Richard Whitney Post #4

On Thursday, the Louisiana state legislature debated the death penalty! The bill was brought up by Representative Terry Landry. It specified that after August 1st, 2019 the death penalty would not longer be a legal punishment in the state of Louisiana. During the debate, it was not an argument at all. Everyone understood the gravity of the bill they were discussing and how serious it was. Instead members of the floor came up to talk and explain to the other legislators their opinions and how they would vote on he bill (only those who wanted to). There were about 15 or so members who took the floor to express their beliefs. Once that was done, Terry Landry got up to make closing remarks about the bill and moved to send it back to calander. He did this out of respect for his colleagues in order to allow people to choose whether they wanted to vote on such a difficult issue, that is the death penalty.  He does this because he knows everyone is running for re-election and he did not want to make them vote and possibly alter the views of heir constituents. Attatched is a picture of me on the house floor taken by Charley Leopold!

Ritchie Whitney Post #3

During the second week of my internship at the Louisiana state capitol, I did the same thing as my first week. I would get their in the early afternoon and stay there until 9-10 o’clock. The debate this week was a little more orderly as they were trying to clean up and finish all the excess house bills before starting the senate bills. As I stay there everyday, I am beginning to learn the names and personalities of the various representatives. They are all very kind and care deeply about their jobs as legislators. Even though most people are pretty divided on a lot of subjects, everyone is respectful because of their shared passion for what they do. As well as sitting on the house floor, I have also gotten to meet some of the insurance committee staff, specifically a girl named Mollye who goes to LSU. She is the clerk for the insurance committee. Here stretched is a photo of me in front of the insurance committee door!

Kyle Winkler #4

It's sad that this internship is almost over. I am having just as good of a second week as I did the first. Everyday I have learned something new. Today I learned that the only company in the world who is still allowed to stereotype is an insurance company. I am saying this, because Mrs. Ashley Travis and I went over the questioner that is filled out by new customers. We are going over this because she works with all new customers in personal alliance. With big insurance companies everyone is just a piece of paper. This is crazy to think that everyone out there has an insurance policy which is all based off of previous data. What I am getting at is that just because a million 16 year old boys have a history of wrecking more than a million 16 year old girls their insurance would be higher. I think it makes sense, but it is just amazing that all people who believing in stereotyping or not are involved in it. I had a great time and Mr. Chad was key!!

Vincent Post #4

Today I ran around the city looking for construction supplies. The office has been undergoing some minor renovations. There is a coffee shop that occupies the office building that southern insurance is located in and owns. They are expanding their shop to increase their capacity. Specifically, I was looking for a type of silver paint. I went to five different paint supply stores such as Sherwin Williams and Helm Pain before I found what I was looking for. This took up the majority of the morning. When I returned to the office, I went into the pile of priority files. I gave them out to people in the office based on who was familiar with each policy. It was a busy last day and everyone was let out of the office early because of memorial day weekend. My internship allowed me to understand the overall process of the insurance business. Twas fun.

Vincent post #3

This week has been slow, but a lot of work has been done. Many policies were coming up for renewal in the coming months. I organized files by type and month they were up for renewal. At first this took me a long time, but once I got the hang of it, I finished very quickly. After this was done I went back and checked the premiums on a list of insurance policies and went back and prioritized the more expensive ones. I made an additional stack of files that were priority over the others.  This took most of the day. I really enjoyed how overtime I familiarized myself with the filing system and my work got quicker. Overall it was a productive day.

Mikki Dennies Post #4

On Wednesday at my internship, as soon as I got there I learned how to snap freeze tissues, so that they can be used for other studies. I found this to be a super cool and fast way to freeze things. Basically, we poured liquid nitrogen into a bucket, and dropped a tube with the tissue into the bucket. After about five minutes, the tissue is frozen inside the tube and placed into a freezer. After that, I watched Shelby, one of the girls in the lab, cannulate a tissue, so that it can be tested. We spend most of Wednesday testing and looking at the graphs. I was surprised to see how often they test tissue, it's pretty much an everyday thing, and I don't think that I can sit at a computer all day and test materials. Thursday was different, it was my last day, so we ended up doing a lot more than testing. When I got there, we checked on the cells that we had cultured (photo 1), and since cells are alive, they ended up growing and making more. I really enjoyed cell culturing because it was very chemistry based and I liked mixing media. I was also super excited to spend my last day with the mice. I know that sounds strange, but I'd much rather ween mice than look at a computer. With the mice, we took them from their parents, and separated them by male and female. The lab mainly wants the females since they are researching Pelvic Organ Prolapse, which occurs in females. After getting the females, we tagged their ears so that they can be genotyped and tested for the gene that the lab needs for research. After spending two weeks in the lab, I learned that it's not for me. Although it was very different from what I expected, I am still very happy I did it because I made new friends and got to experience the job before I spent all that time trying to pursue it.

Clara Rabe Post #4

For the last day of my internship, I started at the world war ii museum.  There was a statue unfailing that we had to cover. Then we edited the pictures in my car quickly before going to the next shoot, which was covering some Tulane students who are actively trying to develop opioid drugs that aren't so addicting. Next, we are going to an art and music show (can't remember what its called). Overall, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here at The New Orleans Advocate. Two obstacles for me have been not having all the equipment everyone else has and being a shy person. If I had a dollar every time, I was told: "this shot would be great if you had a better lens" I could pay my dad back for all the hours of parking I used during this internship. Also, asking people's names and inserting myself into crowds has been a challenge for me. Photojournalism is definitely a career option for me after this experience.