Try your hand at journalism by researching and writing articles for your school paper! What issues would you like to cover? 

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Write for your school newspaper!

Watch this interview with New York Times food critic, Ruth Reichl, to learn more about what it's like to be a food critic. Does this sound like a career you would be interested in? 

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Find out more about what it's like to be a food critic.

Get a jump start on what you want do in college or test your interest before you get there by taking a class in creative writing!

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Take a class in creative writing.

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Revise work to meet editorial approval or to fit time or space requirements.

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Restaurant Critic

♪♪ ♪♪ [electric saw] [electric saw] [tree crashing down] [car engine starts] ♪♪ ♪♪ (female #1)  We're taking a Roadtrip  across the U.S., and, along the way, interviewing people we find interesting, because all three of us are college students kind of confused as to where to go. And so we're asking people how they found their road, and how they got to where they are...tell us their story. Hopefully that'll help us. (all) Hi! Hi, I'm Erica. Hello, Erica. I'm Diana. Good to meet you. (female #2) Kind of put yourself back in our shoes: What were you like when you were 21 years old? I always thought, "What am I gonna do with the rest of my life?" You really don't have to make up your mind. At least this is my perspective: I really didn't have to make up my mind about what I was gonna do for the rest of my life, because I had potentially 60 years to deal with things as they came along. When the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, I got my draft notice. I enlisted for three years, and two of those years were spent in France.  One year in the southwest, and one year in Paris, and this is where I really learned to eat. I'm from a Creole Acadian family, and my mother was a wonderful, wonderful cook. So I grew up with good food, which I think is very important, if you're gonna eventually write about food. On returning...from France, I went to work as a journalist assignment reporter at the newspaper, I was really getting tired of working in the office, behind a computer, editing, making assignments. It just...it was an office job. So I went to my editor and said, "I don't want to do this anymore. Is there anything else I can do?" And when he said," We need a restaurant reviewer," I said, "Why don't we just stop right there." So I went to three restaurants, wrote some sample reviews, and he read them and we decided to go ahead with it. How did you find your focus? How did you know it was was journalism, instead of creative writing, or being a professor or something like that? Everyday when you walked in, everything was fresh. I found myself going to work early just to find out what I was going to be doing that day. You have to have it inside, and writing was just something I found I was good at, and I stuck to it. If you can find a job that gives you-- and I'm sure there are millions like me who start a job and find that it's a perfect fit. It's just the greatest feeling you can possibly have. If you get up in the morning, and sort of schlep around and say, "Oh my god, here I go again. I have to do this." That's not success.  You really have to be confident that what you want to enter in the way of a career corresponds to the talents you have for that. You are gonna... are you seniors? We're going  to be, yeah. You're gonna have-- A year from now the pressures on you are gonna be extraordinary. The great advantage that you have at your age is that nothing is forever. You can change as many times as you want. I took it for granted when I was young, and maybe you do too. Never lose sight of the fact that you can turn back. You get passionate about things that are constantly renewing themselves in your consciousness... that you're constantly finding new ways to enjoy. That's what passion, I think, is all about. I am so encouraged by seeing young people with solid educations, and a lot of intellect, becoming chefs and carpenters and furniture makers, and they're happy. They're proud and they accomplish things. And I think before you can accomplish something, you really have to love what you're doing. You wanna get some lunch? Yeah, that would be great. I just felt so special that somebody was interested in what I thought about all this stuff. [laughter] ♪♪ (female #2) They're huge! (Diana) Wow. [laughter] (Erica)  Oh, that was  really good. (female #2)  Yeah, huh? That was great. ♪♪ ♪♪ (male #1)  Hi there. (all) Hi! How are all of you? Meredith. Cristina. Bernardo, nice to  meet you. (Meredith) Everything on the  right here is my property. (Cristina) Wow! ♪♪ (Cristina) So, we're all in our 20s, just wanna ask you where you were in our age and our shoes? Alright...I went to Utah State University in Logan, Utah. I ended up getting into plant science with a minor in biology,  and I really enjoyed that. I just thrived on that. In the summers I'd come back here and work on our family ranch. When I was a senior I interviewed for a few different jobs, and they just weren't quite what I wanted to do. I still hadn't made the decision to come back here, back to where I'd grown up. It probably seems odd that I hadn't made up my mind yet, to come back here, anyway, but every remembrance that I have of that is I just wasn't settled on what I wanted to do and become. And yet, when I made the choice to come here, even though it...I suspect there was probably part of me that, all along, I knew  this is what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be, and yet it just hadn't spoken itself to me. And so it was just at that time that I decided to come here, and I've never regretted it. I've always been thankful for the choice I made. You need to do what makes you happy. Because, money in and of itself... a lot of people work at a specific job for money-- This is my own opinion: money in and of itself doesn't bring happiness. Doing what you enjoy, being with those you love, being with your family, those are the kind of things that bring lasting happiness. And then the trick is -- and this is probably what you're trying to do, too -- is to find an occupation you can do that allows you to be happy, and to be with those you love, doing the things you want to do. (Cristina) When you came back, and you said, "This is where I wanna be," and you were happy being home, how did that make you feel? Just knowing that this is where you wanted to be? Well, it just felt right.  Just to be able to, again, be outdoors all the time. That's really how most of my life is. If we just take the time to use all of our senses in whatever environment we're in, it can really enlighten us, I believe. Just to be able to see the beauty that is around. And so...the sky can change its color with the clouds and different things,  and the sunrise and sunset, and the winds and the smells, and just all of that I guess. Those are the things that I really enjoy about being here is to just look for the beauty in whatever I'm doing, wherever I'm at.  Frankly, life in and of itself, can be so busy, especially in our culture. I think here in the United States  we get really out of balance. We just think: work, work, work, and that's all there is, and make the money. Get a fancy car and big house, and that really puts us out of balance. To be balanced just requires a lot of other aspects: there's a spiritual aspect, and just the emotional aspects of our life, and social...sharing with others. And so I guess for me it helps fulfill some of those other needs to be able to give back, but also just to be balanced, and I think that's what brings happiness. ♪♪ ♪♪ Hey! How you guys doing? Good to see you! (Cristina)  Hello! (Gerard) How you doing? (Bernardo)  Were you in this position when you were our age? Undecided? (Gerard) When I was your age I was married and had kids, man. Yeah, I got married when I was 19. I was the same way: I sorta had a direction by then, but when I first...I grew up on a reservation, on Fort Weather Reservation, outside of a little town called Manderee that belonged to the Apukaw'I'u Clan, which is what we call the Low Cap Clan. My parents...my dad was a rancher, and all they knew was ranching. I wanted to ranch all my life; that was my goal. You don't know anything about bookwork or bills. You don't know about money... we didn't have any money. The place I grew up at is about 30 miles from the nearest national park, and I didn't know anything about it. We never had a car, so we didn't go any place. We did get a car one time, a '56 Chevy... We went to the park, and I was just amazed. I thought I was in a different world. It had huge trees, and it was just river bottom, and it was all nice, neat roads, and people camping. And I thought that was just fantastic. I went to a college in Bismarck, North Dakota called Mary College, on a basketball scholarship. I played ball for them. And I was 18, 19... I had gotten married at 19, and no idea what I was going to do. I'd party pretty crazy back then, and I flunked out. I'd go back to my grandpa all the time, one of my clan grandfathers. When I flunked out of school, him and my dad, Mandy, gave me hell. They said, "You're not a warrior," And that hit me. They said, "You're not a warrior." They pointed at my books I brought back when I flunked and they said, "That kicked your (...)." They said, "You can't even beat a pile of books." And I really got mad about that inside... it hurt like hell. I started looking at the what I was gonna do, and the park service really made sense to me. At that time I figured, "Well yeah, my life... "I do wanna work in the park service, and that's what I'm gonna do." So my first job in the park service was cleaning toilets at the park, and down at the camp ground. I cleaned toilets, I picked up trash, I registered people for camping. That kind of stuff, which is the bottom rung; that's what you do. By the time I got through with that first summer, I realized this is what I want to do for a career. My first full-time job was at Knife or Vieni villages. It was the villages of our ancestors. They made a national park, it was really unique there. You know, it's really good to understand what the natural environment is about - your natural resources. But I think it's even more important to understand what your cultural resources are of that particular country. So I started giving lectures, and I set up the educational programs for the park to the schools. So I got this call  saying there was a job opening at Little Big Horn Battlefield, the old Custer battlefield of Montana. And they want me to apply for it, so I did. It took me four times; three times it didn't go through. The fourth one finally did. I got the job, and that was my first superintendant in the park service. But it was a really controversial area. It was really controversial. When I left Little Big Horn I had seven confirmed death threats on me, and I had to petition to the president for my removal. Because what I did there is I brought the Indian people back into Little Big Horn. Before that it was all seventh Cav: it was George Custer. It was the only place in a National Park System that we honored a loser. We didn't honor the tribes, we didn't honor the land. We honored him. It was called Custer National Monument. I said, "Let's not just interpret the U.S. Cav. Let's interpret who these guys were as well." And people weren't used to that. There was about 20,000+ Custer buffs, and most of them are good people, but there's some that are absolutely terrible. We're hearing it from a different direction, and they wouldn't accept it. It was a constant battle. I had a guy, my first week there, and he told me, "I wish it was 200 years ago and we were both alive," he said, "so I could throw your babies in the air and catch them with my bayonet." And the guy was serious. I got stuff like that all the time. I started getting calls in the middle of the night, and they'd call my kids and say, "You better say goodbye to your daddy. We're gonna kill him tomorrow. " What kept you there? Why would you-- Stubbornness. What I start realizing is that I, or what I was doing, was actually making a difference, otherwise they wouldn't have been threatening me like that. My boss offered me this job at Mount Rushmore. I'm the first American Indian to be the superintendent in this place, and I'm very proud of that. It's a heck of a challenge. What I gotta do, though, is prove why I'm here. As an Indian person, and as a minority, I think we had to know double. I have to know more than my contemporaries to prove myself. There was times when it was very easy to give up. I mean, nobody can beat you, I don't care who you are, if you don't let them. I had to keep my mouth shut and take a lot of crap. But they do it because they're ignorant. They're uneducated...I don't care if they've got PhDs, if they're prejudiced or racist, or whatever, they're unintelligent.  That's what I wanna preserve: the respect for ourselves, the respect for the environment, and the need to be warriors again, male and females, to go to school and conquer that enemy, and come out learning academics, and come out learning your culture...keep your culture. That's what I wanna preserve. How did you get from  holding back to overcoming all these obstacles? (Gerard)  By people making  fun of me. (Cristina) Yeah? How did you take that, though? I was told, when I was a senior in high school, two days before my graduation, I was told by this nun-- I went to a Catholic boarding school. She said, "The best thing you can do with your life," she was serious about this, she says, "...is get a good job pumping gas in a gas station and stay with it. That's your life." I was told that two days before I graduated. And the highlight of my life-- well, some of the highlight was going back to that same school and being the last graduation speaker they had. That was my highlight, after that nun told me that. And I got to tell the whole audience that I'm not working the gas station, by the way. I'm a park superintendent. I said "Maazageetoas!" In my language that means thank you. "Happy driving, as you explore America. Pray each day. Aho, Yellow Wolf." (Cristina)  Yellow Wolf? (Gerard)  That's my name, yeah. (Gerard) Okay, you guys take care (Cristina) Thank you so much!  (Gerard)  You betcha. Have a good trip. (Cristina)  Thanks. I'm just really happy that we got to talk to him. Something about Gerard was just really powerful. He had a lot, a lot of obstacles, not only for him, but just his entire past. How can I let something  as small as books, or whatever comes my way, beat me, in a sense? I guess, taking advantage of what's in front of us as far as parents and grandparents having the stories of their struggles, and how we can use that to overcome our struggles, even though they might be different-- Just like we're doing, hearing other people's stories. How can we use what they obtained from their struggles to overcome ours? ♪♪ (Erica) It makes your life more fulfilling, if you see your life as small successes, and you don't get too caught up in pursuing the future-- There's not one grand success you're working towards; There are all these little ones you can draw fulfillment from, and not some big thing you have all this pressure to work towards. (Diana)  Every time you make a decision that you really endorse, you can say that's success. It's a type of success. (Cristina)  You can keep going despite those fears and struggles. It seems like fear isn't as strong as it used to be for me. I think I've grown a lot in these past two weeks. I mean, it's a different experience. It's more enlightening; I'm learning more. I'm seeing more things than I've seen before. (female #3)  You need to do what you love, and just keep doing it. Keep moving in different areas of interest, so that way you finally figure it out. Even if you make  the wrong decision you'll at least have that comfort and that's sense of peace that you made a decision. Then you have to roll with it and prepare to land flat on your face. (male #2) There are a lot of directions I could really push right now. I'm young, and these decisions I'm gonna make will change the course of my life. If you can find yourself in a position doing what you love to do, nothing will make you happier than that. (Candace)  Everyday we get to  talk to people... that's a little bit of success. You take away something from every interview you go to...that's success. ♪♪ (female #3)  I don't know if anyone  ever told me that time flies as quickly as it does...but it really does. So grab it with gusto. The people you surround yourself with are also the influence on who you are. If you hang around a bunch of mopers and do-nothings, that's probably what you're gonna be. I never sat down and thought, "I'm gonna build a monster truck or a big foot." It just happened. It's extremely important to set goals for yourself. The alternative is just to float. (female announcer)  To watch more interviews  from the road and listen to the music that keeps us driving, visit www.roadtripnation.com. Online you can learn more about the Movement and how to bring the Experience into your classroom. ♪♪ ♪♪ 

<p>The next stop is New Orleans where the Southern route interviews Gene Bourg, food critic. In Alta, Wyoming, the team interviews rancher Meredith Wilson. Next, the team heads to Mount Rushmore to interview Gerard Baker, Mt. Rushmore Park Superintendent.</p>

New Orleans - Mount Rushmore

Hi. [LAUGH] >> I'm Erica. >> Hello, Erica. >> Diana. >> I'm sorry? >> Diana. Good to see you. >> Nice to meet you. >> Hi, I'm Candace. >> Candace? >> Nice to meet you. >> Kind of put yourself back in our shoes. So what were you like when you were 21 years old? >> I always thought, well, what am I gonna do with the rest of my life? You really don't have to make up you, at least this is my perspective, I really didn't have to make up my mind about what I was gonna do for the rest of my life, because I had potentially 60 years to deal with things as they came along. When the Berlin wall went up in 1961, I got my draft notice. I enlisted for three years, and two of those years were spent in France, one year in the southwest and one year in Paris. And this is where I really learned to eat. >> [LAUGH] >> I'm from a Creole Acadian family, and my mother a wonderful, wonderful cook. So I grew up with good food, which I think is very important. If you know to eventually write about food. On returning from France, I went to work as a General Assignment Reporter at the newspaper. I was really getting tired of working in the office behind a computer, editing, making assignments. It was an office job. So I went to my editor and I said, I don't want to do this anymore, and is there anything else I can do? And when he said, we need a restaurant reviewer, I said, why don't we just stop right there? So I went to three restaurants, wrote some sample reviews, and he read them and we decided to go ahead with it. >> How did you find your focus? How did you know it was journalism instead of creative writing, or being a professor, or something like that? >> Every day, when you walked in everything was fresh. I found myself going to work early just to find out what I was gonna be doing that day. You have to have it inside, and writing was just something that I found I was good at and I stuck to it. If you can find a job that gives you, and I'm sure that there are millions like me who start a job, and find that it's a perfect fit. It's just the greatest feeling you can possibly have. If you get up in the morning, and sort of schlep around and, you know, you say, oh my God, here I go again, I have to do this, and bla bla bla, that's not success. I think you really have to be confident that what you want to enter, in the way of a career, corresponds to the talents that you have for that. You are gonna, I don't know how, are you seniors? >> We're going to be, yeah. >> [CROSSTALK] We're gonna be, you're gonna have a year from now, the pressures on you are gonna be extraordinary. The great advantage that you have at your age, is that nothing is forever. You can change, as many times as you want. I took it for granted when I was young, and maybe you do too, but you should never lose sight of the fact that you can turn back. You get passionate about things sort of constantly renewing themselves in your consciousness, and you're constantly finding new ways to enjoy. That's what passion I think is all about. I am so encouraged by seeing young people with solid educations, a lot of intellect Becoming chefs and carpenters and furniture makers. And they're happy, they're proud, and they accomplish things. And I think before you can accomplish something you have to love what you're doing. You want to get some lunch? >> Yeah, great >> I just felt so special that somebody was so interested in all this stuff what I thought about all these years. [LAUGH] 

Confidence

Focus

Passion

Pressure

Success

Talent

Interview

You are gonna, and I don't know how, are you seniors? >> We're going to be, yeah. >> You're gonna have a year from now, the pressures on you are gonna be extraordinary. The great advantage that you have at your age is that nothing is forever. You can change as many times as you want. I took it for granted when I was young, and maybe you do too, but you should never lose sight of the fact that you can turn back. 

Nothing Is Forever

In 1961, I got my draft notice. I enlisted for three years, and two of those years were spent in France. One year in the southwest, and one year in Paris. And this is where I really learned to eat. Uh, I'm from a Creole Acadian family, but-- and my mother was a wonderful, wonderful cook. So I grew up with good food, which I think is very important, uh, if you eventually want to write about food. On returning, um... from France, I went to work as a general assignment reporter at the newspaper, so I went to my editor and I said, "I don't wanna do this anymore, and is there anything else "I can do?" And when he said, uh, "We need a restaurant reviewer," I said, "Why don't we just stop right there?" And I'm sure of it, there are millions like me, who start a job and find that it's a perfect fit. It's just the greatest feeling you could possibly have. 

Gene Bourg

Restaurant Critic

Videos

Gene Bourg

Milestones

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Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Food

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