Seoul American senior Katie Darby and Daegu American senior Michelle Fox discuss story options for their six-person news team during Monday's initial budget meeting in the 2010 DODDS-Pacific Far East Journalism Conference at Tokyo's New Sanno Hotel. Darby is a softball pitcher and Fox a soccer midfielder; their respective Far East tournaments take place at the same time as the Far East Film and Entertainment Arts Festival in May in Seoul, an example of how DODDS Pacific's expanding Far East Activities Calendar gives students more options and opportunities than many would have in the States. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Seoul American senior Katie Darby and Daegu American senior Michelle Fox discuss story options for their six-person news team during Monday's initial budget meeting in the 2010 DODDS-Pacific Far East Journalism Conference at Tokyo's New Sanno Hotel. Darby is a softball pitcher and Fox a soccer midfielder; their respective Far East tournaments take place at the same time as the Far East Film and Entertainment Arts Festival in May in Seoul, an example of how DODDS Pacific's expanding Far East Activities Calendar gives students more options and opportunities than many would have in the States. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Kadena senior Emily Zaher makes note of story options for her six-person news team during Monday's initial budget meeting in the 2010 DODDS-Pacific Far East Journalism Conference at Tokyo's New Sanno Hotel. Zaher plays tennis for Kadena. The Okinawa Activities Council's district singles tennis tournament was postponed to Monday because Kadena had two students and Kubasaki three attending the Far East journalism conference. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Guam High sophomore Meagan Speck processes material for her six-person news team during Monday's photography session in the 2010 DODDS-Pacific Far East Journalism Conference at Tokyo's New Sanno Hotel. Speck is also a soccer player and cross country runner, and missed her team's first two matches of the Independent Interscholastic Athletic Association of Guam season, and is also in training for next month's Far East cross-country meet in Japan. She's an example of how DODDS Pacific's expanding Far East Activities Calendar gives students more options and opportunities than theyd have in the States. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
Zama American senior Nick Jorgenson checks photos for his six-person news team during Monday's photography session in the 2010 DODDS-Pacific Far East Journalism Conference at Tokyo's New Sanno Hotel. Jorgenson is also a tennis player and missed this week's Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools tournament in preparation for next month's Far East tennis tournament on Okinawa, an example of how DODDS Pacific's expanding Far East Activities Calendar gives students more options and opportunities than they'd have in the States, though students also have to make difficult choices as to which events they attend. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
TOKYO – Dominic Labrador and Nick Jorgenson could have been forgiven if they’d worn t-shirts that read: “So many activity choices, so little time” to this week’s DODDS-Pacific Far East Journalism Conference.
During the week-long festival, their Zama American tennis team played in Wednesday’s Kanto Plain Association of Secondary Schools tournament at Shirako Tennis Club, 2½ hours away in Chiba Prefecture.
They agonized about the dilemma, even considered skipping Wednesday’s journalism activities to play in the tournament, they said, before opting for what they hope will become their future vocation.
“I felt attending Far East journalism would be more beneficial to my future and career,” Jorgenson said Monday at the conference’s host site, the New Sanno Hotel. “This was a better investment of time.”
The Trojans tennis twosome wasn’t alone. Of the 111 students attending the combined newspaper-yearbook-broadcast conference, 20 also play sports - most on teams preparing for Far East tournaments and regular season-ending tournaments in Korea, Japan and Okinawa.
Already bulging with athletic, academic and arts even before school year 2009-10, DODDS- Pacific in the past 18 months has added baseball, softball and track and field along with eight non-sports events to its Far East Activities Calendar, which now sports 31 total events.
The additions came as a result of more than 50-percent cost savings achieved when DODDS changed its system of procuring airline tickets to send students to Far East events by buying through local vendors.
“We’re actually under budget from last year, and we’re offering a lot more,” DODDS-Pacific’s activities coordinator Todd Kirby said. He did not elaborate on specific dollar savings.
Broadcast was added to the four-day journalism conference (it was three days before this year), and DODDS also put linguistics, math, film and entertainment, culinary, creative expression, jazz and dance, Harvard Model Congress and science and research academy events on the calendar.
“It’s an embarrassment of riches,” Kirby said, adding that DODDS-Pacific director Diana Ohman “wants students to make choices, wants students to have good choices to make,” with the goal being “100-percent participation” in co-curricular activities.
Stateside students often don’t have such options, said Matthew C. Perry journalism teacher and tennis coach Mark Lange. He taught at Florida’s Palm Harbor University High School, with an enrollment of 2,400.
“It’s much more competitive (and) they’d be told they have to choose this or that,” Lange said. “Here, we don’t restrict kids. If they can handle it, that’s a good thing.”
But sometimes so many choices can cause much deliberating, agonizing and debating which events to attend, especially for those faced with missing practice for postseason play.
Guam High junior Meagan Speck chose Tokyo despite her Panthers’ girls soccer team’s season starting this week. She missed two matches. She also ran cross country. The Far East meet is Nov. 8-9 at Tama Hills Recreation Center.
“I’ve never been to Tokyo and this is something I might want to do in college,” she said. “Definitely a good way for me to start.”
Daegu American and Osan American opted to leave the conference a day early, Thursday, so their girls volleyball players could return in time to play the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference Division I tournament Friday-Saturday at Korea International School.
Missing the tournament “would have broken my heart,” said Osan senior Alina Hauter, who with setter Lydia Kim missed the regular-season finale at Seoul Foreign, along with their last homecoming week.
They’re each considering journalism as careers also. Hauter, Osan’s yearbook editor, said going to Tokyo “would help in the long run.”
Okinawa’s district tennis singles tournament, originally scheduled for Tuesday, got pushed back to Nov. 1 because two Kadena players and three Kubasaki players chose to attend the journalism conference.
Having to choose “would have been really difficult; I don’t know what I would have done,” said Kubasaki senior Tammi Ragan. “I worked so hard in tennis for three years … (but) I worked hard in yearbook to be able to come to Far East journalism.”
Still, the choosing isn’t easy, especially when one thoroughly enjoys the two activities they’re weighing.
“I’m academic and athletic, so if there’s a math and a basketball Far East at the same time, it’s hard making a choice,” Daegu junior volleyball player Leanne Quizon said. “Not a good problem to have.”
Despite those mixed feelings, Kim said she’s “trying to crunch in everything I can, have a diverse experience in high school before I go to college. It’s a good thing and a bad thing. But it’s definitely worth it.”
