Profile

Caleb Sommerville
Communications Intern at Redeemer Fellowship Kansas City
Newspapers | Kansas City, Missouri Area, US

Summary

I am a journalist trained in both writing and photography, and want to do something related to both. Journalism is an incredibly important field, as we journalists take information not normally available to the public, and make it easily accessible. I love being a part of that.
Specialties: Writing, editing, reporting, photography, sound tech, social media, learning new skills

Experience

  • Jan 2012 - Present
    Communications Intern / Redeemer Fellowship Kansas City
  • Jan 2011 - Dec 2011
    SVC Intern / NewBay Media
    Copyediting, layout, updating the website, compiling articles, etc.
  • Oct 2009 - Dec 2009
    Intern / Kansas City Nursing News
    Writing and photography for weekly nursing newsletter. Wrote a Nurse of the Week feature, covered assignments, took photos for own and other assignments, worked with InDesign data, copy edited.
  • Jan 2009 - May 2009
    Photographer / The University Daily Kansan
    Covered daily assignments, created online content.
  • Aug 2008 - Dec 2008
    Blogger / The University Daily Kansan
    Wrote weekly opinion columns for Kansan.com. Featured mainly political and campus issues. Covered 2008 election extensively. Used links, photos, and embedded videos.
  • Jan 2008 - May 2008
    Reporter / University Daily Kansan
    Covered on and off-campus housing and the Greek system at the University
    of Kansas, as well as breaking news assignments. Wrote two to three
    stories per week. Took photos for own stories, most notably in Lawrence
    when KU won the NCAA National Championship.
  • May 2007 - Jun 2007
    Intern / Hutchinson Leader
    Functioned as reporter, photographer (own stories and independent assignments) and copy editor for a biweekly small-town newspaper.

Education

  • 2005 - 2009
    University of Kansas
    B.S. in Journalism
    Activities: University Daily Kansan, Navigators, Student Housing

Additional Information

Websites:
Blog, Portfolio, My Web Hub
LinkedIn

Posts

November 09, 10:48 PM
Shuffleboard 13

1. "Hit" by James Horner from Patriot Games Yes, James Horner has scored other things besides James Cameron films. I know, it's shocking. Patriot Games has a interesting Irish-tinged score that's also fraught with action and tense suspense. It's an odd combo, but it makes for an exciting as well as dreary-sounding score, much like the film itself. "Hit" accompanies the assassination attempt on

October 29, 11:00 PM
Hope and Change

This post is written first to myself, Caleb Sommerville, and then to the tens of people that will read this. The two words up for the prize of Buzzwords of the Decade. Hope and Change. The question no one (seriously) asks of Obama's catchphrase is this: Hope in what? Change of what? What are we supposed to be placing hope in? What exactly needs change and what does that entail? It's no secret

August 18, 10:32 PM
The Five Weirdest Songs in My Library

As you tens of readers know from my occasional Shuffleboard© posts, I have a ton of music. A ton of really varied music. Over the years I've collected quite a few tunes (I'm up to 9032 songs, 24.1 days, or 42.48GB), so a few of them are bound to be weird, even to my eclectic ear. Ooo. I'm saving Eclectic Ear for when I have a band. 1. "Art of Life" by X-Japan My senior year of college, I had an

August 17, 11:38 PM
I'm Leaving Apple (and AT&T)

Come April, when my two-year contract is up with AT&T, I'm splittin' town. My iPhone will remain in service as an iPod Touch, but my cell phone loyalties will be shifting to a competitor. I can only stomach so much arrogance and buffoonery before I throw up. When Apple announced the iPhone in January of 2007, it was hailed as the beginning of the smartphone era (even though less-polished phones

August 02, 10:22 PM
Shuffleboard 12

1. "Prelude from Suite No. 1 for Unaccompanied Cello in G Major" by Yo-Yo Ma from Sounds of Yo-Yo Ma Note: composed by Bach Nothing better than a great cello. Yo-Yo Ma is the cello, as far as I'm concerned. Like Itzhak Perlman on the violin and John Coltrane on the sax, Ma is the definition of a great cellist. This is one of the more popular Bach cello pieces. It's definitely written solely for a

August 02, 09:44 PM
Happy Birthday, REACTOR!

That's right, tens of readers, THE REACTOR is one year old, today. On July 29, 2009, I began reacting to things, and I'm still goin strong (and could go admittedly stronger). So here's some stats (via Google Analytics) to round out Year One: Total Visits: 3052 That's less than most minor blogs get in one day. Sad. Average Time on Site: 1 minute, 1 second Yup, internet short attention span FTW.

July 02, 04:32 PM
Mac or PC?

I wrote this as an application to be a facebook beta tester.  The age-old question, indeed. And I'm going be weird when I say: both. (Disclaimer: I have used both extensively) The ads are vicious, the fanboys even more so. Macs are easier to use, no, PCs are, but Macs don't get viruses, etc. etc. etc. It really all depends on what YOU need to use a computer for. Your "philosophy of use," if you

June 29, 10:10 PM
Sheepish Grin

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I joined Twitter. Seems like just yesterday/last August that I called it stupid. Ah well. It turns out it'll probably be pretty useful in promoting my blog and getting info from various news outlets and cool people. Just chalk it up to a guy named Leo Laporte. He's a tech guru who's on top of the latest trends and all that business. He likes to call it "hand-holding on

June 28, 06:07 PM
Shuffleboard 11

1. "The Departure of Boromir" by Howard Shore from The Fellowship of the Ring Howard Shore. The man is an enigma to me. He came out of nowhere (for me, at least), wrote hours of outstanding music for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and hasn't written anything close since. Nevertheless, his music for the epic movies is indeed epic in it's own right. This track is from the "Complete Recordings"

June 11, 10:14 PM
Knee-Jerk

This blog is called THE REACTOR for a reason. I tend to be very opinionated (at the very least, in my own mind) about things that happen from day to day. I have knee-jerk reactions to many things, which sometimes I unfortunately write about and publish without a second thought. Such is the nature of the blogosphere (+10 points for using that word), and it's not always bad. They say that the first

May 28, 01:58 PM
Guest Post: Velvet Elvis Review

For THE REACTOR's first guest post, my friend Isaac has written a review of Emergent Poster Boy Rob Bell's book "Velvet Elvis." Isaac is a firefighter, a language-studier, a fencer, a philosopher, a good friend, and an all-around jack-of-all-trades, so I trust his judgement and endorse what he says below 100%. Rob Bell. Some might call him a heretic, and some might say he's the poster child

May 18, 11:51 PM
Shuffleboard 10

1. "'Ta-Ta Charlie" by Michael Giacchino from LOST Season 3 In what was certainly one of the most emotional parts of LOST, Michael Giacchino wrote some of the most emotional music as well. This sparse but strongly emotional (one of Giacchino's strong points) piano-and-string piece is played right before Charlie sets off to sacrifice himself for the sake of the other survivors. It was an extremely

May 15, 02:17 PM
The Three-Dimensional Gimmick

Home 3D is the next big thing, if you listen to the entertainment and gadget world (or rather, the bigwigs that run the companies that run the entertainment and gadget world). If you listen to common sense, it's a giant load of hooey. After the success of "Avatar" in 3D last year, everyone in the entertainment biz has been scrambling to put out 3D crap. Now I'll admit up front that I haven't

May 15, 01:46 PM
The Oil Spill's Other Story

An oil rig exploded in early May and is still leaking tons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It's a horrifying ordeal, and one that will likely replace the Exxon Valdez as the Most Notorious Oil Spill in history. Political activists, mostly liberal, have jumped on the spill and Obama himself has threatened BP (the company that owned the rig) and told them he's "holding them responsible." Overall,

May 10, 11:06 AM
New Blog!

Yes, I'm super bloggy. I've got so much blog in me that I had to start another blog. But seriously folks, I started a new blog called Caleb Needs A Job to help promote myself during this ever-lengthening job hunt. So tell your friends, tell your bosses, tell your potential employers, that Caleb has a blog, and Caleb Needs A Job!

April 26, 02:50 PM
Good Samaritan Stabbed, Ignored

"And I am reminded, on this holy day, of the sad story of Kitty Genovese. As you all may remember, a long time ago, almost thirty years ago, this poor soul cried out for help time and time again, but no person answered her calls. Though many saw, no one so much as called the police. They all just watched as Kitty was being stabbed to death in broad daylight. They watched as her assailant walked

April 22, 04:44 PM
Shuffleboard 9

1. "Down Under" by Colin HayThe original "Down Under," an Australian folk song by "Men at Work," is a weird, catchy, and apparently anthemic-for-Aussies tune straight out of the 80s. The words are strange, but sum up the easy-going life of Aussies. This live version by "Men at Work" alum Colin Hay is outstanding. It's recorded at a bar (in Nashville, I think), so he jokes with the audience at the

April 10, 09:49 PM
The Cardinal Sins of Facebook

acebook has become as ubiquitous as Google these days. In fact, if Facebook were it's own country, it'd be the third most populous nation in the world, ahead of the United States and behind India and China.At the risk of sounding pretentious, I was on Facebook in 2005, the year after it went public (became available to universities outside the Ivy League). I've been able to watch its dizzying

March 20, 05:48 PM
LOST Reaction: "Dr. Linus"

Sorry I've been so behind on these. This week's LOST, "Dr. Linus," was yet another great Ben episode. Ben is either terrifying or weirdly endearing (or obnoxiously evil), and our perception of him seems to change every episode.Ilana finds out that Ben killed Jacob, which is apparently worse than we thought. She looks like she's about to eat him once Miles reads Jacob's ashes (WTF?) and tells her

March 15, 11:51 PM
The Best Omegle Chat Ever

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!You: What are you?Stranger: Imm'a machine.Stranger: Built tough... like a ford.You: I am a sock.Stranger: MHMMM yess sir built tough like chuck norrisStranger: But not as tough...Stranger: How is that? typing with no weightStranger: or strength or anything.You: I am a prehensile, self-aware sock.You: FEAR MEStranger: OH CRAP!Stranger: PREHENSILE,

March 11, 08:55 PM
Another Little Awesome Thing

It's getting close to Easter, which is awesome for two reasons. First, it is a time for us to remember Christ and His sacrifice on the Cross to pay the punishments we all deserve every day. And we should never forget that.But it is also the season of the best jellybeans known to mankind.The perfect candy exists, and it is Sweetarts Jelly Beans. I discovered them a couple of years ago. I usually

March 08, 12:25 PM
Five Ancient Versions of Websites

The Internet's not that old. But, interestingly enough, it IS old enough to look back on and notice how old and outdated some webpages were, back in the day. So here, courtesy of the Wayback Machine, are five of the greatest examples of Digital Nostalgia. (Go try it out yourself, it's addictive!)1. FacebookI can remember when there wasn't Facebook. That makes me feel really old. The original

March 04, 03:01 PM
Shuffleboard 8

1. "Happy Is A Yuppie Word" by Switchfoot from Nothing Is SoundI'm a big fan of Jon Foreman and his lyrics. This track is no exception. "Happy Is A Yuppie Word" is a rather odd title, but the song is still a cheerful, upbeat song. With lines like "nothing in the world can fail me now" coming right after the title line, the song shows that happiness is not necessarily the thing to strive for. One

March 03, 05:37 PM
The Omegle Project, Mk II

I ran an experiment a few months ago on a random chat site, Omegle. Read over that one, and then check out this updated version of what random people from all over the world think of Obama and how he's running the country.1. The New YorkerYou: Hi, where are you from?Stranger: heyStranger: new yorkYou: Hi, I run a blog called The Reactor (the-reactor.blogspot.com) and I'm doing a survey about

March 04, 12:05 PM
LOST Reaction: "Sundown"

Will anyone survive this final season of LOST? The answer's starting to look more and more like "no."This week, we got to see just what the "darkness" growing in Sayid is capable of. He killed Dogen and Lennon, and got an extremely creepy grin on his face after Smokeylocke destroyed the Temple. As far as the Island timeline goes, there's not much else to say. Claire and Sayid let Smokeylocke in

The Reactor

Posts

November 04, 10:51 PM
Work Sample #9: "Stouffer Apartments experience technical difficulties"

Residents of Stouffer Place Apartments have been without phone or data service for about three weeks.Bill Myers, director of information services, said that a cable that was underground for a while and was damaged several times because of construction was responsible for the outage.The cable was spliced and repaired several times, and some of the splices failed when water seeped through the

October 25, 04:50 PM
Work Sample #8: "Lions burn Blazers"

This was an audition piece for the Leavenworth Times. The first rain in weeks came Monday morning during an otherwise unusually warm October. The field at Lansing Middle School was soggy and muddy for the varsity soccer game against the Gardner-Edgerton Blazers, but the slippery conditions did little to stop an accurate Lion offense, which carried them to a 6-2 victory. “I really enjoyed the

October 06, 09:52 PM
Photo Sample #4: Tennis Match

All photos taken for the University Daily Kansan in 2009.

October 06, 09:53 PM
Work Sample #7: "Professor to appear on The Daily Show tonight"

A journalism professor will be on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart tonight. David Perlmutter, the associate dean for graduate studies and research in the journalism school, will be on the show tonight at 10 p.m. to talk about his book, “Blogwars: The New Political Battleground.” Perlmutter said he didn’t know exactly what his appearance on The Daily Show will entail, or if he’ll get to talk to

September 20, 03:15 PM
Work Sample #6: "Nurse organizes lung cancer benefit"

There are some names nurses never expect to see on their list of patients. Nurse Rebekah Tobin said she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw her best friend’s name on the list. Doctors diagnosed Tobin’s friend Annabelle Buckner with lung cancer in January. Tobin said she and her best friend were shocked because Buckner had never smoked a day in her life. Tobin said she immediately decided

August 03, 10:21 PM
Photo Sample #3: School Of Fine Arts
July 20, 10:17 PM
Photo Sample #2-Retro Video Game Controllers
July 14, 01:40 PM
Work Sample #5: "Fans don't have to head to San Antonio for the game"

This article was written in 10-15 minutes right after KU won the 2008 NCAA Championship. San Antonio may have been a little too far away for some Kansas enthusiasts. Fans filed into Allen Fieldhouse for a free watch party to watch Kansas beat Memphis 75-68.Doors opened at 7:30 p.m. and the rush to find seats was reminiscent of a home game. Fans took their seats and waited an hour for tipoff.

July 12, 09:04 PM
Work Sample #4: "Summer renovations slated for Jayhawker Towers"

Jayhawker Tower A will be renovated, starting this summer. It will be closed for the 2008-2009 school year. The renovation, which was scheduled to happen after GSP Hall, was moved up a year.“We are eager to move forward,” Robertson said. “Ultimately, what we’re going to do is get the facilities improved and improve our options for KU students.”Diana Robertson, director of student housing, said

September 20, 03:15 PM
Work Sample #3: "Women calls hospital, saves husbands life"

Barbara Bornstein noticed something about her husband Jack Bornstein one morning while she made their bed. She said his right arm seemed funny, and he continued to blink his right eye. And then he fell onto the bed. Jack has Parkinson’s disease, so Barbara thought it might be something related to that. Jack told her not to worry about him, but just to be safe, she called 911. And that call saved

June 11, 09:50 PM
Photo Sample #1-Mini Operas at the University of Kansas

I took these for a photo essay on a series of short operas written and performed by KU students. Katie Bieber, right, as the character Kate, plots against her sister Bianca as Michael Austin as Baptista looks on. Bieber and Austin are in the operatic adaptation of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," composed by Andrew Trites.Anna Hoard, left, sings to a spirit puppet created and operated by

May 25, 12:20 AM
Work Sample #2- "Downtown celebration results in hours of cleanup"

It was the morning after. The smell of beer wafted, and a loud roar echoed up and down Massachusetts Street after the Jayhawks beat the Tarheels 84-66 in Saturday’s Final Four game. But the smell came from beer that was spilled all over the street and the loud roar came from a street sweeper. The huge parade of students and fans left a lot behind. Crystal Miles, the horticulture manager for

May 15, 09:32 PM
Work Sample #1-"Dewd, where's my house?"

I'll be featuring some of my work (photo and writing) here from time to time. Dewd, where’s my house? Group of 10 friends formed ‘Mountain Dewds’ and bought house together after a 2003 roadtrip By Caleb Sommerville Monday, March 31, 2008 Kieran McBride, Lawrence senior, knew it was destiny when he found an 11th Street sign post in his backyard. He was considering moving into the Mountain Dewd

May 10, 10:45 AM
Job Hunt Stats

Yes, I've been at this for a year now, so the numbers have started piling up. I've done most of my applying online, through Careerbuilder.com and "cold-emailing" media companies, so here are the stats on that. Since May 10, 2009, I have sent more than 80 separate emails to various people asking if they have job openings. I would guess those spread out to about 50 different places around Kansas

May 09, 05:09 PM
Introductions

Hi, my name is Caleb Sommerville, and I'm a journalist looking for work in the Kansas City area. Here's the facts: 1. KU graduate I graduated in May from the William Allen White School of Journalism with a Bachelor's in Journalism: News and Information. 2. Photographer What started as a hobby is now one of my major passions. I love taking artsy shots, documentary shots, and even experimental

Caleb Needs A Job

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