Al Neuharth Free Spirit Scholarship Journalism Conference

Hello from Washington, D.C. It's beautiful here - well it was today to say the least. It was about sixty degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Once again I was on the shortest plane ride ever. Fourty-five minutes from Long Island to D.C.

The smart thing about this organization is they booked the same flight and same row as my other scholar recipient. So I was able to meet her during the plane ride. When we later arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by Free Spirit staff and recieved another bag, a t-shirt, and notebook. Then we were greeted by a variety of sandwiches, and salad. (Well, at least our stomachs were!) In the bag, there was a folder with another agenda and a list of semi-finalists for the 50K $ scholarship award. Unfortunately I was not on the list; however I am not going to let that ruin my trip. Surprisingly, I wasn't disappointed at all and I don't have an explanation for it. I think it's beccause I primarily am excited about meeting extremely impressive and highly popular journalists.

Later in the day, we were able to mingle while touring the History and American Indian museums. It's amazing how one can meet new friends in a matter of minutes. It's also pretty neat that all 102 scholars have the same interest-journalism.

After the museums, we departed for dinner at some Italian restaurant. One of my new friends says he researched the restaurant earlier and the day and noted that it was a chain. The food wasn't great. We were served a minimal proporion of spaghetti and salad. Afterwards, we had "a cookie." Next, we arrived back to the hotel, and sat in for an orientation. The directors went over our schedule for tomorrow. We will be up around five AM and will be heading to NBC News for the taping of Meet the Press. Yes, I will be meeting to Tim Russert and will be watching the segment LIVE! How cool is that? If you find somebody who has been able to perform this task, please let me know. The show will be aired later in the day. Oh yes. I just signed onto the MSNBC web site to see who will be the guests on the show. NBC's David Gregory is one of them!!! I just also recieved word that we'll be on a taping of C-Span during the week at Neuseum. We will actually be speaking and it should be quite interesting.

Well, I have to get some rest. Keep an eye here for updates at random times like this. L8tr -Kyle