We talked about everything from our favorite hobbbies, books, ways to stay in the loop, the state of journalism today, and ways that we see us using journalism in the future.
We first started by talking about our things we love.
For her, the first subject was hockey. She loves everything about it, from the players (her favorite is Sidney Crosby, who to her "has a passion for the game that no other player can match") to teams (the Carolina Hurricanes being the best), to just about everything. She is the biggest hockey fan I have ever meet, "I just love hockey, there's no if ands or buts about it".
The next big thing with her was politics, "I love to talk about politics, specifically American politics. I just find it so fascinating." Her passion for the subject comes across very easily from just talking to her for one minute about it. It became clear that politics is a major force in her life.
I then thought it would be interesting to ask her about an interest that she thought would be surprising to most people. The subject then shifted from American politics to Hollywood, "I love Hollywood gossip. Everyday I read Perez Hilton and US weekly. It's my guilty pleasure." I think many girls (and boys who maybe would just never admit it) can agree with her on this one.
The subject of the interview was supposed to be about the written word, so I decided to easse into the topic first by asking about a written work, no matter the form, that has particularly impacted her in some way.
She then told me about the book "Conversations with God" by Neale Donald Walsch. She was inspired to read this non-fiction work by her parents right before her junior year of high school.
What she loves about the book is not that she could not put it down neccesarily (which she says was the case with series such as the Hunger Games and Harry Potter) but that it "talks about God creating you, loving you...it makes you reconsider how you see yourself in the world." She said that she cannot say that it is her favorite book, but it certainly got her thinking.
I decided to change it up for a second and I asked her about a fun random fact. For her, it is that she can recite the entire preamble to the United States Constitution (which she preceded to recite in the form of the School House Rock song).
The conversation then changed to the topic of news and journalism, as I first asked her about where she likes to get her news from two of my favorite sources as well, CNN and the New York Times.
She likes CNN to get her fix of basic news and headlines, while she also appreciates their international news section.
On the other hand, she likes to read the New York Times if she wants to read something in depth about a particular issue.
In terms of journalism figures, she really admires Shepherd Smith from Fox News because she finds him extremly personable and not to mention hysterical.
Still on the topic of journalism, I was curious to see what she thought is the biggest problem with the industry today. I found out that to her, the problem with the industry is the journalists themselves, "My greatest problem is that a lot of journalists are not doing their job. They include too much personal bias."
She explained to her that she sees the job of a journalist as being one of an educator. They are not supposed to try to sway the audience in any way or towards any sort of decision.
Finding this subject particularly interesting, I asked more about things about the industry that irk her. Again, the subject of bias came up, "I abhor the liberal media bias."
I was curious to know what networks in the field she thought were doing a good job, or at least close to a good job, of keeping it neutral. According to her, PBS and Politico do a good job of this.
For the most part however, she likes to get around the bias by navigating her own way through the news world, "I usually feel that between the New York Times and Fox I can figure a place for myself."
Gabriella Kostrzewa is a girl of deep passion for the things she loves. She truly believes that journalism's power to communicate can be used as an educator.
She hopes to utilize this power in her future so that whatever the subject, she can help people comprehend this crazy world a little bit better "so people can walk away and say they learned something."
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