{"id":4753,"date":"2024-07-16T20:41:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T20:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/?p=4753"},"modified":"2024-08-12T17:58:01","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T17:58:01","slug":"friendly-faces-evanston-community-embraces-cherubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/07\/friendly-faces-evanston-community-embraces-cherubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Friendly faces: Evanston community embraces cherubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing screams \u201ccherubs\u201d more than saying, \u201cHi, I am a Northwestern summer journalism student. Could I interview you?\u201d<\/p>\n

These street interviews are only possible because Evanston residents and business owners are willing to share their stories.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Everyone being welcoming] definitely made me less anxious, especially since I got rejected a few times,\u201d said Leah Packer of Hinsdale, Illinois. \u201cAfter talking with people who are really nice and really receptive, it made me more confident and like, \u2018I can do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

During the program, many assignments required cherubs to interview complete strangers. It sounds intimidating, but locals said they are accustomed to Northwestern students asking for interviews. Not only are residents open to cherubs, but they are also excited to talk with them, said Eleanor Cook of Kalamazoo, Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wandered into an art gallery, and I ended up talking to the owners, and we had a 20-minute conversation. After about 20 minutes, I was like, \u2018Oh, I should probably record this,\u2019\u201d Cook said. \u201cI had a 45-minute-long interview with her after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, locals approach students to strike up a conversation. Emerson Leger of The Plains, Virginia, said that a woman complimented her tote bag as she was leaving a coffee shop.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ananya Mirchandani and Oliver Konopko try on firefighter helmets and jackets on Fourth of July at the station in Evanston. Photo by Wallis Rogin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018My family is right there, and they\u2019re laughing because they think this is super embarrassing, but I wanted to tell you that I love your bag\u2019,\u201d Leger said. \u201cShe took time out of her day to tell me that, and it really made my day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evanston\u2019s hospitality is not just a series of one-off encounters, said Ananya Mirchandani of New York. As a frequent customer of Insomnia Cookies, Mirchandani said she grew close to one of the employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came in, and she was there, and there was just a smile on my face,\u201d Mirchandani said. \u201cShe gave me a hug and showed me another photo of her granddaughter. It really adds to the experience to see her whenever I go there late at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Sophia Bateman of London and four of her friends were walking back from the Fourth of July parade, she said they wandered into a fire station. She said a firefighter gave them a tour for nearly two hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was super surprised the tour went on for that long because I didn\u2019t think there was that much to show, but the firefighter showed us all the different parts of the truck, and we tried on the suits,\u201d Bathman said. \u201cWe all have matching Evanston junior firefighter stickers on our laptops now, and I’m going to keep mine on there until it comes off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cherubs share their stories of interacting with Evanston residents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":5235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,19],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[262],"class_list":["post-4753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-living-in-evanston"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":262,"user_id":135,"is_guest":0,"slug":"oliverkonopko","display_name":"Oliver Konopko","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1c6d7d1dbd7c6731b4998575305907715d7bee31d0c3c1bac1566ff392d934d2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Konopko","first_name":"Oliver","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4753"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6578,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753\/revisions\/6578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4753"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}