Posted by Shannon McDonald on August 31, 2009
Though I’ve been working long hours to monetize my latest project, NEast Philly, I’m still looking for part-time/full-time/freelance paid work.
To date, I’ve sent several dozen applications for various writing and editing jobs – and as many, if not more, Craigslist gigs. My ideal job would be something involving copy editing, as I am a grammar/style nerd through and through. But I’ve also expressed interest in reporting jobs and some grant writing opportunities.
The most frustrating aspect has been the dozens of unanswered e-mails and calls. If I take the time to write a cover letter and send my resume, I’d at least like some sort of canned response, or even a “No, we’re not hiring anymore” message. I understand times are tough, and I’m fully aware I’m competing for jobs with more experienced candidates, but I’d like to know where I stand with employers. What are people’s reasons for not returning e-mails? Did the job I applied for expired? Have you already hired someone? Am I underqualified? Overqualified? Is there something specific on my resume you liked or didn’t like?
I can handle the truth. In fact, I’d prefer to know the ugly truth than be left wondering why some employers respond to all inquiries while others remain silent even after numerous followups. Until someone does respond with a much-anticipated “Yes, I’ll hire you,” I plan to keep building my hyperlocal news site and apply to every semi-relevant job I can find.
Posted in Work | Tagged: copy editing, employment, freelance, journalism, NEast Philly | 1 Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on July 15, 2009
Posts on here have been sparse, and for good reason. I’ve been spending the past few months working on my latest project, NEastPhilly.com.
NEast Magazine is a magazine for Northeast Philadelphia – a large, but widely ignored region of Philadelphia. I’ve been working with many people to help set up the Web site and generate content.
My contributions aside, NEast Philly has some other regular writers, including two columnists.
NEastPhilly.com is the only daily news source for Northeast Philadelphia, with multiple stories per day. And come Spring 2010, NEastPhilly will publish a glossy magazine, NEast, which will print quarterly.
To learn more about NEast Magazine, visit NEastPhilly.com, or contact me here.
Posted in NEast Magazine | Tagged: NEast Magazine, NEastPhilly, Northeast Philadelphia | 1 Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on May 6, 2009
Port Richmond resident Michael Duffy looks at images of his neighborhood's waterfront history.
This article ran on Page 2 of the May 6, 2009 edition of The Fishtown Spirit, where I work as a writer and copy editor.
“Pulaski Park is a little piece of the Delaware Waterfront,” said Joy Lawrence of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society at last week’s meeting about plans for the area. “It’s a hidden gem, and we want to talk about our vision for the future.”
Lawrence set the tone for last Wednesday’s meeting at Our Lady of Port Richmond, where residents of the riverwards came to find out what’s in store for Pulaski Park and the rest of the Delaware Waterfront.
Residents of all ages came to hear plans from several groups involved in the project. Present were representatives from the New Kensington Community Development Corp., Delaware River City Corp., the Department of Recreation and Philadelphia Green. The representatives took turns presenting a slideshow, which outlined the waterfront’s current progress and plans for the near future.
“Our main goal is to introduce the plan for Pulaski Park,” Sandy Salzman of the NKCDC told The Spirit. “It’s a w
onderful little park. A lot of people aren’t aware it’s there.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Fishtown Spirit | Tagged: Barbara McCabe, Delaware River City Corp, Department of Parks and Recreation, Fishtown Spirit, Friends of Pulaski Park, Leslie Schuster, Michael Diberardinis, New Kensington CDC, Our Lady of Port Richmond, Pennsylvania Horticultual Society, Philadelphia Green, Port RIchmond, Port Richmond Waterfront, Pulaski Park, Sarah Thorp | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on March 27, 2009
Shannon McDonald | Wilmington News Journal | March 27,2009
This is a story I wrote for the Wilmington News Journal in Delaware about some great stores in Philadelphia that people should stop by when they visit. I also took the photos.
The next time you visit the City of Brotherly Love, take the locals’ approach to shopping: mix it up, hit several neighborhoods and avoid the box stores.
Advertisement
You’ll find that Philly’s shopping scene is more than The Gallery and South Street. Unique stories can be found around the city — and they offer friendly service, reasonable prices and exceptional quality.
Start from the south and work your way north for a memorable trip. If you don’t want to drive, every neighborhood in Philadelphia is easily accessible by public transportation.
Here are five stores (with photos) worth a look.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Wilmington News Journal | Tagged: Book Trader, Delicious Boutique and Corseterie, Dress Up Time, Famous 4th Street Deli, Gayborhood, Mayfair, Northeast Philadelphia, Northern Liberties, Old City, P.H.A.G., Philadelphia, Queen Village, South Philadelphia, Wilmington News Journal | 1 Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on March 25, 2009
This is a story I did for MURL, Temple University’s senior journalism class. The assignment was to go out into your assigned neighborhood – in my case, Strawberry Mansion- and report on how the residents feel about Mayor Michael Nutter’s budget proposal. This was a team reporting project, but I was responsible for the written portion.
Eric Jones* is almost 3 years old. His age is painfully apparent as his faulty legs struggle to carry him up the jungle gym beneath the weight of his puffy coat and snow cap. Eric spends his days the same way he has since he was 7 months old – in the care of Phyllis Fultz and Roslyn Fulton, who run the Urban Pioneers daycare on French and 31st streets near Ridge Avenue in Strawberry Mansion.
Eric – along with his five playmates – embodies childhood innocence, right down to the runny nose his caretakers attribute to the change in seasons. What Eric doesn’t know as he clasps the hands of a girl around his age, guiding her up the sliding board at Mander Playground at 33rd and Diamond streets in Fairmount Park, is that the odds are stacked against him. His race, socioeconomic status, neighborhood and infrequent contact with his father are designed to hold Eric back in life. These factors will work against him in every stage of his life until he either rises above or succumbs to them, becoming another statistic in Philadelphia’s records.
Several people will influence Eric’s life and guide him along what they hope turns out to be the right path: his parents, his caregivers and Mayor Michael Nutter.
Continue reading for thoughts from daycare owners, school teachers and nonprofit organizations. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in MURL | Tagged: budget proposal, Mander Rec Center, Mothers United Through Tragedy, MURL, MUTT, Philadelphia, Splash and Summer FUNd, Strawberry Mansion, Strawberry Mansion High School, Urban Pioneers | 1 Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on March 24, 2009
Shannon McDonald | The Temple News | March 24, 2009
‘Sunny’ star still a Philly guy at heart
Photo courtesy of Michael Becker for FX
If the name of his show wasn’t enough proof already, Rob McElhenney, 31, is a Philadelphia guy. In an exclusive interview with The Temple News, the writer, producer and star of
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia reminisces about his days of hanging out in Fairmount Park, sneaking into bars and roaming Temple’s Main Campus for a semester.
Shannon McDonald: You’re a born-and-raised Philly kid. How did you spend your time growing up?
Rob McElhenney: I grew up in South Philadelphia at Moyamensing and Dickinson, then, I moved to Delaware County after high school. I went to high school at St. Joe’s Prep and hung out with kids from all different schools. I don’t know if kids do this anymore, but we used to go to Lemon Hill in Fairmount Park after school to hang. Sometimes we’d go to the bars that let underagers in.
SM: I hear you went to Temple for a while. Have any fond memories?
RM: My time at Temple was short. I went for a semester but didn’t finish. I wasn’t a great student – I wasn’t excelling, and I wasn’t there long enough to declare a major. I wanted to leave Philly and see new things, so I moved to New York. I stayed there for seven years before heading out to Los Angeles.
SM: When did you realize you wanted to make a career out of acting?
RM: As a kid, I did plays in school but never really thought of it as being a career option. It wasn’t until I got to New York City and met waiters and bartenders who were doing shows at night that I ever considered it as a profession. I enrolled in Lee Strasberg [Theatre and Film Institute], which is associated with the Screen Actors Guild and started acting. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Exclusives, The Temple News | Tagged: FX, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Rob McElhenny, The Temple News | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on March 11, 2009
Shannon McDonald | March 11 | Fishtown Spirit
This article ran on Page 7 in the March 11 issue of The Fishtown Spirit, where I work as a writer and copy editor.
Captain Daniel Castro is the new leader of the 24th District
An old marketing campaign for the Fraternal Order of Police featured a poster depicting a wounded police officer in front his squad car. “You wouldn’t do it for a million bucks,” the poster read, “but we do it for a whole lot less,”
Two decades and several slain police officers later, Captain Daniel Castro of the 24th District knows that statement is truer than ever. With just three weeks at the 24th under his belt, Castro is vowing to do all he can to bring the communities together and make them safer for the residents and the officers who patrol them.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Fishtown Spirit | Tagged: 24th Police District, Captain Daniel Castro, Fishtown Spirit, Officer Maureen Burns, Officer Sharon Jonas, Officer Tina Willis, Philadelphia Police | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on February 9, 2009
By Shannon McDonald
This is a story I did for MURL, Temple University’s senior journalism class. The assignment was to go out into your assigned neighborhood – in my case, Brewerytown – and report on how the residents get around. This was a team reporting project, but I was responsible for the written portion.
The snowstorm that hit our region last Tuesday night left the city silent, snuggled up in a white, powdery blanket. But by Wednesday morning, the streets were a mess, the tighter ones paved in ice and the thoroughfares slippery with slush. Brewerytown residents didn’t seem to mind.
“I ride my bike in all kinds of weather,” said Waugh Wright, 34, a resident on the 800-block of Ringgold Street. “It’s a little icy today, but not bad enough for me to put the bike away.”
Wright is a teacher who bikes to work everyday, unless the weather is especially bad. Even though schools were closed last Wednesday, that didn’t stop Wright from pedaling around his neighborhood. The three-and-a-half year Brewerytown resident says the biggest attraction of biking is its environmental benefits, though the exercise doesn’t hurt, either. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in MURL | Tagged: Brewerytown, MURL, SEPTA, Temple University, transportation | 1 Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on January 21, 2009
When administrators at Temple University, where I just started my final semester of college, found out I was going to President Obama’s inauguration, they asked me to write something for them. The following piece was featured in Temple Times’ Temple Today.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — I went to the inauguration as a journalist, and while I can’t say for sure, I think if I was pursuing some other profession, I would not have gone.
It almost didn’t happen. I was first denied press credentials on the grounds that The Temple News is too irrelevant to the event. By sheer luck, I obtained credentials from a small media group, but then had them revoked because too many media outlets were already set to flood the National Mall. Amtrak ticket prices for the weekend of the inauguration were astronomical, so I turned to the Chinatown Bus. Three hours, one rest top and a Metro ride later, I made it to Washington, D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, home of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Temple Today | Tagged: inauguration, Obama, Washington DC | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shannon McDonald on January 20, 2009
Vendors around the National Mall sold hoodies, t-shirts, scarves and more with President Obama's face on them.
Shannon McDonald | The Temple News | Jan. 20, 2009
They were all there for the same reason on Sunday. Every color, every age, every stage of life. They waited – some more patiently than others – in a cold, empty room until someone led them outside. Then, they waited again, in a line on Arch Street.
One by one, they boarded the Chinatown bus. They sat for three hours, growing more excited and getting more anxious, before they dragged their bags onto the Sixth Street sidewalk in Washington, D.C. They all went their separate ways, but they will reunite today for a common cause.
Today at noon, Barack Obama will become the 44th president of the United States. The theme – which commemorates the 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s birth – for the 2009 inauguration is “A New Birth of Freedom,” which was chosen by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies in consultation with the Senate Historian’s Office.
The attendance rate is expected to be the highest in the nation’s history. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in The Temple News | Tagged: inauguration, Obama, Washington DC | Leave a Comment »
Though I’ve been working long hours to monetize my latest project, NEast Philly, I’m still looking for part-time/full-time/freelance paid work.