Cherubs interview 'man on the street'

By Alyson Weiss

A woman wearing black clothing passes out “No Skyscrapers” buttons to passersby in front of a potentially doomed shop, a one-year-old store that could be replaced by a skyscraper.

As she hands out the buttons in protest, Laurel Stankus, a cherub from Illinois, interviews her.

“You could tell that she really cared, not just about the prospect of losing her store,” Stankus said. “It was also about the people and how future generations would be affected by the commercialization of this town.”

Stankus and 87 other cherubs spent their first Saturday of the program on the streets of Evanston doing a journalistic exercise that instructor John Kupetz calls “gathering ignorance.”  

Students were required to interview at least three residents, get their full names and contact numbers, then write a feature story about a proposed skyscraper in Evanston.

The assignment forced many students to conduct real-world interviews for the first time. Cherub Molly Davis of Los Angeles said she felt nervous about the assignment.

“I wasn’t sure how receptive people would be of me just going up to them in the street or in stores and asking for an interview,” Davis said. “I felt like I was intruding.”

Lynn Zukerman, a cherub from California, said her fears were confirmed when a man she was interviewing gave her only noncommittal responses before refusing to give his name or phone number, then walked away.

“Getting turned down sucks, but it’s just another part of the experience,” Zukerman said.

After a few interviews, many cherubs came out of their shells, said Sam Pape, a cherub from Washington D.C.

“I approached this lady who didn’t look like she had a lot to say, but I ended up having a 20-minute conversation with her,” Pape said.

Before starting the assignment, cherubs got a packet of background information on the proposed skyscrapers and a brief tutorial on how to approach strangers.
 
“We wanted to think of a way to get cherubs into Evanston and talking to residents and practice interviewing strangers, so we picked a topic that we felt people in Evanston would have an opinion on,” instructor Jacqueline Chmielnicki said.

Alexandra Sliwkowski, a cherub from Massachusetts, studied the packet, did her own research and wrote down a list of statistics she could discuss during the interview before she hit the streets.

“You need to be educated because if the person you’re interviewing doesn’t know something, you need to help them,” Sliwkowski said. “You’re supposed to be the expert.”

While Stankus engaged in a 45-minute interview with the store employee handing out buttons, her perception of the skyscraper topic changed.

“I wasn’t enamored with the topic at first,” Stankus said. “I didn’t understand why people would get so concerned about a skyscraper. But, after I really got out and started listening to how passionate people were about either having or not having this building, it really started to get my interest. By the time I wrote the story, it was really exciting.