Name: Janai Gross
Project Name: Caribou-Targhee National Forest Travel Magazine
Emphasis: News/Journalism
Project Summary:
I have always loved to travel and write so for my senior project I decided to take my two passions and create a travel magazine for the Caribou-Targhee National Forest.
I wrote seven different travel articles on the following locations/topics related to the national forest: Mesa Falls, ghost towns, charcoal kilns, alien encounters, Upper Palisades Lake, Packsaddle Lake, and Fall Creek Falls. Each article ranged from about 800 to 1000 words.
For each article, I had to research the history of the locations, get interviews, go to the location to take pictures, write the articles and then edit. For example, for the charcoal kilns article, I drove about two hours to the historic site to gather information and take pictures for the magazine. For the ghost towns article, I had to rent a book from the David O. McKay Library to gather historical accounts of Idaho goldmines. Once I had all the information, I organized it, drafted the article, and then spent time editing and revising.
After I finished writing all of my articles, I had to edit the photos and compile them into a unique layout for the magazine. This meant editing different drafts, moving around photos, playing with fonts and colors, and planning other design elements. I created each page layout on Canva. Once I had a final draft, I saved each page as a PDF and compiled it into one completed document for my final Caribou-Targhee National Forest Travel Magazine. I took every picture and wrote every article in the magazine and so I just used my married name (Janai Smith) on the cover for credit.
This magazine is targeted at young adults in eastern Idaho. Whenever I searched for things to do in the national forest, I could hardly find any information. I decided to create this magazine so others wouldn’t have the same problem I had. I want to encourage others to visit the beautiful and unique places in the national forest so they can enjoy the incredible parts of Idaho for themselves.