is easy, and just a few clicks (maybe two-three, or four at most) before getting to what they need. On the topic of making it easy, keep your writing simple; omit needless words! Don't put big words in your website because most likely, people may not know it and w...

There is a program at the Alachua County Public Library - Archer Branch, where children can read to a dog. These dogs are certified therapy dogs with Love on a Leash, a group in Gainesville that specializes in helping people through pets. Children can either bring their own books and read to them, or the library will put out some books for kids to choose from. I brought the 4-year-old girl I babysit here last week, and she loved it! She was reading to Barnie and Phlash, and was giving them a bunch of pettings. Once we left, she asked me if we can go again next week. If you're looking for something fun and free that your kids will enjoy, this is the place. The librarian, Taryn Brown also told me that a lot of children's reading rates have increased since starting to come to the program. It's a win-win situation for everybody!  Nova (right) is 4-years-old, and is reading to Barnie (center).  The other therapy dog is Phlash (right)

On Sunday, Feb. 3 I went to the annual Hoggetowne Medieval Faire. My friend actually used the faire as her photojournalism project, and she invited me to go with her for fun. We got there around 1:30 p.m. on a rainy day, and it was very muddy! Throughout the event we were dodging mud puddles and getting our shoes stuck in the mud, so make sure to wear either old shoes or rain boots. Once we bought our tickets, we walked through a castle and entered the faire. They had many shows including jousting and medieval human checkers. The jousting was very cool to see because I always saw it in movies. They also had a bunch of food including authentic American food, a lot of deep fried items and some Greek food; I had a gyro. There were many shops that had wands, swords, capes, crowns, etc. Anything that you could think of that people wore or used during those time, they had it! It had a lot of fun, and will definitely be going back next year.

This past Wednesday, Jan. 23, I reported on the Point-In-Time survey in Alachua County. This survey counts all homeless people in the county. Volunteers who help with the survey are either homeless themselves or were recently homeless. For each homeless person they find, they will ask them questions including: Where did they sleep last night? Do they have any family embers who are homeless? Length of time they have been homeless? Do they deal with physical or mental abuse, drug addictions or alcohol? And many more. The purpose is to see how many people are without homes and living on the streets. According to GRACE Marketplace Director Jon DeCarmine, these surveys help them figure out how to better suit their needs. I followed Shachia Alexander and Betty Hollar, two homeless women who were volunteering that day, and handing out goody bags filled with toiletries and food to every person who took the survey. They were taking surveys at St. Francis House in Gainesville; they spo...

Hi Everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your holiday season! Over the break, I went back to my home town of Miami. So most of December I was not in Gainesville. I wanted to share something really cool I did over the break. I rode the polar express; just like in the movie. My family wanted to go, so we all bought tickets and I brought a friend of mine, as well. The night started at the Gold Coast RailRoad Museum on Dec. 27. When we boarded the train, and it was decorated with lights, presents and it even smelled like Christmas. When everyone boarded, the crew started to sing about hot chocolate and then actually gave us hot chocolate and cookies. My family, friends and I saw Santa and the elfs at their factory from on the train. Santa then came aboard the train and gave everyone a bell and a candy cane. We also sang Christmas songs. Overall, it was a lot of fun. In Gainesville, you can't ride the Polar Express but they do have a Christmas train at the Kirby Family Farm. Ne...

One of my good friends is graduating this semester with a degree in telecommunications - media and society at the University of Florida. As part of his bachelors degree, he must complete an undergraduate research/thesis. He called it "The American Experience," it was a look inside the three different races - Black, Hispanic and White who are either American and live here, or are from another country and discuss their experience living in America. He asked many different questions that were touchy subjects that has a different side to each answer, he also pertained some questions based on their race and their sexual orientation, and how they dealt with stigma, racism and even hate. Some questions were:  - Do you feel discriminated in some places, or have you been discriminated in some places based on your ethnicity? - As a latina growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, did you ever feel unwanted or different? Did you miss the culture back home in Puerto R...