Oh, the places you'll go...
Cherub classrooms at Medill

By Alyson Weiss

Fisk 217

Fisk Hall, built in 1899 but renovated in 1989, is home to most of the lectures of the program. Room 217 has chairs equipped with swinging desks, along with reclining capabilities. (Watch out, though, because they squeak.)

The stage has three sliding chalkboards, so professors can critique three times as many leads all at the same time. Smart Classroom technology gives instructors use of the Internet, an overhead projector, a video player and the ability to have writing projected in real time. Video blog presentations and optional Sunday technology workshops are also held here.

“It’s so cold, only penguins live there,” said Erin Jentz, a cherub from Spring, Texas. “It was definitely hard to plan your wardrobe sometimes, because it would be hot outside, but you get inside Fisk and it’s freezing. Still, Fisk Hall is very spacious. I didn’t feel closed in, and we have 88 people.”

Fisk Computer Labs

Students share each of the four computer labs. Room 306 has no air conditioning, but does have wooden floors that are perfect for wheeling chairs across the room. Down the hall, carpeted room 309 has air conditioning. And the temperatures of carpeted rooms 307 and 308 are somewhere in between.

The high-speed Internet access provides students with the perfect opportunity to research stories and occasionally check certain social networks. Chairs don’t recline, but they do have levers that adjust their height. The smaller room creates a perfect atmosphere for group discussions and workshops.

“Getting to work with other people around you is very different than having to work alone,” said David Tintner, a cherub from Cooper City, Fla. “You feel inspired by those sitting around you. The stairs don’t bother me, because I use the elevator. We counted, and it’s about 60 steps up to the third floor. So by using the elevator, I am saving myself 120 steps about three times a day. So that’s 360 steps a day, times five weeks, seven days a week. That’s a lot of stairs.” (That’s 12,600 stairs, to be exact, in a cherub’s career.)

McCormick Tribune Center

McCormick Tribune Center, built in 2002 and referred to as “McTrib,” is the place for movie nights and special-guest lectures. Additionally, some of the larger workshops take place in here. Slightly warmer than Fisk, McTrib has upholstered chairs that do not recline.

“I really like McCormick. It’s very high-tech and looks new and clean,” said Elise Brown, a cherub from Chicago. “It’s like a mini movie theater. And I just love the look of it. The lobby area is so open and new looking.”

John J. Louis Hall

Cherubs use the John J. Louis Hall during broadcast labs. Instructor Sarahmaria Gomez and Northwestern Professor Ava Greenwell teach in the fully-equipped broadcast studios in this hall, located next to Norris Center. Students film live segments twice during the program.

“When I first walked in, I felt like I was home,” said Jazz White, a cherub from New Orleans. “For the first time during the Cherub trip, I wasn’t sitting at a desk writing. I was looking at cameras, I was at the desk reading, I was pretending to be the Northwestern news anchor. I saw myself there and I felt instantly connected to it.”