Freshman Raises Baby Chicks in his Dorm
March 24th, 2024

Wrote, shot, and edited profile feature video about Drake Whitman, a Mizzou freshman who had been keeping baby chickens in his dorm room and fighting against Res Life to keep them on campus.

Freshman Drake Whitman raises baby chickens in his dorm room

For the past month, Whitman has been raising four chickens in his dorm. When it’s nice out, Whitman takes his chickens in a shopping cart to the Quad, where he lets them run around and invites people to pet them. Whitman calls a farm in Salsbury, Missouri home, where he raises chickens, ducks, and cockatiels. Before he got the chickens on campus, Whitman would go to Columbia Pet Center to see their parrots. For Whitman, it was natural to want to be around birds.



Photo stills from video



Mizzou Service Dog Club
March 24th, 2024


Service Dog Club Provides First Step For Program for Veterans

The Mizzou Service Dog Club partners with the non-profit organization Retrieving Freedom, Inc. to socialize and train service dogs for veterans and individuals with autism. Club members can take on the responsibility of being primary or secondary caretakers who foster the dogs in their homes.



Photo stills from video



Sharelife Farms
March  18, 2025


Jim and Rosemary (Rosie) Thomas have been growing certified organic vegetables in Marshall, Missouri since 2004. The Thomas family has cultivated the farm since 1929. Jim Thomas transitioned the land to only farm organic produce because of his wife Rosie’s autoimmune disorder. Rosie’s condition makes her sensitive to certain chemical products commonly found in fertilizers and pesticides. 

Share Life Farms sells their produce on Saturday mornings at the Columbia Farmers Market. On March 18, while wind whipped throughout central Missouri, Jim and Rosie Thomas watered their plants in preparation for selling their crops later in the week.


Jim Thomas looks out to his house from his farm in Marshall, Missouri in front of his hoop houses where he grows vegetables. Jim Thomas has been farming vegetables on Share Life Farms since 1999 to accommodate for his wife’s autoimmune disorder. Before then, Thomas farmed corn, beans and wheat.
Rosie Thomas pets her dog Little Star while sitting in a Club Car on Share Life Farms. Throughout her life, Rosie was exposed to many chemicals that may have negatively affected her immune system. In addition to living in a house sprayed with chlordane, an insecticide, Rosie worked wheat harvest for 17 years and was exposed to malathion, a pesticide to keep bugs away. ”They (doctors) said too, probably the stress of having two children, all of that just worked together to finally break her immune system down,” Jim Thomas said. 
The family dog, Little Star, sits in the Club Car as Rosie Thomas pets her on the cheek. When the farm used to have chickens, Little Star would help herd them. 
Rosie Thomas and her husband Jim Thomas watch Little Star run after an animal on their farm in Marshall, Missouri. Rosie and Jim have been married since 1977 and have farmed together since then. Rosie began showing symptoms in 1979, shortly after the birth of their son. 
Jim Thomas holds the organic fertilizer used on their farm. “A lot of times people don't think organic farmers use fertilizer, but this is our nitrogen source. It's made out of blood meal and feather meal, and it's granulated.” Thomas said.
Jim Thomas sprays growing vegetables with water in his farm’s greenhouse. Despite being a vegetable farmer because of his wife’s condition, Thomas loved corn harvesting and row crop farming. “Of course I tell people I'm a row crop farmer at heart,” Thomas said. “When I couldn't do that, the Lord was good to me. He allowed me to keep farming and grow things, and it's been rewarding.”
Rosie Thomas watches as Jim Thomas waters vegetables in the greenhouse. “Well, Jimmy's had to change. Jimmy would love to farm big machinery and stuff.” Rosie Thomas said. “And he quit because of me. And that's hard. That's hard on anybody that you love that wants to do something and they can't do it because of you, but Jimmy's been really good at that.”
Rosie Thomas watches Little Star play in the farm greenhouse in Marshall, Missouri. “I feel better when I'm out with the plants, and I don't know if it’s because of the oxygen that the plants put off, you know?” Thomas said. “But I can really not feel real good at all and then go out and pick and stuff. I just, I feel better, you know. I love my plants.”
Red Russian kale grows in a hoop house on Share Life Farms on March 18. At the farmers market that weekend, Jim and Rosie Thomas sold kale, arugula, potatoes, and spinach. 
Rosie Thomas holds a tray of tomato seeds in the farm greenhouse. Rosie grows different types of tomatoes on her own to sell in the summer.
A rusted dolly carries stacks of wired fence on Sharelife Farms in Marshall, Missouri.





Tornado Damage in Cooper County
Columbia Missourian
April 2, 2025


Photographed tornado damage in Cooper County for the Columbia Missourian after a tornado ripped through houses, power lines, and barn buildings on Wednesday, April 2. The confirmed EF-2 tornado stretched across 6.3 miles and damaged areas from Pilot Grove to Interstate 70 about 40 miles west of Columbia.


A barn structure sinks in the mud Wednesday along I-70 north of Pilot Grove. The tornado traveled 6.3 miles across Cooper County and reached the highway, according to the National Weather Service.
A boat is covered in fallen wood and insulation knocked over from a tornado that touched down Wednesday in Cooper County. Cooper County Emergency Management called for mutual aid to help clean up debris across the county, said William Johnson, a lieutenant with the Cooper County Fire Protection District.
A decorative plant and broken glass lay on the floor of Jessica Lorenz-Rudkin’s property hit by the tornado Wednesday in Cooper County. Lorenz-Rudkin’s family and local community helped pack important items into trailers after the storm.
Broken jars lie on the grass near a fallen barn structure near Interstate 70 in Cooper County.
Sheep roam a farmland field in Cooper County after a tornado ripped through the region earlier that morning.

Link to Columbia Missourian Article: Pilot Grove hit with morning tornado | Local | columbiamissourian.com
Savor Kitchen Replaces Sabai on Campus
Maneater Student Newspaper
October 29th, 2024

Shot, edited, and wrote video package about the addition of an allergen-free dining location on Mizzou’s campus during the fall 2024 semester. Video made with help from Aidan Seymour and editors Shyam Punnachilil and Sam Brusven.

Savor Kitchen replaces Sabai: Mizzou Dining introduces an allergen-free location

 This semester, MU Dining Services replaced Sabai with Savor Kitchen on campus. Savor is a dining location free of all top nine allergens. The restaurant allows customers to go down the food line with workers and build bowls including rice, protein, and vegetables. In the first two months of operation, Savor has been more profitable than Sabai.



Photo stills from video



Columbia Waste Management Rolls Out Roll Carts
February 18th, 2024

Shot, edited, and wrote video package about the City of Columbia’s addition of roll carts to weekly trash pick up in early 2024. Interviewed local residents, frequent recycling bin users, and Columbia Waste Management community relations specialist.

Columbia rolls out garbage carts. What does it mean for recycling?

 The City of Columbia will begin solid waste collection via roll carts starting March 5. However, the city still won’t pick up residential recycling. Since May 17th, 2023, the City of Columbia indefinitely suspended curbside recycling pick-up. Instead, citizens must use one of the eight designated recycling drop-off centers in Columbia to dispose of their recycling. Resident since 2008, Tina Balser comes every week to drop off her recycling.





Photo stills from video