Project Description
Inspired by “Humans of New York”, Humans of the SOuth Bay is a compilation of stories and portraits of people from our community. Every story being displayed was told by a personal interview that each student prepared for with the interviewee of their choice. Through this project, our sophomore class worked on our researching skills, our ability to pose deep thinking questions, and our ability to build and craft a story based on pieces of information that was given in our interview. Here is the link to our Human of the South Bay page.
Process
Before we conduct our interview, we put a lot of thought into the person we were going to interview to make sure we could get the best story out of our interview. Once we chose the person we were going to interview, we brainstormed about the potential stories we would like to hear about. For example, if someone was in the military during the WWII era, you would want to research about WWII. The reason why this is important is so you can have prior knowledge of the topic so you can follow along with their story.
My Interview
I conducted my interview with my great-grandma Isabelle Mendoza. In the beginning, I thought I was going to interview her about being a Rosie the Riveter during the WWII era; but our interview took a turn for the better. She explained to me about her days of being a Rosie, but the passion came when she started speaking about her love for my great-grandpa Tony. I decided to go with the best story that was being told and create new questions based on what was being told to meet develop a new story. This process was not awkward at all because my great-grandma and I are close so it was as if we were having a normal conversation rather than a formal interview.
You can read more about my interview and experience with my interviewee by clicking here: Isabelle Mendoza
You can read more about my interview and experience with my interviewee by clicking here: Isabelle Mendoza
Documents From the Process
Interview Outline: An interview outline is sort of like a map for the audio recording of your interview. The way that this works is you listen to the who interview and jot down a brief description of what is being said and the times when it begins and starts. It is used as a tool to help you decide which clips from the interview you are going to be using. Here is the link to my Interview Outline.
Reflection
I interviewed my great grandma because she is a person that I have been very close to throughout my entire life but I had never learned much about her life and when she was young. I felt like this whole process would be very much more exciting and important to if I interviewed someone who actual meant a lot to me.In the interview I learned about how my great grandma and great grandpa met. Isabelle shared with me the smallest the most monumental ones; from their first date, the details of what they wore to their wedding, and when she lost him. My great grandma was thrilled that she was being interviewed. She takes my education very seriously because she tells me as a child she didn't but she wishes she had; she wants the best for me. By being apart of my project brought her happiness but I think the best part was that she was able to become my project by just speaking to me. If I could interview another person like this I would interview my dad about his childhood to learn about how it's different from mine.