Our Staff Abroad
University of Florida students flew to Ecuador in late September 2006 to gain international journalism field experience. Photographers, writers and multimedia journalists at the graduate and undergraduate levels teamed up during the trip to document culture and the community.
The overseas trip was part of a program nicknamed the Florida FlyIns, now in its eighth year. In preparation for writing, photographing and doing multimedia journalism abroad, students spent the first part of the semester doing research in the university's Latin American Studies library collection and hearing from expert guest lecturers.
After the trip, the last part of the semester was dedicated to producing an exhibition, publishing an online magazine, and submitting stories for publication in U.S. and foreign media outlets. Professor John Kaplan developed and teaches the course each fall. We are most grateful to the citizens of Ibarra, Ecuador and its surrounding areas for their support and friendship.
STORY AND PHOTOS by KRISTEN HINES
IBARRA, ECUADOR – Photojournalism senior Ginger Larson waited to exit the plane in Quito, Ecuador, when one of her Florida FlyIns classmates joked, “How is Ginger going to blend in with the locals?”
Larson, who has blond hair and blue eyes, looked around the plane and noticed two other blondes among the predominantly Hispanic passengers. As she started talking to them, Larson’s eyes widened and her classmates’ mouths dropped when they learned that the two women owned a rose farm in Ecuador. The class knew that Larson and her reporting partner, Stephanie Garry, had hoped to work on a story about the cut-flower industry.
After weeks of anticipation and an eight-hour flight to Quito, the 2006 Florida FlyIns group was anxious to get through customs and finally have an opportunity to bring their story ideas to life.
For seven years now, University of Florida students have balanced luck and skill in an international journalism course, “Advanced Journalism Practicum: Latin America in Words and Pictures,” nicknamed the Florida FlyIns.
The idea for the course, taught by Pulitzer Prize-winning Professor John Kaplan, was launched in 1999 along with input from colleague Kurt Kent. The class brings together photographers, writers, and multimedia journalists to teach them how to work in the international arena.
In its seven years, the program has landed students in real world international environments. The payoff has been a growing reputation for the program and the work of the undergraduate and grad student participants. In 2003, the Florida FlyIns website, www.internationaljournalism.com, placed first in NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism competition, the only award that went to a student-affiliated website. Among just six top web awards, in addition to the online magazine’s top prize for Feature Story, the other first place winners were the New York Times, Washington Post and Rochester (NY) Democrat-Chronicle.
Twice this decade, student work from Costa Rica and Belize contributed to UF winning its first-ever national collegiate photojournalism championships, as well as several second place finishes for the program and the individual entries of its shooters. The Latin American photographs have also garnered several CPOY honors and an invitation to exhibit student work in November at China’s largest photography festival, Pingyao, In 2005, Emily Harris' picture story on a destitute mother and her family in Belize was one of the top eleven honored worldwide in the International Documentary Photography Awards judged in Seoul, Korea. It was one of only two student story winners by an American photographer.
To apply for program admission, advanced students submit a portfolio of their best work including a picture story and write an essay on why they would be an asset to the team. An equal mix of writing and visual journalists are chosen for the semester-long course. “We really want to really take advantage of learning how to harness the art of working as part of a writer-photographer team. In the real world, to be successful in the long term, working dynamically with your newsroom counterparts is what you really need to cultivate,” Kaplan said.
Before traveling, students spend the first half of the semester conducting intense research on the program’s destination and proposing story ideas. Writers and photographers pair up to work in teams. After returning home, stories are edited, an annual exhibition is staged, and the work published in the FlyIns online magazine. Most students also send out query letters and seek newspapers and magazines to publish their work.
Over the years the class has traveled to Costa Rica, Belize, Peru, Brazil, and Nicaragua. For Andrea Morales, a photojournalism senior, this year’s destination felt like a homecoming because she’s a native of Peru who wanted to be near the Andes Mountains.
“When I was young,” she said, “I always thought I was named after the Andes.”
Speaking Spanish is an advantage for Morales, but the program hires translators to help students be both effective in the field, just as the pros do when working abroad.
“We are not tourists, we are working journalists… accuracy is everything,” Kaplan said at the first meeting at Hotel Montecarlo where the students stayed for nine days.
After each days’ work from sunrise to sunset, the students come together for a nightly meeting before dinner in a stark hotel meeting room with bare walls and a musty smell. For an hour, led by their professor, the team helps each other overcome obstacles, understand a new culture, and work to build rapport with their story subjects. Each student spends a full week on just one story.
Alex Kolyer, a photojournalism junior, believed that the evening meetings helped the group as a whole, but there were nights where he was frustrated because his story wasn’t coming along as easily as those of his classmates.
“Everyday I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do. It was kind of like a scavenger hunt, and I got excitement out of the chase,” Kolyer said.
Kolyer’s story was about the popular game of cockfighting, legal in Ecuador. But it wasn’t his original idea; in fact he had three other story ideas before this one finally clicked.
However, Kaplan is consistently amazed that approximately two-thirds of the story ideas that students first propose back in Gainesville, Florida, actually get done in the field. “It’s a testament to the strong research we do, and help from our UF librarians, before the class gets on the plane,” said Kaplan.
It wasn’t until the last night that Kolyer’s story idea became a story.
“This was my last chance or else I was in dead water,” Kolyer said. “I had nice pictures but didn’t have a story and there is a big difference.”
Kolyer got a lead earlier that morning that there was going to be a cockfight that evening. He said that right when he walked into the venue he knew that this dusty old place had such character, with bare bulbs hanging down and roosters crowing in the background. It was exactly the color he needed for his story.
After just a few days away from home, some students become emotionally attached to their stories.
“I could see in Morgan Petroski’s and Vanessa Garcia’s eyes, when they came back from the first day of their story, that they were already affected by it,” said Stephanie Rosenblatt, a multimedia senior who did a project in Flash.
Petroski, a photojournalism senior, and Garcia, a reporting senior, documented life in a prison where 52 women, many with children living with them in jail, endure rough and unsanitary conditions. Petroski obtained access to stay one night in prison on a cot shared by her translator.
The journalists were touched by what they had witnessed and wanted to give back to the imprisoned mothers and children. Following the conclusion of their reporting, on the last day, Garcia and Petroski collected money from other students to buy rice, beans and toiletries for the women. Toys were also purchased for the children living inside the jail walls.
By the end of the week, students left with new friendships, jammed reporters’ notebooks, thousands of images, and an experience that will never be forgotten.
Jarrett Baker, a photojournalism junior, worked on a project about woodcarving in San Antonio, a small village about six kilometers west of Ibarra, where he found three brothers who were also bee keepers. After photographing them feeding their bees, the brothers served him a tasty treat – a cube of fresh honeycomb.
"When is the next time you’re going to be able to eat honey right from the comb in the back of a pickup?" Baker said.
Other stories covered included native Ecuadorian customs such as the art of weaving, and the ancient tradition of dining on fried cuy (guinea pig)--considered a delicacy to the Andean people.
Photojournalism senior Tricia Coyne and reporting senior Chan Tran spent the week with a Colombian refugee family whose members fled their homeland because their lives were threatened by guerillas.
Coyne was sad she had to leave two days early to attend the Eddie Adams Workshop.
“I couldn’t spend as much time with the family as all the other photographers got to with their stories,” Coyne said. “Their enthusiasm and cooperation made me more sympathetic to the project and more difficult to leave them at the end of the trip.”
“I learned that family is everything, and support within the family is what keeps a family going.”
When asked about the program’s future, Kaplan said, "We are going to continue to make the program relevant to reflect evolving directions in photojournalism. For example, each photographer did a Soundslides piece for the first time this year.” We have done quite a bit of multimedia before, but what I like about Soundslides is that the technology doesn't distract the photographer from the primary imperative to make great pictures."
This story was published in the February 2007 issue of News Photographer magazine.