 Major sponsors for Abledon on Air include Green Mountain Support Services of Vermont, Washington County Mental Health, Al-Israel. Food sponsors for Abledon on Air include Geffen Foods Israel, Osam Foods Israel. Major media sponsors for Abledon on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, www.thisisthebronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International. Hello, and welcome to this edition of Abledon on Air, the one and only program that focuses on our needs, concerns, and achievements of the different label. I'm your host, Lauren Seiler, and Arlene happens to be on the phone. Hi, Arlene. Okay. We both, we both host and produce Abledon on Air, and we would like to thank our sponsors, Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health, Al-Israel, and many others for being a part of Abledon on Air and sponsoring our show. With us today, we would like to say a big Vermont, well, New England hello to William C. Jackson, freelance reporter for the Harlem Times. Hi, William. How are you doing? Good. Good. Nice to have you join us on the show. Before we get to you, though, we just want to say this is a small little coronavirus update. All of California is basically shut down, mostly Florida is basically shut down. Vermont, by the way, is very little cases. We only have 56 deaths, so we're flattening the curve. How is it in Connecticut, William, with coronavirus? Basically, some big, huge places open back up too soon, but now what's phase one, two, and three in this case? It's okay. What's phase one, two, and three in this case? Like, okay, what's phase three? 100. What's on phase three? I have a bundle of questions just to make sure that they're... Okay, let's get to your reporting. Arlene, are you still there? Okay. Okay, so let's get started. So you're a freelance reporter with the Harlem Times, and can you explain to us, well, being in effect, despite your challenges, if it's okay if I can say, you deal with mental challenges, right? So despite your challenges, how have you persevered in becoming a reporter? Let's start there. What was your GPA, if you don't mind me asking, backtrack, when you went to... No, you're an alumnus of Sacred Heart University. What was your GPA there with your first masters, because I understand you're going for your second masters, which is really good. But what was your GPA? So your first GPA was 2.5 in your undergraduate. So what was it? Do you remember your GPA with your first masters? It was 3.2. Oh, that's not bad. So went up. That's good, considering. Considering, you went, we can backtrack again. I mean, you had some difficulties when you were getting your first masters. You had a fire in your apartment. Yeah, had a fire in my apartment. You lost almost everything. How has your mom been going now? Your mom has been going three years? Yeah. You've been doing, you've been doing extremely well despite everything. Despite your challenges. So what type of reporting are you doing for the Harlem Times? Publishing. Which form are we published? Epidemi... So learn how Epidemi and Jet Magazine is no longer in publication? I mean, your story that you did, the report that you did on the Rocketry program was pretty, with the NASA Rocketry program, that was pretty decent. Why are you doing that? Arlene, did you want to ask any questions? My question is... Yeah, how do you find out your reporting or your statistics? Do you, as far as media and people with special needs are concerned, do you think media has spun out of control lately since coronavirus or was it always spinning out of control? Yeah, I know him. I know him personally. I had a running with him because he did a story on me and I did a story on him. Yeah, I remember meeting him. He had a soccer accident and he was into playing soccer, being from the country he's from. So that's what caused him to be in the wheelchair. That and pinched nerves and all of that stuff he was doing with. So yeah, how I got to meet him. Back when we were doing New 67, you know, it was myself, Roderick and somebody else, we were following Chris around for the day in his reporting and then he turned the tables on me at WWR in their newsroom and he did a story on me. So yeah, I remember. But yeah, there's John Hockenberry, there's Chris O'Donoghue and there's a couple of other people that are special needs as well or disabled or definitely able to... Can you give advice to anybody who is dealing with mental illness or mental challenges and wants to go into journalism? Find one of them. That would be the arrangement. If you want to be on air, you know, you definitely have to work hard at it, but don't let... I agree. So what is... So William, what made you want to get two masters? You already have one. So basically, you know, we had the, you know, the decision to get a second degree. You know, I tried to find... Actually, I tried to find some individual class, you know, in there's been a creative nonfiction writing, basically writing about basically writing, you know, not in any way, you know. So, sweetie, you want to, Arlene, you want to ask any more questions? William, what are the misconceptions around people with disabilities when they first meet them? You know what I mean? Yep. You have to educate people. People with special needs. There won't be such a stigma for a person who does have special needs to tell people, you know, this is my situation, you know. I do have this part. He's no longer there, by the way. And he won. Okay, can you repeat that again? Okay. Yeah. And, and, and, and well, in journalism, this is not a nine... Okay. Here's another question. Journalism is not a nine to five job. You know that? Yes, it's not a nine to five job. I remember, you know, around 2016, 2017, I used somebody, you know, late at night. So, you know, you know, and the article had to be written, you know, after that, doing somebody, I think it was from a hotel in New York, you know, Westchester County. You know, you know, I was, you know, interviewing him about his hotel and stuff like that. Pretty much. I mean, I mean, you worked later than 1030 or no. So far. Well, yeah. Well, yeah, like, because I've, I've had experience working in newsrooms too. It's not nine to five. It definitely isn't. Anything else you want to say before we end? We got about four minutes. In addition to the application, because I was doing technical writing, like grant writing, and doing journalism and stuff like that, they wanted to see a piece. I wrote a piece, which was about 1200 words that basically, you know, about the best of my life. When I was working at Stegra Hardin, I was working on a play at a time. It's a play. It's a movie. It's a period piece about slavery. All right. And I was an extra. And I was an extra. I played one of the slaves. And, you know, it was a fun time, you know. It was a fun time. I got to meet a lot of people and, you know, you know, I didn't like, you know, I was, you know, so that's why I wrote a piece of that. And I think that's what put me over the top to be accepting. As far as, well, all right. As far as getting things done. And yeah, it's just, here's one more question or comment. As far as getting things done and being affected journalism is not a 95 jobs and deadlines. How has that worked with you? Have you gotten, I mean, despite your challenges, have you like gotten your work done or have you had problems getting your work done? Or like, what's some advice you can give to people who need to meet deadlines, especially in the journalism industry? The job, the advice I would give them is, you know, try to get it done. Try to get things done as soon as, if you know that you are working a bit slower than everybody else, you know, try to get it done immediately, basically. And, you know, to ask for help. Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you need help, you know, doing some things, you know, don't be afraid to reach out. All right. You told me, you know, if you don't ask, the answer is always no. True. True. Well, I would like to thank you for joining us on this edition of Abledon On Air. We would like to thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and many, many, many other sponsors. We would also like to thank our guest today, William C. Jackson, freelance reporter for the Harlem Times, who's all the way out in Connecticut, braving the coronavirus. And thank you so much, William. This puts an end to this edition of Abledon On Air. I'm Lawrence Tyler, and Arlene's here. I'm Arlene Tyler. We will see you next time on the next edition of Abledon On Air. See you next time. Major sponsors for Abledon On Air include Green Mountain Support Services of Vermont, Washington County Mental Health, Alaa, Israel. Food sponsors for Abledon On Air include Geffen Foods Israel, Osam Foods Israel. Major media sponsors for Abledon On Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, www.thisisthebronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, U.S. Press Court, Domestic and International.