Faculty/Staff Kudos Week of April 14, 2008
Celeste González de Bustamante participated as an invited panelist on the roundtable, "Revisioning Mexican History through Global and Transnational Lenses," at the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies 55th annual conference, held April 9-12, in Flagstaff. Her talk was titled, "Mexico, Television Diplomacy, and the Cold War."Linda Lumsden won a Faculty Small Grants Award of $3,680 from the University of Arizona Foundation. The award was for her proposal "Comrades: Visions and Values of the Early American Radical Press, 1900-1920."
Michael Tearne has been accepted to law school at the University of Notre Dame. He plans to start classes this fall.
Student Kudos
Three journalism students were winners in the Mark Finley Gold Pen Newswriting Competition for Spring 2008. Aly Van Dyke finished first, winning $750. Jessica Befort took second place and $350, and Claire Engelken placed third, winning $250. The competitors, recognized by J205 instructors as being among the promising beginning newswriters of the department, received an engraved pen commemorating the event April 14.The competitors listened to a presentation by Mike Hein, the Tucson city manager. He spoke about downtown redevelopment and tax financing of new community projects. After the presentation and a question-and-answer session, the competitors had one hour to write a news story. The contest was blind-judged by journalism faculty Jane See White, Jim Patten and Sarah Gassen.
The contest is named for the late Mark Finley, who established the award. Finley, a graduate of The University of Arizona, was a journalist and assistant for the publisher of Hearst's Boston newspaper for 17 years.
Members of the Society of Professional Journalists UA chapter hosted a Region 11 conference April 11-12 on campus. The gathering drew more than 100 journalists and journalism students from a four-state region to listen to experts on topics like religion coverage, public records access and the future of journalism. Members of the group's executive board who took the lead on organizing the conference were: Lorena Barraza, Ashlee Cain, Claire Conrad, Samantha Easter, Krystle Epum, Stephanie Jerzy, Katie Ryan, Meaghan Wallace and Henry Weber. The group's faculty adviser is Susan Knight.
Journalism students Amelia Quiroga and Ethan Williams were accepted into the 2008 summer American Indian Journalism Institute June 1-20. Students take courses at the Freedom Forum's Al Neuharth Media Center on the University of South Dakota's Vermillion campus. Top AIJI graduates are hired for six-week paid internships as reporters, copy editors, photographers and multimedia journalists at daily newspapers and with The Associated Press beginning about July 1. Last summer, 16 AIJI graduates worked in paid news internships, according to the Institute's Web site. Quiroga and Williams are founding members of the UA student chapter of the Native American Journalists Association.
Lauren LePage won a $1,000 scholarship from the Arizona Press Club in the reporting category. She'll pick up the award at a May 10 ceremony.
Two journalism majors won awards at the SPJ Mark of Excellence luncheon April 12. In the sports-column writing category, Michael Schwartz took first place and Lance Madden placed second. Journalism graduate Nina Conrad placed second in sports writing. And the Arizona Daily Wildcat, whose editor in chief is journalism major Alison Hornick, won second place for the best all-around daily student newspaper.
Jennifer Tramm will compete in the 48th annual National Writing Championships of the Hearst Journalism Awards Program June 2-6 in San Francisco. Tramm was one of eight journalism students nationally selected to participate. She will join students participating in various assignments -- competing for additional awards ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 in the Program's National Championships.
Judging the writing competition this year are: Arthur S. Brisbane, Former Senior Vice President, Knight Ridder, Inc., Monte Sereno, CA; Stephen Buckley, Managing Editor, The St. Petersburg Times, FL; and Jeff Cohen, Executive Vice President and Editor, Houston Chronicle, TX.
Presently, 108 colleges and universities with accredited undergraduate journalism schools participate in the program, often called the Pulitzers of college journalism. Funded and administered for 48 years by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Journalism Program awards more than $500,000 a year in scholarships, grants and stipends annually.