When I finished up my graduate coursework at Oakland University this past spring, it came time for me to choose a topic for my master's project, an interdisciplinary labor of love that would have to draw upon various schools of thought. For me, this was an easy one. I earned my bachelor's degree from OU in 2008 with a journalism major, sociology minor, so I knew those were the fields I wanted to focus on. It wasn't until looking at photographs from a recent trip to Traverse City that everything fell into place.
Using tools of virtual journalism, I decided to set off across the state of Michigan to find out what keeps people here, despite the harsh economic downturn. I will blog my adventures here, as well as post photo galleries and archives of video interviews on my corresponding website as I visit various areas across five regions: Detroit, the West Side, the North, the Thumb and the Upper Peninsula. It is my goal to seek out the stories of those who have stood beside Michigan, and share them with the world.
Armed with my laptop, camera, video recorder and plenty of curiosity, I am ready to hit the road and experience everything The Great Lakes State has to offer.
