A local student is about to get some big exposure thanks to a youth program organized in part by VANOC.
Cheyenne Smith, a 15-year-old Don Ross Secondary Grade 10 student, is one of 24 students from across Metro Vancouver and the Sea to Sky Corridor chosen for Students Live!, a program that will see her share their Olympic experiences through a blog.
"I hadn't really gotten into the Olympic spirit, I hadn't volunteered or anything so I thought I may as well do something, so let's try this," she said. "I'm the only one from Squamish doing it so that's kind of cool."
Smith will participate in a range of media activities including filing articles, capturing videos and conducting interviews with young people before, during and after events. She will also host an interactive web space, that students from across B.C., Canada and the world will be invited to contribute to.
The experience so far has piqued Smith's curiosity for career possibilities.
"I'd never really had an actual interest in journalism and I've always loved writing and I thought that this might be a good thing to look into," she said. "Now I think this is something I really want to go into."
To date, Smith has written several online posts about the pending Games including a blog about the issue of ticket re-sales, the development of Squamish leading up the games, Olympic Games spirit and of course, getting interviewed by The Chief newspaper.
After receiving a comment from a woman in Australia, the young online blogger said she has been most surprised by the extensive geographic reach of her online posts.
Smith said she gets blogging ideas by paying attention to hot topic issues and tossing them around in her head for a bit and that the most challenging part of being a student blogger is keeping up with regular posts, especially during exam time.
"It was kind of hard to keep up with it. I was updating as much as I could but it was getting kind of too much after a while," she said.
Smith said she's most excited about covering ski cross in Whistler with her free VANOC supplied ticket.
"I'm excited more than nervous. I think once it gets closer I'll probably get a bit more nervous."
To read Smith's blog visit www.imgoingstudentslive.blogspot.com.
