About. Cal Poly’s St. Patrick’s Day block party gained national attention for property damage and a 2015 roof collapse. The Festival was the replacement event in which students were supposed to get free tickets to attend and divert the crowds there. In less than three minutes, the concert sold out to everyone’s surprise, and I began writing the article with copy finished in 45 minutes. I then created the graphic on Adobe Illustrator in lieu of using a screenshot.

About. This article was a breaking story after students received an email that their dining dollars during orientation would not roll over. I went out to the lines where people were spending their excess money from the markets on campus and interviewed several affected freshmen as well as taking photos. I also interviewed student workers and sent questions via email to Campus Dining’s associate director (Cal Poly officials are not permitted to do live or phone interviews). If I were to do it again, I would have added what the most popular items were.

About. After a soft launch was announced for the highly-anticipated Panda Express opening, I wrote this breaking story. I went to the venue and interviewed two different employees as well as securing responses from the campus dining director. If I were to write this again, I would have added more interviews from random students about their anticipation.

About. This article was initially written for my final in a Feature Writing class before being published in the Mustang News print and online versions. I went to the ballroom for the Kláve event on a friday and interviewed people there as well as writing down specific observations of my surroundings. I also conducted these interviews without a recording device due to the noise in the room. I also conducted three Zoom interviews of instructors and the owner where I gained a comprehensive picture of the behind the scenes.

The story. A single door remains unlocked past hours on the north wall of the SLO Public Market. 

Little more than an animated LED sign perched on the sidewalk outside marks what lies beyond the glass membrane. Most of the room lies dark, motionless. But immediately to the left past the entrance, a trickle of people — all clad in semi-formal attire and red smiley-face wristbands — descend a dimly lit staircase. 

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About. I wrote this story in roughly a week following my observations of the campus SnapChat stories. I reached out to sources through snapchat and posted several times on the stories to source random people who were active on the app. I also repeatedly checked the story and cross referenced the different classes and the content on it to create an idea of the trends. I conducted interviews over the phone or over SnapChat calls depending on the source. Most interviewees were well known by the student population at the time of publishing.

The story. Forgoing his iconic studded ‘Cal Poly Mom’ hat, computer science freshman Ronan Biggs munched on a croissant and sipped orange juice while describing his ascent to micro-stardom among his peers. Before even moving in, Biggs emerged as one of the most recognizable faces — and names — on campus by spam posting to the Cal Poly 2027 Snapchat story.

Each class has a community Snapchat story that anyone who signs in with their school email can post on, resulting in a widely used forum for disseminating information and creating entertainment content. The resulting phenomenon is a subculture with its own lore, storylines and campus micro-celebrities.

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