5 Finding Your Place Self-Interviewing Assignment

The Finding Your Place Podcast Series is built on the belief that student stories and perspectives matter. For this series, many students have been interviewed … and now it’s your turn. In this assignment, you will write an imagined interview with yourself. Your goal is to help me (your instructor) understand who you are as a person, student, and future professional. This may even help you clarify your goals for this semester as well.

Your interview should look something like this sample…

The Participants:

Sheila Newby, a first year college student.

Dante Davis, a local journalist and podcaster for Finding Your Place.

The Setting:

Dante and I sat down to talk in the cafeteria, located in the center of West Campus.

Your setting can be anywhere and your interviewer can be anyone you like – it can be one of the FYP student producers or anyone you choose. You will then have the person ask you questions, like the interview below …

The Interview/Conversation:

Dante: Thanks so much for meeting with me. I’ve got a few notes about you, and I see that you’re in your first of college. Is that right?

Sheila: Yes, that’s right.

Dante: And I see you plan to major in Marketing. Can you say why?

Shelia: Well, Dante, I’m glad you asked. My mom works for small trucking company and runs their social media. She seems to like her job so I thought maybe a degree in Marketing would be a good fit for me.

Dante: I see. Do you have any other interests you thought about exploring in college?

Shelia: Well, I did choir in high school and I thought about majoring in music but I just didn’t think that was so realistic. I mean I know I cannot make a living as a musician, but maybe I can minor in that. I don’t know just yet.

Dante: I should probably step back, and start a little earlier. Can you tell our readers a little about yourself? Paint a fuller picture of who you are?

Shelia: Well, I grew up North St. Paul. I was a track-and-field athlete and also active in the martial arts. But I hated high school, you know, I just did. I did love choir, like I mentioned, but mostly I disliked school. (this would continue).

Dante: Ok, that gives me some idea of your background. Interesting. Let’s fast forward to your life in college. How would you describe college for you so far? What’s it like?

The paper should be structured and formatted like the sample above. The finished paper should be approximately 5-6 pages.

Your interview should have roughly 15 questions (with some follow-up questions). The seven questions below are required – you must get the answers to these questions into your interview in some way. The other 7-10 questions will come from you.

• Why did you choose college? And what brings you to this particular college/university?

• What’s your experience with college so far? Are you just starting, returning for another degree, or something else?

• What excites you about being in college?

• What fears or concerns do you have about this semester?

• Can you share a story about when you felt really good in a school setting? Maybe a great class or time with a teacher you really liked…anything you’d like to discuss.

• Can you share a story about a time when you felt not so good in a school setting?

• What are your hopes and dreams for life after graduating college?

A Few Additional Guidelines:

• Be sure your interviewer asks follow-up questions and pushes for specific examples and elaboration. In other words, imagine that your interviewer is a fairly good interviewer. Follow-up questions might be “Can you tell me more about that?” or “Can you give me an example of that?” or “I’m a bit confused…can you clarify?” These are just a few potential follow-ups–the key is that sometimes the person doing the interview with you pushes for more information and detail.

• Create a flow to the interview. You need not organize this in a linear manner, but be sure there is some logic to the pattern of the interview. Don’t make it just a series of random questions. Don’t feel like you have to answer the mandatory questions in order–how you organize is up to you.

• Make the interview conversational. Don’t create answers that are too long (you don’t want one answer to be more than a quarter page or so). Let there be a pattern of interaction between you and the imagined person doing the interview with you.

• Have fun and be creative, while at the same time help me learn more about you.