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Print journalism major eager to pursue new career

Cory Stinebrink is a senior student at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. (Photo by Joe Wagner)

When he arrived at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in the fall of 1997, Cory Stinebrink had no clear picture of what he wanted to study.

In the second semester of his sophomore year, after a meeting with his adviser he declared himself a print journalism major.

“My adviser posed a question to me,” Stinebrink said. “She asked me, ‘Would you rather write, read or sit down and figure out math problems?’ So I said I’d prefer to write.”

Once he chose journalism, Stinebrink, 22, initially figured sports writing would be his favorite area to explore. Stinebrink spent a lot of time camping and enjoying other outdoor activities while growing up in Lake Geneva with five siblings – Kristy, 25; Michael, 24; Timothy, 20; Benjamin, 19 and Todd, 17. Furthermore, he played football and baseball in high school and has always enjoyed watching sporting events.

Eventually, though, Stinebrink discovered that if he covered sports for a living, he wouldn’t enjoy watching them as much. After shying away from sports writing, he later began to wonder if he wanted to be a journalist at all.

“I’m a shy human being,” he said. “Interviewing people for a living doesn’t really float well with me.”

In addition, Stinebrink has never been particularly enthralled with any of his journalism classes.

“Throughout the entire course of the entire journalism program I’ve realized that I have yet to do anything that’s actually sparked my interest,” he said.

Stinebrink, who is in his last semester at UW-Eau Claire, now has a new mission. His latest plan is to attend graduate school in the fall at UW-Madison to study public affairs with an environmental emphasis.

“Basically, over the last two years I’ve become interested in two things – the environment and politics.”

Stinebrink said he became especially involved with environmental and political issues when he spent the spring 2001 semester studying at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. There, he became enamored with the natural beauty of the land.

“I could drive around and see what things were before the massive buildup of society,” Stinebrink said. He was also fascinated with the abundance of wildlife. “One of the most vivid memories I have is walking around and seeing moose all the time,” he said.

He said he was also somewhat surprised to find that the weather wasn’t any harsher than that of the Upper Midwest, but added that he would have noticed a big difference if he had he elected to study at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks instead of Anchorage.

“(When I was at UAA), a guy from Fairbanks told me, ‘After three months of –80 degree weather, you’re ready to pull out the shorts when it hits 0,” Stinebrink said. “That really shocked me.”

Some specific environmental issues Stinebrink is currently focused on are the proposed opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Alaska for drilling and the possibility of Ashley Furniture Co. building a factory on a designated wetland reserve in west central Wisconsin. His concerns, though, extend far beyond these two debates.

“In general I’m opposed to anything overly detrimental to the environment, but some of my main problems are cars, gas and especially SUVs,” Stinebrink said. “It’s amazing that we’ve been able to get to the moon since 1969, yet we can’t get more than 20 miles to the gallon.”

Stinebrink, who closely followed the wild 2000 presidential election, grew even more intrigued with politics during his time at Anchorage. He said he and his roommate, an Alaska-Anchorage student, talked politics on a daily basis.

As far as his political stance, Stinebrink isn’t a big fan of Republicans, especially President George W. Bush. “Other than the war, I really don’t agree with him on anything,” he said.

Stinebrink’s favorite politicians include Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, who is a member of the Reform Party.

“The thing I like about (Ventura) is he’s not your everyday politician,” he said. “He’ll do what he thinks is right, damn the consequences.”

When he’s finished with grad school, Stinebrink said he doesn’t think he’ll stray far away from his roots.

“I think I’d prefer to stay in the Midwest, basically because in 20 years you’ll know that you’ll still have a good water supply if you need it,” he said. “It might not seem like a big deal now, but it will be down the road.”

For Cory Stinebrink, the road ahead seems a lot clearer than it was four years ago.

Read some of Cory's work:

Mixed bag of results for Newspaper Guild journalists

Journalists lack agreement on workplace diversity

Quality is on the rise, circulation is taking a tumble