{"id":7703,"date":"2025-07-22T20:53:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T20:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/?p=7703"},"modified":"2025-07-30T15:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:22:12","slug":"from-parks-to-patios-tables-cherubs-find-their-best-interview-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/07\/from-parks-to-patios-tables-cherubs-find-their-best-interview-spots\/","title":{"rendered":"From parks to patio tables, finding the best interview spots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnie Wu did not expect a hug.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wandering through downtown Evanston on assignment, the Princeton, New Jersey native passed Peet\u2019s Coffee and the Music Institute of Chicago before stumbling into Raymond Park. On the grassy field dotted with playgrounds and chatting parents, Wu found her first interviewee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we talked she was like, \u2018Oh Minnie I just want to tell you that you did a great job today,\u2019 and she gave me a hug,\u201d Wu said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether in a housewares aisle or caf\u00e9 patio, cherubs found the best places and times for interviews. Some, like Wu, arrived by accident. Others picked strategically.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bani Chatha of Lancaster, Pennsylvania made multiple trips to Target.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has to shop and get groceries and essentials,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt Target, I was able to talk to professors, to teenagers, to old people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Emily Paschall of Los Angeles preferred the umbrella-covered tables outside Peet\u2019s Coffee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like jumping into a cold pool to go up and approach people you don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I found that finding people in a relaxed state on a Wednesday afternoon was the best time to do so.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jason Wang of Shanghai and Toronto returned often to Colectivo Coffee\u2019s patio. While the crowd was mostly seniors, \u201cThere\u2019s also a lot of young people or [families] hanging out,\u201d Wang said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of them has basically no understanding towards TikTok, but has a lot of personal insights toward politics from the U.S.-China relationship \u2026 he has a lot of really insightful opinions as well.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students uncovered stories in downtown Evanston, some by planning, others by chance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":280,"featured_media":8349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,19],"tags":[462,463],"ppma_author":[443],"class_list":["post-7703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-living-in-evanston","tag-city","tag-living-in-evanston"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":443,"user_id":280,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ziruizeng","display_name":"Zirui Zeng","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0e2829162e93da57195e62d9f0ad8f85867b1ea320f35ff427c6e2d54df18d09?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Zeng","first_name":"Zirui","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/280"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7703"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10333,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7703\/revisions\/10333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7703"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=7703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}