Students cover NIU tragedy - Summer 2008 Wartburg Magazine - Wartburg College

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Students cover NIU tragedy

by Michelle Caldwell ’08

Three Wartburg students were among the journalists from across the country who poured into DeKalb, Ill., in the days following Feb. 14 shootings. Steven Kazmierczak, 27, killed five and wounded 16 more before killing himself that day.

“It was pure instinct to go,” said Travis Bockenstedt ’09 of Strawberry Point, Iowa. “Anyone who has journalism in their heart understands there was just a force inside of me that said we needed to go and cover the story.”

Wartburg’s close proximity helped Bockenstedt’s decision, too.

“The Wartburg TV program combines in-classroom experience with the real world,” he said. We’re training journalists to work outside the classroom. Although we’re a small station, we can still bring national issues to the forefront.”

Wartburg Television staff members Nikki Newbrough ’10 of Montour, Iowa, and Natalie Tendall ’09 of DeWitt, Iowa, accompanied him on the trip.

“The car was no doubt already packed and the crew assembled when they asked permission,” said Wartburg Television adviser Dr. Jeff Stein. “My only request was that they keep in contact with me regarding their progress.”

Within 40 minutes of making the decision to travel to DeKalb, each student had gathered a bag and left Waverly. The trio arrived at NIU in time for a press conference the morning after the shootings.

Newbrough said she and the others were exhausted after the long drive. But once on the NIU campus, the media frenzy and emotional impact of the shootings hit the Wartburg students.

“We had our blinders on when we got there,” said Newbrough. “We just knew we needed to get the story and get it as soon as possible. It was on the way home that the emotional part set in.”

However, it was tough to remain professional while meeting with John Puterbaugh, editor of the NIU student newspaper, and witnesses of the shootings, said Bockenstedt.

“As a journalist, you get really caught up in the rush, but then I saw how you can get detached in a situation,” said Bockenstedt. “That barrier changed when a network photojournalist hugged a student at NIU; that had a big impact on me. Even though we’re journalists, we’re human, too.”

The Wartburg crew spent much of its time with staff from the student newspaper, The Northern Star. Newbrough said she was amazed at how the Star staff came together at such a difficult time.

“If this had happened at Wartburg, how would our student media respond?” Newbrough asked. “Thirty people (from the Star staff) came into the office that day. They took pictures and talked to as many people as possible, and I kept thinking, how would people at Wartburg respond?”

Caldwell majored in communication arts major and is from Washington, Iowa. She now works as a producer at KWWL-TV in Waterloo.