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Jessica Short


1. Jeje's Article Space

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== Collective reflection article -- ready to post (i hope)- the personal reflection is below==

The SAGE staff, consisting of Mawrters different in appearance, thoughts, and attitudes, seemed at first to be too diverse to be seen together out of a classroom. Fifteen eyes -- some glowing as Professor Deepak Kumar gave a brief introduction to the course, some stealing glances at the clock, their thoughts elsewhere. With a few exceptions, most of the classroom was made up of students who chose Weaving the Web; only because no other classes of interest fit in their schedule. As Deepak explained that our class was to work together towards creating one collaborative web magazine, the majority seemed to doubt that this group of students thrown together so randomly would ever be able work together.

After overcoming a slow start in which we spent three classes tackling our magazine name and mission statement, each student seemed to be holding back a fair amount of frustration towards their 1/15 portions of influence over the decisions being made. At that point in time, no member of SAGE had a clue how the magazine would take shape.

With deadlines to meet, however, the slightly confused class of Mawrters were able to allow the SAGE online magazine make its debut on October 3, 2002. Given something tangible to look at in which each student could recognize their own contributions, the entire atmosphere of the class seemed to make a turn around. The sight that came up after typing sage.brynmawr.edu seemed to breathe a fresh breath of excitement into all 15 students. It became obvious to the class that each member of the class shared a common ground. Even after being split into smaller groups with different tasks such as graphic design and proof reading, SAGE members were bearing parental responsibility over a web magazine 15 ways.

While nurturing SAGE, there were many other lessons and skills that members learned other than working together as a group. Some of these were,

1. Figuring out what one wants to write about, and how one would write it given complete freedom

2. How to interview people for an article, and how to write for the media

3. How to immediately respond to different problems (for example, flame mail, loosing readers), which whipped us into more responsible individuals

4. How to keep up with events on campus

5. The joy of creating something tangible from scratch that others can see

6. How to create a web page (using Dream Weaver)

Approaching the end of the semester, it seems that the whole class is disappointed that the current SAGE team will no longer be discussing upcoming issues during class time. Reading each individual's reflection on the semester (links posted below), it became evident that each member appreciated the availability of such a memorable college seminar. For this, we all give our thanks to Deepak!!

2. Proofreading comments

Jeje, this is fantastic!! Just a few little comma things, which I took care of. I like how you bullet point six items that we learned about, and also how you gave credit to Deepak at the end. We owe him so much...the only two things I'd recommend. Number one: the wording of the 1/15 and 14/15 sentences...I'm not sure if you're saying that we felt as though we ourselves weren't a large enough percentage of the class to make a difference, or the fact that our thoughts were only 1/15 of the class...and does the fact that we were all strangers to each other relate directly to these two sentences? Number two: perhaps you could cut down on the number of times that the number 15 is mentioned in the beginning part; I think that a few times, like when you say the number of eyes, are enough to mention how many of us there are. However, rereading that number a lot can get a little redundant and take away from the very good points you have made. This is a great basic chronology of how our class has transformed over the course of the semester, Jeje! Thanks!! -- Samara

3. Personal Reflection

I'm very proud and thankful that I was able to be a part of SAGE. At the beginning of the semester, I never would have imagined how much I would actually care about our web magazine. I especially did not think our class would be able to work as well as we did together. I got to know several people through this course that I probably never would have talked to if I had not been a part of the Sage team. I also feel that I was able to overcome a lot of my preliminary shyness, and was able to enjoy participating. (Participation grades are my biggest fears in most other classes)

This collaboration of learning journalism though practice, improving my writing skills, and leaning how to make a web page, is something that I don't think I would have learned to interweave without taking this College Seminar. I leaned a lot more from this class than I initially thought I would and am very thankful for it. (Thank you, Deepak!)

I really hope that Sage will be able to keep going as a club. It will be interesting to see if it is still around after our class graduates. It would be my top choice way of keeping up with Bryn Mawr as an alum. I truly hope that the Sage members to come will take care of our baby!!

4. Proofreading

Awww...Jeje... :) Sniffle, sniffle. I agree -- participation is always what I dread about classes. Especially when the same people always talk all of the time...and you never feel like you can make a difference. This class wasn't like that, though. We really were -- and are! -- a team. I love what you say about Sage being around after we graduate and how it would be your top choice of staying connected with BMC. Yes, it IS our baby! I just capitalized a few things and fixed the infamous apostrophe problems with cryptic code...no biggies.-- Samara