Voices of the Past
In recent decades, journalists have been looking for ways to make news travel faster around the world. It is sometimes hard to understand how much journalism has evolved in the last twenty five years. From the education required, to the technology used on the field or in studios, to the mentality of the journalist itself, we have come a long way since the 1980s. Simon had the chance to conduct interviews with his father Francois Bessette and his brother Philippe Bessette. His father has been working on television and radio for the last twenty-five years. His brother is in the process of becoming a journalist.
Those two interviews, along with Simon’s outside research, made it clear that journalism has evolved a lot. Simon found that in particular, education, ethical questions, and the different tools used by the people in front of the camera or microphone have changed since his father first became a journalist. See the transcripts of his interviews and listen to the interviews here!
Growing up in a religious Catholic family, Catholicism was all Elizabeth Lenny ever knew; it wasn’t a daily routine, but a way of life and Elizabeth believed it all. At the age of fifteen, she believed that if she entered the convent, it was her “insurance to get into heaven.” Thus, in 1951, at the age of 17, Elizabeth Lenny entered the convent. After years in the convent and assuming a typical feminine role in sisterhood, Elizabeth took an unusual path in the late 1950’s when she left the convent to fulfill other interests. During the Vietnam War Era, she was typical of many Catholics in pulling back from her relationship with the Church.
Mallory interviewed her grandmother, now Elizabeth Brusso, and her mother, Maureen Fisher, in order to document what it was like being a nun in the 1950’s and why many women chose a life outside of the church. See the transcripts of her interviews and listen to the interviews here!
Nursing can be a difficult career path. Once a person gets through the education required of a nurse, many challenges lay ahead, including changes in technology and medicine, the structure of the American health insurance system which has historically not covered all Americans, and the structure of American hospitals and health clinics. As Hailey learned, nurses must deal with these challenges to provide patients with the health care they need and deserve.
Hailey interviewed two members of her family, her mother Katie Gilmore and her cousin Katelyn Geiger, who have been nurses in different periods. The comparison highlights how nursing has changed in the recent past. See the transcripts of her interviews and listen to the interviews here!
Rural medicine is the oldest field of medicine in North America as it traces its roots all the way back to pre-colonial times. There is no standard or accepted definition for the term “rural” because it can be defined as a number of different things depending on the context in which it is being used. Generally though, rural places are thought of as areas with small towns, low population densities, isolation, and agricultural landscapes. Rural healthcare practitioners face numerous problems in their practices and among their patients, including economic, educational, cultural, and social challenges, a lack of government recognition and support, and a lack of access to resources due to their remote location. The experience of rural physicians, specifically Dr. Hugh McChesney (1924-2010) who was a small town general practitioner in Pulaski, New York for over fifty years, supports the fact that these factors have existed throughout the twentieth century and still remain today. Dr. McChesney was Matthew’s grandfather.
Matthew chose to interview his father, Thomas McChesney, and his grandmother, Nancy McChesney. See the transcripts of his interviews and listen to the interviews here!
Created by Emily Baker with materials provided by students from the class, "Voices of the Past"
Interviewees & interviewers signed release forms, allowing interviews to be placed on the web.