Write-In by Alex Maxwell

Senior Photojournalism major Alex Maxwell follows the unlikely campaign of Tom Morris who was running as a write-in candidate for Mayor of Bowling Green, Ky.

Longtime Bowling Green resident Tom Morris launched his campaign for the office of Mayor in July of 2020, falling just behind the deadline to get his name on the ballot. With no time to waste, he began vigorously campaigning as a write-in candidate.

What are the chances of winning a write-in campaign? If the United States Senate is taken as an example, the odds are slim.

To see the complete story visit: https://spark.adobe.com/page/U21WHS5ndUFkL/

 

 

Delayed: Resilience in the Face of a Life-Altering Pandemic

WKU Photojournalism major, Sam Mallon, a Junior from Silver Springs, Maryland, documents college student Maggie Smith as she learns to navigate a pandemic as a student in a field that requires hands on connections, in the Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education program. The limitations of virtual learning was recently balanced out as Smith began caring for Rush Renshaw, a 17-year-old boy with low-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can view the entire project here.

“I think that my education wasn’t individualized the way education should be. I was expected to work at the same pace as everyone around me and I constantly felt stupid,” Maggie Smith said. “I’m not stupid. I’m pretty smart. I’m not able to learn the same way as everyone else, and that’s okay, but I was never told that that was okay. I was always just seen as slower.” Smith has ADHD and spent most of her life trying to figure out how it affected her learning. She now understands it better, but her ADHD can leave her to cram during finals week and end her days exhausted, in the middle of the morning. As an aspiring teacher, she wants to help neurodivergent students understand their diagnoses earlier, so they don’t have to go through standardized education the way she did.

“As Donna, [Rush’s] mom, was walking me through his routine, I just fell into place and I was just doing it like second nature like I’m working at Sproutlings again, and then I spent a night with him an entire day and an entire night and it was totally fine,” Smith said, “When I got there, I just realized I’m completely qualified for this. This is literally what I’m meant to do.” Although respite work on top of school and a part-time job making pizza is a lot for Smith to juggle, she is grateful for the opportunity to learn from and with Rush.

“I talk to [Rush], like I talk to anyone else,” Smith said. “I interact with him the same way. He still talks to me, without using words, but I mean, it’s the same as a toddler not being able to talk to me with words, they can still communicate what they need and want.” Smith and Rush communicate very smoothly, though Rush is non-verbal. Smith recognizes cues about how Rush is feeling or what he need through body language. She knows he feels safe when holding her hand.

A Relative, A Revelation | by Chris Kohley

Senior WKU Photojournalism major Chris Kohley depicts in this multimedia project how history lives on for local historian Tommy Hines as he uncovers facts about his ancestor with the same name. “They called him the most dangerous man in the Confederacy,” Tommy Hines said of Thomas Henry Hines, a soldier that fought for the south during the Civil War.

As Executive Director of the South Union Shaker Village, Tommy has uncovered revelations about his ancestor and grappled with his role in the Civil War.

You can view the entire project here.

 

Driving Change | by Sam Mallon

Sam Mallon, a junior WKU Photojournalism major, documents Bowling Green’s Mobile Grocery Bus, that was established by the Housing Authority of Bowling Green to address the growing problems of food insecurity in the region. Bus driver Danny Carothers takes us on the tour of the outreach program that has recently gotten national attention from HUD Secretary Ben Carson.

You can view the entire project here.


“I want to serve people in any way, form or fashion… I think it was just what I was raised to do,” Carothers said. He may have given up on his dream of teaching, but his giving spirit lives in all of his work, especially in regard to the Mobile Grocery Bus.

Chris Kohley: Experience comes in the field

Internships and on-campus staff positions has provided  WKU Photojournalism Senior Chris Kohley experience and opportunities to advance his skills beyond the classroom. Interning for the the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, USA Today-Network Wisconsin, and this summer’s internship at the St. outs Post-Dispatch has helped propel him towards graduation. Chris as also been on staff at the College Heights Herald and currently photographs for the Western Kentucky University’s Athletics program.  Here are a few of his images from the past year.

 

Dolly Jo Heath takes a moment to visit her nephew Cpl. James E. Carter who served in the Persian Gulf at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis on Friday, May 22, 2020.

WKU forward Ansley Cate (20) falls on top of Southern Miss forward Ariel Diaz (3) while fighting for the ball at the WKU soccer complex on Sept. 21, 2019.

WKU’s Sophia Cerino (23) celebrates a point with Lauren Matthews (5) in a match against the UTSA Roadrunners at WKU Hilltoppers, October 20, 2019 in Diddle Arena.

WKU center Seth Joest (67) readies himself in the locker room before taking on the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on November 23, 2019 in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Eleven years later and still waiting for answers

 

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019, 8.29 A.M. LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – The sun has a hard time getting through the curtains in Karr's apartment in The Highlands, a neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. Her eyes are sensitive to light, so there is a purpose for the darkness. She walks around the kitchen, feeding her service dog, Blaze, and gets dressed in a flat cap, shirt and pants, leaving her joggers in the bedroom. She needs to move on after a rough night, she explains. The sheets were messy when she woke up. Blaze was laying on her chest; he does this to stop her night terrors. The anxiety returned when she placed her head on the pillow last night. She found no peace.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019, 8.29 A.M. LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY – The sun has a hard time getting through the curtains in Karr’s apartment in The Highlands, a neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. Her eyes are sensitive to light, so there is a purpose for the darkness. She walks around the kitchen, feeding her service dog, Blaze, and gets dressed in a flat cap, shirt and pants, leaving her joggers in the bedroom. She needs to move on after a rough night, she explains. The sheets were messy when she woke up. Blaze was laying on her chest; he does this to stop her night terrors. The anxiety returned when she placed her head on the pillow last night. She found no peace.

 

A Wounded Soldier

WKU Journalism and Photojournalism students, Sara Krog and Sofie Mortensen tell the story of Veteran Megan Karr who suffers PTSD caused by her experience of sexual assault by two colleagues, while serving in the military.

“After the incident I changed, not necessarily for the better, but for the worse. I struggle a lot, and that struggle has been tough, especially for the people who knew me before. I guess this is what affected my family situation.”

SEE THE COMPLETE STORY

 

WKUPJ winners 2020 Eyes of History – White House News Photographers Association

Congratulations to WKU Gabriel Scarlett the 2020 Student Still Photographer of the Year for the White House News Photographers Association annual photography and video competition.

Michelle Hanks 2nd place in Feature: Long Term Video Project. A video project  she documented during her semester abroad at the Danish School of Media.  Her story is about Mahmoud Bayragdar,who fled the Syrian civil war and is trying rebuild his life in Denmark.

 

We Can Do Hard Things – by Emma Steele

We Can Do Hard Things

by Emma Steele

To view the entire story visit: We Can Do Hard Things

“You’ll never get over it. You don’t want to,” Davidson said. “It changes you.”

Randall Davidson brings roses to his wife Megan’s grave every Sunday. “Roses symbolize love,” Davidson said.

“There’s a part of me that hasn’t accepted it,” Davidson said. Randy has been left to raise their 8-year-old son, Drew, while still living with the grief of losing the love of his life.

Megan died on July 27th, 2019 from a fatal car accident. Her death affected the lives of all 1,000 people who showed up to her funeral service. Megan was a wife, mother, nurse, church minister, and athlete, and was loved by everyone she met.

Randall Davidson lost his wife, Megan, on July 27th 2019 in a fatal car accident. Every Sunday Randall brings flowers to Megans grave in Tompkinsville. “You’ll never get over it”, Davidson said, “You don’t want to.”

Drew taking a break from his video game to look at pictures of him and his mom. “Every time Megan was on the couch trying to relax, Drew would always jump up on her and try to get her attention. He loves his mom,” Davidson said.

Every night, Randy reads bedtime stories and says prayers with Drew. “He’s the reason I’m still breathing,” Davidson said.

Family Values – A look at the roll of a midwife in Kentucky.

Family Values – A look at the roll of a midwife in Kentucky.

Story by Lily Thompson,

To view the entire story visit: Family Values

Tracey Moore is a midwife, and so much more.

With kind eyes and a mother’s touch, Tracey catches babies around the western and central regions of Kentucky. She is on call 24/7, 52 weeks a year. She’s a home birth midwife, one of few in the state. Tracey helps women of all kinds, she wants each and every woman to feel respected and loved through one of the most sacred moments of their life.

Tracey checks “baby noodle’s” heartbeat in Rosie Hunt’s belly. The couple didn’t pick a name for their baby until after the birth and lovingly referred to the baby as “baby noodle.”

June Hunt was born at 7:13 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2019 to Rosie and Alex Hunt. June was born on the same couch her older sister was born a couple of years before.

Tracey leans on her husband for comfort after telling him about a complicated and upsetting birth she had attended hours before. She had to leave the house early in the morning to attend to the birth, and missed church and an outing with her family due to midwifery commitments. “For us, faith in christ has been the solid rock we’ve needed, because it’s not been always been easy,” David said. “That faith has helped us have grace. When couples have hard times, they can either break or build together. Midwifery has shown us in our hearts where we were at with each other and challenged us to be better in Christ.”

Atlanta Photojournalism Student Portfolio of the Year – Michael Blackshire

WKUPJ senior, Michael Blackshire, won the 2019 Rich Mahan Best Student Portfolio recently at the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar. You can view his winning entry here.

In 2018 and again in 2019, Michael has placed in the annual William Randolph Hearst competition and he interned for the Las Vegas Review-Journal this past summer.  His portfolio contained work from his summer internship and a class project about the conflict unfolding over the wall on the Mexico/USA border.

Winter Bainbridge, 4, left, holds her cousin Avery Acosta, 1, as Amber Acosta, 4, center, plays in a washing machine outside of the Acosta family home on Aug. 16, 2019. Barefoot with a front yard of half green grass, the children play with other friends in the small mining town of Ely, NV, with a population of less than 5,000. “I’m going to be clean in the washing machine,” Amber said. Acosta’s father would soon tell Amber to remove herself.