Grossman reports from Capitol as Don Bolles fellow

Since 1973, UA students have been covering rural and suburban Arizona as part of the journalism department's commitment to community journalism. The department's Community News Service program allows students to report and write the stories that have an impact beyond the state's metropolitan areas.

This spring, as it does every legislative session, the journalism department has one student working full time at the Capitol pressroom in Phoenix. The student -- named the Don Bolles Fellow -- works one on one with Susan Knight, a UA professor, longtime editor and former newspaper reporter. In addition to this reporting, the fellow also follows stories for the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

The Don Bolles Fellow for Spring 2007 is Djamila Grossman, a senior who has held internships with The (Greeley, Colo.) Tribune, the Arizona Daily Star and The Hill, a Washington D.C. paper covering Capitol Hill, where she gained a deep interest in covering government and politics. Grossman also has reported extensively for the Wildcat. Born in Berlin, Grossman spent her childhood living in both Germany and the United States. She is majoring in journalism, with a minor in anthropology.

Grossman typically writes two stories a week for Community News Service. Grossman's stories have examined how the governor's 2007 goals will affect rural Arizona and effectively channel growth in the state.

Up to a half dozen students enrolled in the UA's Community Journalism course will be rotated up to the Capitol for a week at a time. Their coverage also will focus on what's of interest to readers in Arizona's towns, small cities, unincorporated areas and Indian reservations. In the weeks that the additional students are reporting, the 80 member newspapers receive more than two stories.

Community News Service stories are free, a function of the University of Arizona's land grant mission to serve Arizona.

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