Two UA students will cover legislature as 2008 Bolles fellows

University of Arizona journalism students Nicole Santa Cruz and Michael Rich will spend the spring semester covering the Arizona Legislature while working out of the Capitol pressroom as the 2008 Don Bolles Fellows.

The annual fellowship is part of Community News Service, a major public service project sponsored by the UA Journalism Department. The news service provides weekly legislative news aimed at readers of the state's rural and suburban newspapers.

Each Bolles fellow is a UA journalism major dedicated to a career in news; he or she is selected to receive a stipend and work in Phoenix during the spring legislative session. The fellowship is named for former Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles, who was killed in 1976 while investigating organized crime activity.

Community News Service began in 1973, when former UA Journalism Professor Don Carson took a group of students to the Capitol to write stories as part of the department's curriculum in reporting public affairs. The news service evolved into annual legislative coverage, and the Don Bolles Fellowship for a full-time legislative reporter was established in 1978.

The Bolles fellow produces two or more stories a week, which are edited by Bruce Itule, a UA journalism professor. The assignment is to cover the stories of interest to readers not living in the state's major urban areas. Past stories have covered environmental concerns, immigration and smuggling in border areas, bilingual education, lack of medical services in rural communities, forest fires, and Native American senior care.

Community News Service and the Arizona Daily Wildcat -- the UA student newspaper -- share costs for the fellow to work out of the Capitol pressroom, and the fellow produces stories for the Wildcat as well during the semester.

Santa Cruz spent the fall 2007 semester as a metro apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, where she has focused on education reporting. She was editor-in-chief of the Arizona Daily Wildcat for three semesters and the former president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists UA student chapter. The Tucson native plans to graduate in May 2008.

Rich was a feature editor and reporter for the Mesa Community College newspaper for a year. A Casa Grande resident, he has completed internships at Fox Ten, 10xmedia and was a reporting apprentice with the Arizona Daily Star in fall 2007.

Many past Bolles fellows have found success in news, including recent fellows: Bob Purvis, a news reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Eric Swedlund and Andrea Kelly, both reporters at the Arizona Daily Star; and Cyndy Cole, a reporter at the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff.

UA Journalism News Home