Interviewing a COA Student

This weekend, I worked on developing my interviewing skills by sitting down with a fellow COA student. While I have conducted interviews before, being asked to analyze what I learned from the experience was a new goal.

Usually when conducting interviews, there is some sort of goal: a product you expect to achieve by the end of the session through necessary means. Not having that particular goal allowed me to pay more attention to methodology. 

When interviewing session first began, I spent some time talking to Grace S. of Seafox to start the conversation consciously with the reporting notebook present. Often times, the presence of the reporting notebook intimidates the interviewee. Talking prior to going 'on the record' helps to eliminate some of this. 

A bad habit that I noticed in myself during the actual interview was that I tend to try and write everything down. Developing my short-hand is something that I aim to work on while conducting interviews for the remainder of the course and beyond. 

The substance of what I did record from my interview with Grace was quite fascinating to me. Grace grew up in Western Massachusetts, but not the Western Massachusetts that those from outside of the area would think. Grace said this to say about her area: "we have the highest teen suicide rate, the highest teen pregnancy rate, and gang violence." In addition, Grace mentioned that in the last two years, a meth lab exploded in the veterinarian's son's house, and a leader of Hell's Angel murdered seven people in the woods. Grace said that the longer she spent in that area, her opinion of her area being terrible was reinforced. This part of Massachusetts was very rural, more so Grace said, than our town of Bar Harbor. 

Attending COA was a no-brainer for Grace: "I would envision myself coming here," she said. Four years ago, Grace's family visited Acadia for two weeks. Upon passing the COA sign, Grace was prompted to visit the website. In her mid-teens, Grace boldly stated that at the time, she thought if she didn't get into COA, she wasn't going anywhere else. Grace says that while in high school, she read more about COA, and was ready to be out of high school after her freshman year. 

While Grace really loves COA, it was not as perfect as she thought it would be. COA is still school, in a small town, with nothing around. However, Grace said that she feels safe here, and being so close to town is a big advantage. At the end of the day, Grace says that Maine is more of a home to her. Clustered in an older house of twenty-six students, one might have no choice but to feel embraced by the unique offerings of College of the Atlantic. Welcome home, Grace.