Today was a fun day for me. I drove out to meet Vicki Koelsch, former admissions director, associate admissions director, and Upper School librarian at Maumee Valley. I interviewed her at her house, where we spent over an hour talking about her work at Maumee Valley as it related to one of my seven themes: Maumee Valley’s International Student Program. Talking for her was very natural, and it will be a daunting task when I begin reviewing the audio recording for direct quotes.
These were some of the questions I asked her:
What were the motivations behind the school’s wanting to expand the international student program?
What was your job in this long term project?
What mistakes did the school make in attempting to expand the international student program?
I also asked Mrs. Koelsch to talk about her views of the Lower School music program, to help me with my narrative piece on Mrs. Sieberg and the music program she had worked so hard to build.
After my morning interview with Mrs. Koelsch, I had an afternoon interview with Mr. Fish. Mr. Fish was a different type of interview subject. His responses to my questions, although not of lower quality, tended to be shorter, and it sometimes took a little longer for me to get the types of responses I wanted. This was partly because some of the questions I wrote could have been phrased differently that would have made it more clear what type of response I wanted to elicit, but also because I was interviewing two different types of people.
For example, this is one of the questions I asked: What is the role of Boosters in Upper School athletics?
His answer talked about what the Boosters does, but I had to follow up a few times until I got the answer what I really wanted, which was an understanding of how the role of Boosters played a success in Upper School athletics at Maumee Valley.
I will be reviewing my questions for other upcoming interviews to make sure that they are clear.
Thankfully, all of the interview subjects I have had so far have done a good job of speaking candidly and at length, and not only does this allow me to better understand and feel the stories that they talk about, but this will also make it easier for me to take direct quotes when I begin writing the narrative.
On another note, I found out that two of the interviews I had scheduled needed to be cancelled, and no opportunity was available to reschedule either of them. Although this is frustrating, I understand that asking someone to be interviewed is not only a time commitment, but also an experience that requires getting out of one’s comfort zone, and I need to respect them for whatever reasons that they needed to cancel. On the flip side, I am currently working on finding other interview subjects who can help me give perspectives and stories in place of the individuals whom I had originally planned to interview.
No comments:
Post a Comment