Twelve UCSB student journalists have just returned from doing field work in Berlin on the university’s first international reporting trip, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Students fanned out through the city, carrying out interviews and attending events to publish feature stories on topics that range from German identity, to the European refugee crisis, to the role of Techno music in the city’s culture.
Other feature packages that will appear in late July as part of a “Berlin Beyond Borders” special publication include close-ups on Asians in Berlin, the LGBTQ community, the city’s leadership in urban sustainability, and much more.
Students have already been publishing a behind-the-scenes blog about their experiences reporting from Berlin, which can be viewed here: Berlin Beyond Borders .
Writing Program lecturer Nomi Morris led the course, which was offered by UCSB Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE) as part of the Journalism Certificate, a collaboration with the Writing Program. Morris, a former foreign correspondent, had covered the 1989 opening of the Berlin Wall and lived in the city during the first post-Wall years. The journalism certificate program is heading into its final academic year, after which a journalism track in the Writing Minor is planned for students interested in this field.
While in Berlin this past two weeks, students met with the Press Attache at the US Embassy at its historic site next to the Brandenburg Gate, and they met with the Sunday Magazine editor of the daily Tagesspiegel newspaper. Some students chose to visit the Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial and museum, and others gained invitation-only access to Berlin Fashion Week.
The city’s economy is booming and construction is everywhere. UCSB students are writing about architecture in Berlin, the city’s role as tech start-up hub, and resident reaction to gentrification.
UCSB journalism students at a remaining piece of the Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse. From left to right, Carly Kay, Amanda Rodriguez, Jade Martinez-Pogue and Jessica Reincke.
UCSB photojournalists Noe Padilla, left, and Dana dela Cruz, compare shots from the dome atop Berlin’s Reichstag parliament building, redesigned by British architect Norman Foster after German reunification.
All explored the city when they didn’t have interviews booked. That included a group outing to Prussian king Frederick the Great’s Sanssouci palace in Potsdam, and a sunset visit to the dome atop the Reichstag parliament building . A local German-American friendship group invited the UCSB students to celebrate Fourth of July at the Allied Museum, located in the former U.S. military sector.
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Writing Program lecturer Nomi Morris, in red shawl, with UCSB journalism students at a Fourth of July celebration at the Allied Museum in Berlin