Wayne Barrett

            Wayne Barrett is a writer who did not get along well with the other writers or editors because he took great pride in his work and did not want to see it changed. He would not go to the office because he would rather stay home since he did not fit in well with his work environment. His co-workers admitted that he was a difficult person to work with, but they had a very high regard for his work.

            He was also often described as a guy who wanted to say something good about someone but always ended up saying something bad. This was evident from many of his articles about mayors, where he would try to list some of the positive things they have done but would end up being overly negative with harsh criticisms. It is funny because in the New York Times article (“The Ex-Voice of the Village”), many of the people being interviewed reacted the same way when talking about Barrett – they often start off by saying he is a great guy, but they have to finish with some kind critique of his harsh work ethic.

            As they often say, the best writers are very difficult to work with because they view their writing as a personal masterpiece, and they often despise slight changes because they feel like it ruins their work. His style of work is definitely something to be respected, and he did some great investigative reporting for the Village Voice, so perhaps he had a right to act that way in regard to his work.

            I personally understand why he acts this way, as I cannot stand when people alter my work, but at the same time, I feel like I also have to be sympathetic to my mistakes, and I will always admit them if I feel they are legitimate. It also seems like he was very stubborn to change, and in a field like journalism, that is not really an excuse. The fact that he did not have a cell phone is not a very positive thing for a journalist because we need to always be up-to-date with what is going on and the same goes for his disbelief in e-mail.

            However, I will have to reserve my “telescope” comments on him until I actually meet him next week because it is very easy to judge someone by what others say about them, but the real perception of a person comes with your own interaction with them.

Beat Reporting Column Opinion

The following link is to a New York Times article by Nicholas D. Kristof and was posted on April 9, 2011: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/opinion/10kristof.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

            In this column, Kristof gives a brief description on the state of disagreement that Congress is constantly in and explains why he thinks that it is not beneficial to our country. He begins by calling the government a junior high school and says that the adults are nowhere to be found; a surefire way to make fans of your readers because it seems like no one really likes the government. After all, we are tax paying citizens and as long as we pay taxes, we have a right to complain about every single little thing the ones in charge of our country do.

            It seems like Congress is just a tug of war between Democrats and Republicans without anyone really caring about how our country is run. As long as one side wins at the end of each day, who really cares about the common people, right? How about focusing on problems that affect all of us on a daily basis and fixing them? No, let’s just act like children instead and threaten to close down the government because it will make the Democrats look bad. Doesn’t anyone realize that this affects everyone – Republicans included?!

“In other words, the Republican position is that America faces such a desperate debt crisis that we must throw millions under the bus — yet the result is more debt than if we do nothing.

What does all this mean? That we’re governed by self-absorbed, reckless children.”

            Bravo, Mr. Kristof, bravo. Being a native New Yorker, I am all for some cold-blooded Republican bashing, but seriously, does this statement not sum up the crisis fairly well? It is not just the Republicans that do things like this, but when the president is a Democrat, it is going to show more on the Republican side since they do not have “command” of the country, and they just want to show up the other party.

            Can we all just get together and run this country the way it is supposed to be run? A government that takes care of its people and puts childish squandering to rest.

Beat Reporting Topic

                So, I have been checking the news every day to see if any high schools are thinking about implementing a journalism program in the near future. Guess what? None of them are. How about the distant future? Nope, not even that. Let’s face it: not that many people in our society care about journalism. The field is dying, the job market is atrocious, you wouldn’t make any money as a journalist anyway, etc., etc. – the list goes on.

I am positive that there are still some teenagers who want to become journalists, but the pool is a small one. It goes beyond even the job market and all those other problems. You just don’t learn about journalism when you are growing up, so why would you want to be a journalist?! I can say with complete honesty that I did not know a single thing about the field of journalism until I was randomly put into a journalism class in my senior year of high school. That’s right – my senior year! By that time, I already had other aspirations, and it was just a meaningless elective to me. Oh sure, I had plenty of fun in that class, and I learned a lot, but I had already made up my mind that I wanted to be an English teacher long ago.

Well, it’s funny how things change, don’t they? Three years later – after learning that there was no way I wanted to talk about boring topics that were forced on you by the high school curriculum and that being an auditor would be a monotonous, painful job – I decided to try my hand in journalism again, and oh, how I loved it, but I wonder, would everybody be like me? Probably not. So, it should be very important that students are exposed to journalism much earlier on, so that they can develop an understanding about what the subject is about and see if it’s something they might be interested in.

In order for that to happen, more schools need to have journalism programs. It’s hard for some people to get into the ideal high school, and if they’re just placed in a zone school, then there’s a chance that they won’t have a journalism class or really, any class that they might want to take outside of the basic English, math, science and history ones. It’s always really sad when a high removes a journalism program by deeming it as “non-essential.” More responsibility needs to be placed on high schools to offer courses beyond the run-of-the-mill ones! 

Reporting Topic

Sometimes you just can't help but wonder what people are thinking when they institute certain policies. My current pet peeve is with Telemundo's Spanish-only subtitle policy. The idea behind it makes sense - Telemundo is a Spanish television station, so therefore the majority of its viewers are also Spanish and understand the Spanish language. What about the ones that aren't though? Telemundo might be a Mexican station, but don't they want to reach other viewers? Would it be so crazy that English-only speakers would want to watch Spanish television? There is a way to incorporate two different subtitle sets at the same time and they can be switched with your remote - apparently, it just seems to elude the minds of the people at Telemundo. I really don't see why Telemundo wouldn't want to make more money by reaching a wider audience; it really doesn't make any sense.

As someone who only speaks English, this really bothers me. I live in a very largely Hispanic neighborhood, and when I go into shops, either Telemundo or Univision is on, so I tend to just watch what’s on that television. A pretty recent example is how I wait in the chiropractor’s office for a good amount of time for my appointment, and the only TV that’s on is playing Telemundo with subtitles – Spanish subtitles. I watch it because there’s nothing else to do, but I really don’t understand anything that’s going on, and maybe I would watch it at home as well if I could. From a marketing perspective, it’s a pretty selfish and dumb thing to do. 

Creating Unity After Horowitz Controversy

Originally published in the Kingsman on March 28, 2011.

A “Forum on Student Issues” and a meeting with President Karen Gould were two of the solutions that ten students and the Dean and Vice President of Student Affairs Milga Morales came up with in her Boylan office on Friday, March 25 at 12:15 p.m. in an attempt to solve the tension on campus after the controversial speech by David Horowitz weeks before.

This “Campus Conversations” meeting was a continuation of the one that occurred on Friday, March 18, where many students showed up to voice their concerns over the remarks that Horowitz had made. At that meeting, several potential solutions were listed, but there was not enough time to implement any of them. At this meeting, there were several solutions that the students came up with, including a “Forum on Student Issues,” a meeting with President Gould in the near future, an interfaith club, and a Campus Unity Dinner event.

“We pulled together this group to have a community conversation,” Morales said. “I anticipate that there may be other issues in the future, and I want this meeting to talk to where we are going and the kinds of unity events that the campus is already proposing.” 

One of the bigger ongoing solutions was proposed by Vice President Morales under the title of “Forum on Student Issues.” The tentative idea is to create a council where the president and a representative from each club can meet together and speak about issues on campus. The first such meeting will be on a smaller scale, in order to draft up concerns to be brought to President Gould, but the hope is to get the entire campus involved at some point.

“That group can actually discuss an agenda to be brought forth, and then immediately after, we can set up a meeting with the president,” Morales proposed.

Selected members from that group and those who were directly affected by the issue will get a chance to speak to President Gould within the next two weeks. The point of focus will start on David Horowitz’s speech and will then move on to see how the campus is moving forward from the situation. In addition to that meeting, there is also a statement that President Gould is working on that is supposed to come to light soon.

“A piece of the meeting [with the president] will include a follow-up to the conversation about the Horowitz event. In addition to that, we also want to see what other types of activities that are being planned by people on the campus,” Morales said.

There is also a newly formed club called The Interfaith Engagement Project which hopes to quell some of the tension between different groups. It was founded by Rachel Silberstein and a few others who hope to create some kind of peace on campus. The mission statement says that the club’s objective is to “protect religious freedom on campus, to cultivate goodwill and understanding between religious groups and to counteract extremism and bigotry on campus.”

“We’ll achieve our goal by organizing discussions on issues relevant to all of us with a representative from each religion and by sharing in cultural cuisine, music, films and rituals,”  Silberstein, a 25-year-old Journalism major, said. “We also want to collaborate on several community service projects.”

The Campus Unity Dinner will take place in Tanger Hillel on Thursday, March 31 at 7:00 p.m. and is sponsored by the Israel Club and the CLAS Student Government. The purpose of the event is to “emphasize community, global activism and the importance of building alliances,” and the ones hosting the event are hopeful that it will bring people together so they can all forget about the friction caused recently and work on getting to know each other better by forging friendly bonds.

“The point of the dinner is to really emphasize that collaboration between clubs and partnerships can really help to build a strong campus,” Marcos Askenazi, a member of Tanger Hillel, said.

Vice President Morales also mentioned a Unity Day event that is being organized for Thursday, May 19, the day after the Spring semester ends.

Horowitz Controversy Causes Students To Act

Originally published in the Kingsman on March 21, 2011.

    

            Several organizations, including but not limited to the Islamic Society (ISO), the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and the Palestinian Club, met with the Dean and Vice President of Student Affairs Milga Morales in her Boylan office on Friday, March 18 at 12:15 p.m. in regards to the speech that David Horowitz delivered the week before.

            Approximately 40 students, not all of them Muslim, gathered inside the Vice President’s office in hopes of finding a way to resolve their issues with the controversial “hate speech” that Horowitz delivered on Thursday, March 10. Morales was joined by China Sajadian, the International Education Program Director of the One Voice Movement, who was there to attempt to view some possible solutions and discuss them with the student body.

            “We’re in a position where we can talk with each other, and pretty much achieve not only your own educational mission, which is to be successful and graduate from Brooklyn College, but also the mission of the college, which is to create a community where we can have freedom of expression, a sharing of ideas and communication amongst people that may be different, but have many things in common,” Morales set the ground for the conversation by stating.

            David Horowitz was invited to the campus by Yosef Sobel, a student who had asked Associate Professor of Business Mitchell Langbert to reserve a room for the event after no other club on campus would sponsor this man’s appearance. On Langbert’s personal blog, he posted a thank-you letter to Horowitz that said, “Your work is critical to the nation’s future. Without you, the incipient totalitarianism in America’s universities would avoid the light of publicity.” One attendee of the meeting had asked what repercussions this professor would face for allowing an individual on campus that brutalized his audience with inflammatory remarks, but his concern was never addressed.

“I’m so surprised that a professor invited him, and I’m surprised that administration did not do a background check on what he was going to say. The things he said about Jewish students on campus feeling threatened by their Muslim classmates – if that’s not whipping up fear and hatred, then I don’t know what it is,” Sarah Pumar, one of the attendees of the meeting, said. “I hope there were some Jewish students that stood up to that because I really don’t see what it is that the Muslim student groups or Muslim students in general have been doing to contribute to that nonsensical idea [of racism.]”

Arifa Zaidi, joined by her brother Mohammad, pointed out many of the claims that Horowitz had made and picked them apart. One such statement was that non-Muslims were shunned from entering mosques and made to be felt as if they were enemies, while Zaidi illustrated an example of an atheist friend that she had brought to a mosque who was welcomed warmly by those inside. Another such claim was that mosques are a breeding ground for anti-Semitic speech, which Zaidi said, as a mosque-goer her entire life, was a complete fabrication and had no factual basis whatsoever, to the nods of many of her peers in the room.

“The atmosphere he created was very hostile. He was attacking Muslims in particular, and imposing this view that Muslims hate and want to attack Jews. It’s completely bogus and not at all in line with what the Qur’an teaches. Many times a student would speak out against him, and he would say, ‘No, you’re only speaking out against me because you are ignorant.’ Whereas, when he was actually trying to educate the students in the room, he was actually educating them with false notions,” Zaidi said during the discussion. “I’m offended, and I feel like Brooklyn College didn’t hold true to its mission statement, which to create an atmosphere that promotes academia and the inclusion of everyone, and living harmoniously with everyone at the college.”

Zaidi also voiced her objections to the choice of speaker in an e-mail to the administration of Brooklyn College, which has been reproduced in this newspaper. Also attached to the e-mail were a compilation of articles that showed why Horowitz was not a good choice because of his previous speeches.

“I did not go to this event because I did not support it. I know that Hillel also did not support it in general. Were there Jewish students there that agreed with what he was saying? Yes, there were. I was personally sickened by what he had to say,” Marcos Askenazi, a member of Tanger Hillel, said. “Sometimes people come to campus and create an atmosphere that doesn’t necessarily exist or they exaggerate an underlying problem. We really do need to work together to create a sense of civility on campus.”

Vice President Morales stressed that she did not want anyone yelling or hurting anyone else. She also said that freedom of expression is a huge concern while allowing guests to speak on campus, and she felt that some kind of screening process would deny an individual the right to free speech. Several people in the room did not agree with the latter statement and claimed that many of the speakers they – the Palestinian Club and others – had invited, including former Brooklyn College students, were in fact “heavily suggested” to not appear and concessions were made.

“The mission statement is the direction we want to go. Are we there yet? Probably not, and that’s why we’re here today talking about this,” Morales said. “This has not stopped us from coming together. If any person stopped us from having this conversation, then they deterred us, but they didn’t deter me, and they didn’t deter anyone in this room. You’re here in spite of what was said, and we will continue to move forward.”

The students who attended the event said that they felt like the security guards that were brought in because of the “high-profile” speaker were not for their protection, but for Horowitz. They said that the security surrounded them and made many of them so uncomfortable that they eventually ended up walking out.

“I was there, and I thought about the students that would have Professor Langbert and him sitting down there in that audience and not objecting reflects his own views. What about the Muslims in his class? I would feel threatened,” Sara Said, a 24-year-old graduate student, said with an impassioned voice. “And I seriously did feel threatened. I had to leave because I was afraid that they were just gonna carry on with making us look like the boogeyman.”

One Muslim student who wished to remain anonymous conveyed her feelings about the event by beginning with the words, “As a Muslim, I faced a lot of hatred outside of school, so I always felt like school should be my safe area. I have never, never…” but she was cut off by the tears that began to flood her eyes, and she did not speak again until the meeting was adjourned.

The same student later went on to say, “School is supposed to be a place where I feel comfortable because of the freedom of religion. Some of the students that were at the event clapping are some of the same people that are in my classes. I don’t feel safe or protected anymore.”

 “I think the problem is that we don’t want other people coming to our school and saying that we’re racist or that we’re horrible or that we’re evil or that we’re terrorists. We don’t want that; I think it’s a very basic request from us that we don’t want Horowitz or anyone else coming onto our campus and saying that we terrorize our fellow students because we don’t,” Usman Khan said. “All we want for you to do, our instructors and our professors, is to speak out against it. We’d love to see you guys respond positively to us, and say that this man was a racist and that what he said was wrong, and next time if you do invite him, that he will not speak in that way.”

Khan’s words were met with smiles and nods of agreement by many of the others attending this meeting. He went on further to make it clear that he had no problem with people like Horowitz coming on campus, but he did have a problem with the things he was saying. He stated that he would not be upset if Horowitz came back again, as long as he did not launch into a tirade of hateful comments against the students of Brooklyn College.

“I think everyone here can agree that Horowitz coming to speak here has contributed to an atmosphere of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment across the campus. I’m not Arab, and I’m not Muslim, but I’m deeply offended by the things that David Horowitz said, demonizing the religion in such a perverse way. I’m not even religious, but the things he said were absolutely disgusting,” Pumar said. “I don’t think the Muslim community should be defending themselves in the sense that they’re not terrorists because that should be understood. You can’t just characterize an entire community of people. That association should not be made, especially in the academic realm.”

Sajadian listed some possible resolutions of this problem as being: a screening of speakers, a formal apology given from the administration, a space for students from different backgrounds to talk with each other, taking action against the faculty member that invited Horowitz or an event concerning Islamophobia. The latter suggestion is already being implemented, with an event called “Misconceptions of Islam” being hosted on Thursday, March 24 at 5:00 p.m. in the Occidental Lounge of the Student Center.

“The college administration can’t be for or against [any speaker] because otherwise, we’d be denying somebody their freedom of speech. Do we want to have activities and programs that have a positive tone or invite conversation where the students are free to express themselves? I think I can say yes, that is what we want,” Morales stated.

Morales also said that President Gould would be sending a response to the many e-mails that concerned students had sent her about this incident. Many of the students in the office reacted very negatively to this, saying that they wanted an apology that everyone could see, and they did not want this situation to just be “swept under the rug.”

“I feel that Muslims in general are neglected in a certain way because not only are our speakers profiled and asked to give a bio – and we’re the only groups that are subject to that – but we get e-mails about saving Haiti and now the tsunami in Japan, but there was a flood in Pakistan that was totally ignored,” Abdelrahim Abdel, a student active in several clubs, said. “The administration tends to ignore our group of individuals. We are subjected to bad treatment. We’re not given the chance to grow or progress because we’re constantly put down in many different ways, whether direct or indirect.”

The meeting was ended by most of the students filing out to attend a required part of their religion, Jumu’ah, the Friday prayer. An official solution to the problem has not yet been reached.

The "Tombs" Fails At Having A Workable Bail System

This article was unpublished and was written on November 19, 2010.        

    

            It was Thursday, November 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the Manhattan Detention Complex, or better known as the “Tombs.” There were ten people standing in line, waiting for a representative to guide them through the steps for posting bail. The room was small, cramped and stuffy. There was a small, decaying wooden bench with three people sitting knee-to-knee, huddling in their jackets to brace themselves from the cold. The door was permanently propped open, and was unable to close to block out the wind. Many of the people there felt like they were the ones in jail.

            “They make it impossible to do anything over here. You waste the entire day in this place,” said Robert Angona, a 21-year-old resident of Astoria. “Everyone here is so nasty and unhelpful. I was yelled at for asking for a form.”

            There was a sign that said, “If no one is at the window, please ask reception for assistance.” No one was present at the reception window either. There was a clutter of dead flies gathered around the ceiling lights, and thick layers of dust covering the vents. The floor was dirty, covered with gum and what looked like dried blood. The walls were covered with graffiti of the names of former inmates. There were several coughs and a lot of groaning.

            It was Friday, November 19 at 1:30 a.m. and the same ten individuals were waiting to be served. When asked how long she had been waiting, one woman who preferred to remain anonymous said, “I’ve been waiting since 2 p.m. to pay a $1 bail. This system is [messed] up. I’m going to make sure this guy knows the [stuff] I had to deal with to get him out. It’s going to be worse than jail in my house once he’s let loose.” Not too long after, a Correctional Officer finally appeared behind the plexiglass window and began to serve the people in line. Each transaction took approximately 45 minutes, meaning the last person would get out sometime after the sun rose. It was just another normal day at the “Tombs.”

            Everyday many people wait on these lines in various Correctional Facilities around the city in hopes of having someone they know released from jail. In New York City, there is an average of approximately 13,000 to 18,000 inmates within the jail and prison system on a daily basis, according to the Department of Corrections. Even though there are so many individuals being detained, it appears that there is no system in place that operates in a timely manner and ensures that every convict is able to leave in the same timely fashion if they are able to, whether it is because they were wrongly convicted or an appropriate bail was posted. Some feel as though the Department of Corrections does not do a good job in any regard.

            “The jail system is a waste of time. It’s based on helping [to] pay the public debt,” said Ronald Louis, a 36-year-old resident of Crown Heights. “Each inmate only serves the government by the taxes the public provides to house them. It doesn’t reform the person at all; they just go out and commit the same crimes again.”

            On the flip side, the Department of Corrections does house many people that are actually guilty as well. The job that these officers do is very important to society, and perhaps they do not receive enough credit for dealing with criminals on a daily basis. According to the Department of Corrections, there were 63 Class A assaults on staff members as of 2009. A Class A assault is any assault with intent to injure or with some type of weapon. Correctional Officers also spend very long hours at the jail, and they often have very little time to actually sleep. These incidents and long shifts might explain why some Correctional Officers do not always exhibit the best displays of character despite the service they provide for society.

            Various Correctional Officers would not comment on the situation.

"A Game of Thrones" Book Review

Originally published in "The Kingsman" on November 25, 2010.
           “A Game of Thrones” is an epic fantasy that immerses its readers in a world startlingly similar to reality is George R. R. Martin’s first novel in the “A Song of Fire and Ice” series. The novel won the 1997 Locus Award, was nominated for the 1997 World Fantasy Award and the 1998 Nebula Award, and is currently on the “New York Times” Best Sellers list. It was quickly recognized in the fantasy world as one of the best novels after its release in 1996. To this day, some people still consider it to be in the upper echelon.

            The novel begins with a scene of the six children of Ned Stark discovering a dead dire wolf, which coincidentally had six pups, and each child takes one. The wolf pups will later go on to mirror the personalities of the kids, which is apparent from the fact that the five white ones go to Ned’s legitimate children, while the grey one pairs up with Ned’s bastard son, Jon.

“A Game of Thrones” touches on many political issues including royal families, the succession to the throne, and foreign nations. It also touches on some of society’s ills, such as incest and disabilities in many forms such as dwarfism and the loss of limbs.

Each chapter is told through the vivid perspective of a unique and individual character. The depth of Martin’s characters is amazing and is said to have made many readers not want to read another fantasy novel ever again. Each character has his or her ideas, motives, and intrigues, and no two are alike. There are no dumb characters here; each person has their own level of intelligence, which is frequently displayed through their actions.

The other characters initially introduced are members of the Lannister family and they share a connection to the Starks through Cersei Lannister’s husband, the King, who is the best friend of Ned Stark. The Lannisters tend to show us the harsher side of the world with their family’s inner strife, beginning with the incestuous relationship between Cersei and her brother, Jamie.

Martin has become famous for his use of descriptive language and lush imagery to create a world that all readers will immediately feel like they are a part of. Authors of fantasy novels are often criticized for their inability to kill characters that they spent so much time developing. However, this is not the case with Martin; you quickly learn the lesson that no character is immune to death, and you should not get too deeply attached to any of the people in “A Game of Thrones.” Martin very successfully portrayed a world of fantasy without the use of ‘fantastical’ elements, like magic or super-powerful characters. Every character in this story can easily be found in the world that we live in, and they are treated as such.

            “A Game of Thrones” has become so popular that it is being made into a TV series on HBO created by David Benioff and Dan Weiss in the spring of 2011, with names such as Sean Bean and Lena Headey starring in the program. This kind of syndication undoubtedly makes the novel a must-read, and this is now your chance to read it before the TV series becomes popular. Even so, this eight-hundred page novel should be populating your bookshelf if you are a die-hard fantasy lover. Overall, a sparkling 5 out of 5 stars.

Journalism Career Fair Leaves Students Feeling Disappointed

Originally published in "The Kingsman" on October 11, 2010.

            Students looking for a career were letdown at the CUNY Graduate Center on Friday, October 8 when they found out that the Journalism Career Fair was only offering internships.

            The Journalism Career Fair was designed to help students find a job in their desired field. CUNY described the event as a place where you could “attend workshops by representatives from print, broadcast and new media companies to gather insight on trade craft and career entry and advancement strategies.” Students were given the chance to talk to representatives from several different organizations, but they were only able to find opportunities for possible internship and not long-term careers.

            “This year’s fair was surprising. In the past, there were workshops and round-tables within the fair that gave it a different feel,” said 21-year-old Taneish Hamilton, a recent Brooklyn College graduate who received a Bachelor’s in Journalism. “While the fair was helpful to most, the companies didn’t offer jobs, but focused mainly on internships, which didn’t even pay at all.”

            Some of the companies that were present at the event included the New York Times, 1010 WINS, BRONXNET, City Limits, Legislative Gazette, Queens Courier, Sirius XM Radio and Village Voice. Some students voiced complaints that these companies were only looking to fill a certain niche.

            “As somebody who’s looking to start a career or a simple job in the media industry, I was disappointed to see that many of these companies were offering only internships. The fact that radio stations weren’t looking to hire people for talent, only for sales was very sad,” said a dismayed Alex DiBlasi, 23-year-old Musicology major who will be receiving his Master’s from the Conservatory of Music in May 2011.

            However, not all of the participants were dissatisfied with the career fair. Some students came to this event only hoping to find an internship that would serve as a college credit or to fill a much-needed spot on their resume for a potential future job position.

            “The career fair gave everyone a great opportunity to network with companies and receive information they needed to move forward with an internship or job. There were many companies at the career fair that I could see myself working for in the future,” said Danielle Saleh, a 20-year-old Journalism major. “I was glad to speak with representatives from each company and get the information that I needed. I also got a chance to meet other students who were at the career fair. There weren’t as many companies as last year’s fair, but it was still beneficial, and I enjoyed it.”