Student Kudos
October 2009
Jim Nintzel and journalism students Megan Neighbor, Hank Stephenson, Aleksa Brown and Taylor Avey, Tucson Weekly, won second place in multimedia storytelling, for “The ScrambleWatch blog” in the 2009 Better Newspapers Contest sponsored by the Arizona Newspapers Association and Arizona Associated Press Managing Editors Oct. 10. It also won third place in the Arizona Press Club competition earlier this year for best multimedia storytelling. Also winning at the Oct. 10 awards was Candace Begody and Duane Beyal, Navajo Times, second place, best sports story, non-daily circulation greater than 10,000, for “I ride to win.”Jay Rochlin wrote a successful proposal for a Magellan Circle grant from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The grant will enable five students in Rochlin’s Border Beat class to travel to Hermosillo to provide multimedia coverage of an annual volunteer-based cleft palate mission by American surgeons that is sponsored and organized by St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic in Nogales. The students written, photographic, video, and audio reports will be shared on Border Beat. Participating students are: Aleksa Brown, Chris Kelly, Curtis Prendergast, Kristina Stevens and Roxana Vasquez.
Evan Pellegrino helped lead an online resume workshop coordinated by Lisa Button and Mike McKisson on Sept. 30.
August 2009
Moriah Waters, one of the students taking part in the Journalism Diversity Workshop for Arizona High School Students, had her article on “Teens create public art downtown” chosen for the ASNE national edition of their online high school journalism site. See it here. Roxana Vasquez was her student mentor.Sarah Kezele was named a correspondent to the Nike Field Reporter program on nikewomen.com. She will have a weekly blog on their Web site and do print and video stories on athletes and events on a local and national level.
CeCe Perry, a graduate student who worked this summer at an apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, had a front-page story published Aug. 12 on “S. Tucson’s last bar.”
Nicole Santa Cruz, who graduated in December 2008, starts the Metpro program in mid-September at the Los Angeles Times, where she worked as an intern this summer. Santa Cruz is a founding member of the UA student chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a former president of that chapter. Metpro is a two-year diversity program designed to help beginning journalists launch careers in Tribune newsrooms. Each participant can expect formal mentoring, frequent performance evaluations and coaching, a thorough grounding in journalism ethics and relevant laws pertaining to libel and privacy, an opportunity to cover communities, including cops, courts and city councils, a thorough understanding of public records and research tools and an opportunity to prepare stories for the Web. Fellow graduate Nathan Olivarez-Giles was selected for the same program in spring 2008.
June 2009
Carly Kennedy will pick up a $1,000 check at the Arizona Newspapers Association’s Fall Convention Oct. 10. Kennedy was one of two winners in the state of the 2009 scholarship.
Several students helped with the Journalism Diversity Workshop for Arizona High School Students June 6-17. Matt Lewis and Roxana Vasquez took a lead role as counselors and mentors. Students also serving as mentors were Amanda Bahe, Aleksa Brown, Colleen Bush, Rodney Haas, Evan Pellegrino, Samantha Sais, Hank Stephenson and Kevin Zimmerman. The workshop’s highlight is the publication of The Chronicle, a 12-page newspaper that is written, edited and designed by the high school students. View it here.
A story on media portrayals of Native Americans that featured Candace Begody, a journalism senior and member of the Navajo community, that aired on "Arizona Illustrated" April 21 also was broadcast on KUAT’s radio program “Arizona Spotlight” May 9. Listen here.
May 2009
Sarah Kezele wrote a story on fellow journalism student and UA swimmer Taylor Baughman that was picked up by ESPN Campus Connection. Watch it here. Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan wrote the cover story on healthy,Tohono O’odham food for the food section of the May 20 Arizona Daily Star. Read it here.Candace Begody has a summer internship at the White House in the Office of Management and Administration. The office, according to the White House Web site, offers important operational and administrative support for the President of the United States and the White House Office. It also provides administrative oversight to all components of the Executive Office of the President.
Begody also will receive a $1,000 scholarship from the Arizona Press Club May 16.
Alex Dalenberg was offered a reporter position with The Working Press, a tab newspaper produced for the 2009 SPJ Convention & National Journalism Conference to be held Aug. 27-29 in Indianapolis. He was one of six reporting interns selected out of more than 60 applicants.
Lauren King wrote an article for her Jour 205 class that was published in the business section of the Arizona Daily Star May 14. The story was on a UA economics professor who compares today’s economic woes with lessons learned in the Great Depression.
Chelsea Jo Simpson, May 2009 journalism graduate, accepted a position as marketing manager at the Association of University Research Parks in Tucson.
Check out all the Just Desserts honorees. Andi Berlin wrote several stories for a six-page cover spread in the April 16 issue of the Arizona Daily Star’s "Caliente."
Claire Conrad wrote the cover story for the April 30 issue of Tucson Weekly.
Kassandra Lau and Amanda Portillo will have all their expenses paid to take part in the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Student Projects gathering in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Paola Camacho will also be attending, courtesy of an NAHJ grant to cover travel and registration costs.
Samantha M. Sais and Alex Dalenberg received Arizona Press Club Scholarships for photography and reporting, respectively.
Hank Stephenson is going to Washington, D.C., in July for the Campus Progress National Youth Journalism Conference, co-sponsored by The Nation. The organization is paying for Stephenson’s travel and housing expenses. Past speakers at the Campus Progress National Conference include Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and journalists such as Seymour Hersh and Helen Thomas.
The Native American Journalists Association-UA chapter was honored with the Outstanding Emerging Award at “The Accolades,” an event sponsored by the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership at the UA. The event recognizes outstanding students, organizations, advisors and staff within the campus community.
April 2009
The UA Native American Journalists Association Student Chapter will be releasing the second issue of its news magazine at a gathering set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 6, in the Cellar Restaurant in the Student Union, Underground.
A story on media portrayals of Native Americans that featured Candace Begody, a journalism senior and member of the Navajo community, aired on "Arizona Illustrated" April 21. Watch it here.
Sarah Kezele and Chris Veck, who graduated in December 2008, volunteered at the School of Journalism booth at the National Scholastic Press Association convention held in Phoenix April 16-17.
Candace Begody was among 80 students nationally selected as a Udall Scholar. Udall scholarships go to young leaders who are committed to working in careers in either tribal policy or healthcare, and the designation comes with up to $5,000 for one year. Read about it here.
March 2009
Candace Begody earned two major honors in March.She is one of nine students from across the country selected for a 13-day journalism study trip to Japan and South Korea for the annual Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition, sponsored by the Scripps Howard Foundation.
Bradley J. Hamm, dean of the journalism school at Indiana University, will lead the all-expenses-paid trip June 13-27. The trip’s goal, according to an announcement by the Scripps Howard Foundation, is to give student journalists a better understanding of international affairs, particularly in Asia, where few American students choose to study. The nine winners, whose entries collectively represent print and broadcast journalism, and multimedia studies, were chosen for the quality of their published and/or broadcast work and an essay about their interest in international affairs.
Begody also is one of 12 students across the UA to receive a “Pillars of Excellence Award.” The award recognizes top UA faculty and students based on nominations the Honors College sought from UA faculty. In particular, organizers looked for students who not only excel academically, but who also have made positive contributions in research, the arts, community service, international endeavors, and/or athletics.
Lastly, Begody had a story about her work on launching the journal Native Perspectives featured as the lead story in the March 16 New America Media Journalism School Partnership Newsletter.
Several journalism students were winners in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence competition. Region 11 winners included:
First place, Breaking News: Lance Madden and Bryan Roy, Arizona Daily Wildcat, for "Lute Suffering
from Stroke"
First place, Feature Photography: Roxana Vasquez, Arizona Daily Star, "He Still Answers Call of Duty"
Second place, Indepth Reporting: Evan Pellegrino and Ryan Kraft, Arizona Daily Star, "Deadly Abuse
of RX Drugs"
Third place, Stephanie Jerzy, The Tombstone Epitaph, "Dreams of Big League"
Best All Around Independent Online Student Publication: Border Beat
Best student newspaper: Arizona Daily Wildcat
Alex Dalenberg and Jenna Davis were selected for the 2009 Pulliam Journalism Fellowship at
The Arizona Republic. And Lance Madden was selected for an American Society of Magazine Editors
summer internship. He will intern at a magazine in New York City. The Pulliam Journalism Fellowship
and the ASME internship for college juniors are highly competitive, paid internships.
Mack Kearns’ story on the Tucson High robot class that ran in the Feb. 17 issue of the Arizona Daily Star was picked up as member enterprise by the Associated Press. He is a Star apprentice.
February 2009
Candace Begody will represent the UA and the Native American community for one year as Miss Native UA. She won the honor Feb. 7 in a competition that featured traditional talent, reading an essay and answering an impromptu question.Former students Dalina Castellanos and Nicole Santa Cruz were among only 11 students nationally selected as Chips Quinn Scholars for the spring 2009 semester. Following an orientation and training in multimedia, the scholars headed to their posts. Castellanos, a Nogales native, will work on the news desk at the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash. Santa Cruz, a Tucson native and former editor-in-chief of the Arizona Daily Wildcat, will report for The Bulletin in Bend, Ore. Both students were founding members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists UA chapter.
The Chips Quinn Scholars program began in 1991 and is named for John C. "Chips" Quinn Jr., a young editor who died at age 34. His family founded the program in his honor. Since is death, more than 1,000 young journalists of color have worked as scholars in daily newspaper newsroom internships.
December 2008
The School of Journalism was featured twice the week of Dec. 8 in the UA Now listserv that profiles top stories of the day from the university. One story featured the three UA journalism majors who will take part in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute in January 2009 at Florida International University in Miami. They are Joe Pangburn, Nicole Santa Cruz and Melissa Tan. Read it here. The other story featured Candace Begody’s efforts to launch Native Perspectives, a journal featuring Native American news and features. Read it here.Melissa Tan had a multimedia piece published in the Tucson Citizen Dec. 1. The video news story features Jessica Cox, a woman with no arms, who recently received her pilot's license. View it here. Tan also had stills published on the same story.
Stephanie Hall was recognized by the Honors College for completing a thesis to graduate next week with honors. Her thesis, "Hazelwood: How public schools became First Amendment-free zones," was completed this spring under the supervision of her faculty adviser, Kevin R. Kemper.
November 2008
Nicole Fagin's last story produced as part of MTV's "Choose or Lose" street campaign, may be viewed here.A story on a Bosnian chef written by Matt Lewis, an apprentice for the Arizona Daily Star, was picked up by the Associated Press for distribution on its state wire. Read the story here.
Kevin Zimmerman took first place in the fall 2008 Finley Newswriting Competition for beginning newswriters held Nov. 13. Students covered a news conference with Glenn Lyons, chief executive officer of the Downtown Tucson Partnership. After Lyons' presentation, they asked follow-up questions, then had an hour to write and polish a news story about the event.
The contest is named for the late Mark Finley, who established the award. Finley, a UA graduate, was a journalist and assistant to the publisher of Hearst's Boston newspaper for 17 years. The first-place award is worth $750.
Taylor Baughman, a member of the women's swim team that won the NCAA title this spring, visited the White House Nov. 12 to accept congratulations from President George Bush. Read her first-person account of the meeting from the Nov. 13 Arizona Daily Star here.
Three journalism students had stories on the front page of the Tucson/Region section in the Nov. 8 Arizona Daily Star. Alex Dalenberg wrote about an artist reconstructing the face of a deceased woman; Chelsey Killebrew wrote on an educational center at Reid Park Zoo; and Evan Pellegrino wrote on a scientific art exhibit at Arizona State Museum.
October 2008
Stephen Ceasar, an apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star, had his story on smuggling run on Page One, above the fold, of the Oct. 28 issue of the Star.Hank Stephenson's article on political candidates' views on atomic energy was featured in the Oct. 30 Tucson Weekly.
Taylor Avey's article on the Congressional race in LD 26 ran in the Oct. 16 Tucson Weekly.
Several students and faculty members spoke with student journalists from Alta Vista High School who visited the department Oct. 21. Students Evan Pellegrino, Roxana Vasquez, Matt Lewis, Nicole Fagin, Carrie Sherman and Lisa Burris talked about their experiences with student media, among other topics. Jay Rochlin spoke on Border Beat, Kim Newton on photojournalism, Karen Weaver on advising and John de Dios on Final Cut Express. Lisa Button coordinated the visit.
The front page of the Arizona Daily Star on Oct. 13 featured the work of three UA students. Evan Pellegrino, a former Star apprentice and the current NASA intern, wrote about the UA chair of lasers and photonics and his team’s work on 3-D imaging in video. Read it here. The lead art was a photo by Roxana Vasquez, current apprentice, which illustrates the lead story by Chelsey Killebrew, another apprentice, on TUSD spending $550,000 to recruit minority teachers.
September 2008
Tess Martinez was among 10 fellows chosen to attend the Academy for Alternative Journalism summer residency program at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism June 22-Aug.15. The academy trains young journalists in long-form feature writing with the aim of recruiting them into the alternative press. The 10 fellows were selected from about 330 applicants for the program. Fellows received a $3,000 stipend as well as allowances for travel to and housing at the program.The Society of Professional Journalists has named the University of Arizona chapter the top student chapter in a four-state region. It marks the third time in four years that the UA has won of Region XI Award. Clare Conrad was SPJ-UA president for 2007-08 when the chapter hosted the spring regional conference. Alex Dalenberg is the group’s incoming president.
A student who took part in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute in January worked as a stringer for The Times covering Hurricane Ike. Read the two stories to which Rick Rojas, a student at Texas A&M, contributed Sept. 14 and Sept. 15.
May 2008 graduate Nicole Santa Cruz had a cover story published in the Sept. 6 issue of The Oregonian.
Aminata Sumareh, a high school student who took part in the Journalism Diversity Workshop for Arizona High School Students, had a story she wrote on a girl with cerebral palsy published in the Sept. 8 issue of Inside Tucson Business. Read it here.
August 2008
Hank Stephenson had a story on the primary race in Legislative District 29 featured in Aug. 21-27 issue of the Tucson Weekly. Read it here.Two students had stories published in the Aug. 28-Sept. 3 Tucson Weekly. Read Taylor Avey's article on the Legislative District 26 race and Megan Neighbor's story on District 30.
At the Unity Journalists of Color convention July 20-27 in Chicago, Roxana Vasquez earned an honorable mention in a conference-wide multimedia contest for a piece about a Hispanic community in Chicago. The contest was called the Unity Multimedia ShootOut. Contestants were asked to go into the city of Chicago and shoot a different diverse group other than themselves. Vasquez worked on the photo assignment with San Francisco State’s Michelle Le. Both students were mentored by John deDios, a lab attendant in the journalism department. See the students’ work here.
July 2008
Alex Dalenberg had a story about the UA's Phoenix-Mars Mission on CNN. Read it here.Candace Begody will receive a $1,000 scholarship from the Arizona Newspapers Foundation. It will be presented at ANA's 2008 Fall Convention and Annual Meeting.
June 2008
David Martinez III, a journalism education minor and member of the Journalism Student Advisory Council, is a recipient of the 2007-2008 Peter W. Likins Inclusive Excellence Award. Winners are selected for enhancing The University of Arizona's academic excellence by helping to create a diverse and inclusive campus community. Martinez has been involved in the Transgender Project, an endeavor intended to create a University environment that is inclusive and values transgender individuals. He also served as a student member of the Arizona Board of Regents.Jennifer Tramm was one of five runners up in the writing competition at the National Writing, Photojournalism and Broadcast News Championships sponsored by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation Journalism Awards Program. Her placement means a $1,500 award for Tramm and a matching grant to the department.
May 2008
Student Kudos
Chelsea Killibrew, Stephen Miller and Michelli Murphy were selected to intern at Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) this summer to write content for the program's new climate change Web site.Renee Pepe, Melissa Tan and Roxana Vasquez have been accepted to the Unity Student Projects conference July 20-27 in Chicago. Pepe will work on the copy desk to edit Web and print areas. Tan and Vasquez will be working on the photo desk. The Unity Student Projects will produce three newspapers, an online, a broadcast and a radio component. This is Unity's first converged newsroom where 76 professionals will be working with 90-plus college students from across the country. The students will be covering issues around the area, the conference and speakers, including the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees. Students accepted to the program will have all their expenses paid, plus a cash stipend to help with finances while in Chicago.
Several journalism students have had articles picked up for publication in local and
regional periodicals. They include:
Jordan Handler, Tucson Green Magazine;
Ashli Woods, Inside Tucson Business, ;
Catherine O'Connor, Inside Tucson Business,
with one ITB story pending; and Desert Leaf, slated to run in November;
Megan Levardo, Desert Leaf, date TBA;
Cameron Jones, Tucson Weekly;
Taylor Baughman, Tucson Citizen, date TBA;
Samantha Easter, Inside Tucson Business,
and two stories pending; and
Megan Mazurek, Green Magazine.
Journalism major Candace Begody was honored at the 2007 Arizona Press Club contest May 10 in Phoenix. She won second place in sports reporting for her Navajo Times story "The struggle for gold."
Dozens of students were honored at the department's annual Just Desserts celebration May 8. See the full list of winners here.
April 2008
Meaghan Wallace will be interning at KRON in San Francisco.Journalism major Steve Meth was on site at the Olympic torch protests in Kalua Lumpur. His photos were published online in the Australian news.
Two journalism majors were featured in the May/June 2008 issue of Arizona Foothills Magazine for an article titled "Tucson's Tremendous Moms, Dads and Grads." Mike Ritter will be covering the Arizona Diamondbacks this summer for MLB.com, and Nicole Fagin is Arizona's representative for MTV's "Choose or Lose Street Team 2008."
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. Fayana Richards has been awarded an AAAS Minority Science Writers Internship. She will spend 10 weeks this summer in Washington, D.C., as an intern with Science magazine, a journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is working this semester as an apprentice at the Arizona Daily Star.
Alyson Van Dyke was awarded a summer internship at the Scranton Times-Tribune.
March 2008
Taylor Baughman and Annie Chandler are members of the UA women's swimming and diving team that won the 2008 national championship.Nathan Olivarez-Giles was accepted into the Los Angeles Metpro program that begins in the fall. Metpro is a two-year diversity program designed to help beginning journalists launch careers in Tribune newsrooms. Each participant can expect formal mentoring, frequent performance evaluations and coaching, a thorough grounding in journalism ethics and relevant laws pertaining to libel and privacy, an opportunity to cover communities, including cops, courts and city councils, a thorough understanding of public records and research tools and an opportunity to prepare stories for the Web. Olivarez-Giles will work at the Los Angeles Times.
February 2008
Eric Schwartz spent part of February in Boston covering the American Association for the Advancement of Science General Meeting. He's the NASA Space Grant intern at the Arizona Daily Star. Read his Feb. 17 article here.
The following students have landed summer internships:
Candace Begody was awarded a Chips Quinn internship at the Detroit News.
Jeffrey Javier was awarded a Pulliam internship at The Arizona Republic.
Lauren LePage will intern as a copy editor at The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Nathan Olivarez-Giles was selected for a video internship at The New York Times.
Carrie Sherman was selected as a broadcast intern at CBS 2 in New York City.
Ari Wasserman will cover minor league baseball for MLB.com.
The two UA students covering the Arizona Legislature for Community News Service are receiving clips from around the state. Stories by Nicole Santa Cruz and Michael Rich have appeared in the Holbrook Tribune-News, the Arizona Republic and the Tucson Citizen.
Michael Schwartz scored a 14th-place finish in the sports writing category of the 48th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program. The Hearst Journalism Awards are held in member colleges and universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs.
January 2008
Eric Schwartz had his article on wasp brains published in the Jan. 23 Arizona Daily Star.Nicole Santa Cruz, one of the department's Don Bolles fellows covering the legislature in Phoenix, had an article printed in the Jan. 27 issue of the Arizona Republic on the governor's plan to move some inmates.
Journalism students Michael Ritter and Michael Schwartz have both been awarded paid internships with MLB.com for summer 2008. Ritter will cover the Arizona Diamondbacks and Schwartz, who interned for MLB.com last summer with the Diamondbacks, will be covering the L.A. Dodgers. They were offered two of the 33 spots nationwide.
Nicole Fagin is representing the state of Arizona as MTV's election correspondent for 2008. The "Choose or Lose" campaign comprises a specially recruited group of 51 citizen journalists — one from every state and Washington, D.C.— who will cover the 2008 elections from a youth perspective and tailor their reports for mobile devices. Members will contribute weekly, multi-media reports (short form videos, blogs, animation, photos, podcasts) that will be distributed via a soon-to-launch WAP site, MTV Mobile, Think.MTV.com and to the more than 1,800 sites in the Associated Press Online Video Network. The "Street Team '08" program is made possible by a $700,000 Knight News Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Nicole Santa Cruz was selected to be a summer intern at The Oregonian.
December 2007
Jennifer Tramm placed second in the national Hearst writing competition in the opinion writing category. Tramm won for a piece she wrote on deadbeat dads. The award comes with a $1,500 prize for Tramm and a matching grant to the UA journalism department. Tramm also qualifies for the all-expenses paid National Writing Championship in June 2008 in San Francisco sponsored by the Hearst Foundation. In that competition she will be eligible for a $10,000 grand prize.The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, and fully funded and administered by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. It consists of six monthly writing, three photojournalism, four broadcast news competitions and one multimedia competition, with championship finals in all divisions except multimedia. The program awards more than $500,000 in scholarships, grants, and stipends annually.
November 2007
Andrew Bess was selected as one of 20 students to win a $500 Magellan Scholarship. He will be honored at a luncheon for Magellan Scholarship winners on Nov. 30 at the Arizona Inn.Allison Slater has been hired for a spring internship with the Memphis Redbirds.
Matt Andazola had his story on five UA students who have written a book on "man laws" featured on the front page of the Arizona Daily Star Oct. 29. Several of the student authors who were the subject of the article also are UA journalism majors.
Krystle Hart has been named the first recipient of the UA Foundation Board of Directors Scholarship for 2007-08.
Meredith Severino wrote a story on her role in the Study Cairo program that ran in the Fall 2007 issue of Arizona Alumnus magazine. Severino was among 12 students from across the country who learned Arabic and posted reports, photos and blogs during their two-month stay in Cairo. Maggy Zanger led the trip.
October 2007
Ashley Houk had her story on UA students who customize "Zona Zoo" T-shirts featured on the front page of the Accent section of the Arizona Daily Star Oct. 20. Houk is apprenticing at the Star this semester. Two photos of fellow journalism student Cathy McCarthy illustrated the piece.Jennifer Tramm had her first Page One Accent feature story published in the Arizona Daily Star Oct. 10. The story was on "The Joy of Java."
A journalism student also did well at the ANA competition. Candace Begody placed second in the best sports beat coverage category for a story she wrote while working at the Navajo Times in Window Rock.
September 2007
UA senior journalism major Eric Schwartz wrote an op-ed piece on the value of internships that appeared in the Sept. 7 issue of the Arizona Daily Star. Read it here.June 2007
As seniors, Kate Klein and Karla Gonzalez helped with production of Advancing Arizona, a publication of The University of Arizona Foundation.Djamila Grossman was featured in the June issue of the National Edition of the Tombstone Epitaph as the first recipient of the Dean Prichard Scholarship. Other student winners mentioned in the article were Nina Conrad, Jeffrey Javier, Courtney Johnson, Meghan Martin, Colin Moore, Ernesto Romero, Nicole Santa Cruz and Allison Winters, who all won William Hattich Awards (named for the former owner of the Epitaph and the Tombstone Daily Prospector). Also cited were Jacqueline Kuder, William Kaner, Robert Watkins and Valarie Potell, winners of the John P. Clum Award (named for the Epitaph's founder).
May 2007
The Arizona Daily Star published on the top of its Sunday front page on May 24 a story written by journalism major Michael McKisson and Star reporter Erica Meltzer, based on McKisson's work in the spring computer-assisted reporting class. For his class project, McKisson acquired sewer smell complaint data from Pima County and found that stinky vapors are spreading farther through Tucson. He interviewed residents and officials to examine the problem and what might be done about it.Jeanie Bergen will do the traffic report for KOLD 13 May 25 -June 5.
Abby Hood, who graduated in May 2007, has taken a job as a reporter with the Beverly Hills Weekly and will start right away.
Several Feature Writing students had work published this semester. They are Morgan O'Crotty and Neil Critchley, Arizona Daily Star; and Jake Hanes and Stephanie Hall, Inside Tucson Business. The latter two also were asked to freelance for the publication.
Other students also are earning impressive clips. They include: Robert Fonorow, Tucson Weekly; Berenice Rosales, La Estrella; and Krissy Sauter, Nina Padula, Lauren LePage, Allison Hamila, Michelle Jakoby and Joe Pangburn, who provided all the content for Inside Tucson Business' Women of Influence tab.
Alex Lau, Lauren Biskind and Michael Skow all had their stories air the week of May 7 on KUAT-TV's Arizona Illustrated.
March 2007
Roxana Vasquez, a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists UA student chapter, has been asked to join Juntos, an advisory council comprising representatives of each UA Chicano/Hispano student organization. Juntos organizations include: Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Gamma Alpha Omega, Kappa Delta Chi, Sigma Lambda Gamma, Lambda Theta Phi, Omega Delta Phi, Sigma Lambda Beta, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, Club Latino de Arizona, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Hispanic Business Student Association, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.January 2007
UA students holding internships this semester are getting rave reviews from their "employers." Gawain Douglas at the Tucson Citizen tells the department that the staff at the Citizen is "thrilled" with their interns. Kelly Lewis had the center spread story in a recent Calendar section. In the photo gallery at tucsoncitizen.com, photo intern Rachel Nahmias had pictures of the snow day in Tucson and 2007 Senior Olympic Festival.Leslie Newell reports that the Arizona Daily Star staff has been similarly impressed with the performance of apprentices. She sent this link to Ashley Houk's story on her very first day: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/165914.php. Another Star apprentice, Eric Schwartz, had a column on "nerdiness" published Feb. 2.
Two UA journalism majors were named Chips Quinn Scholars by the Freedom Forum, an Arlington, Va.-based nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press.
The program is designed to help provide support to emerging print news reporters and to foster diversity in U.S. newspaper newsrooms. The scholars work in internships at daily newspapers throughout the country.
Senior Shawn Smith starts this summer as a sports reporter for the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y. The journalism major has also held internships at KOLD-TV and KCUB-AM, both of Tucson. He's a native of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation in upstate New York, but grew up in Tucson.
Junior Jeffrey Javier will work as a general assignment reporter with a focus on government and city issues at the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Pride of Arizona Marching Band and Elevation: Ski and Snowboard Club. Javier also writes for the Arizona Daily Wildcat.
The program is named for John "Chips" Quinn Jr. who was editor of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal before he died at age 34; he was the son of John Quinn, former deputy chairman of the Freedom Forum, and Loie Quinn.
The Chips Quinn Scholars program has a minimum salary of $500 a week, according to Karen Catone, director of the Chips Quinn Scholars Program.
The Freedom Forum provides each scholar a one-time $500 housing subsidy. Students can use this however they choose. Scholars receive an additional $1,100 upon successful completion of the internship.
The following students were elected officers of the UA student chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists: Victoria Tinajero and Nathan Robert Olivarez-Giles, co-presidents; Matthew Scot Andazola, vice president; Ernesto Abel Romero, secretary; and Lorena Barraza, treasurer.
Olivarez-Giles had his story on Tucson's wacky winter weather featured on Page One of the Arizona Daily Star Jan. 22.
Valarie Potell had her feature story on a Tucson gelato shop operated by two UA graduates featured in the Winter 2007 issue of Arizona Alumnus magazine.
November 2006
Robert Ford had his story "Keeping Vinyl Alive" published in the Nov. 11 issue of Inside Tucson Business. He is a member of Jay Rochlin's feature's class. Read it at: http://azbiz.com/articles/2006/11/20/news/news06.txt
FINLEY WINNERS SELECTED FOR FALL 2006
The Department of Journalism congratulates the following winners of the Mark Finley Gold Pen Newswriting Competition for Fall 2006.
First place, Chelsea Hodson, winning $750;
Second place, Juli Louttit, winning $350;
Third place, Claire Conrad, winning $250.
Each of the 19 competitors, recognized by J205 instructors as being among the promising beginning newswriters of the department, received an engraved pen commemorating the event on Nov. 20.
The competitors researched and interviewed hydrologist Peter Griffiths of the U.S. Geological Survey and interpretative specialist and public affairs officer Heidi Schewel of the U.S. Forest Service, who discussed recent flooding and related issues in Sabino Canyon. They then wrote articles on deadline, which were blind judged by J205 faculty members.
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.
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Student Joyanna Jones, wrote an op-ed piece for the Arizona Daily Star Oct. 27 titled "Disparaging my generation unfair." She's a student in Steve Auslander's Opinion Writing class.
Student Brian Goldsmith wrote a story on the growth of a local church that ran in the Foothills Neighbors section of the Arizona Daily Star Oct. 26. Fellow student Chris Coduto shot the photos for the piece. Goldsmith is a student in Professor Jay Rochlin's feature writing class.
Several students attended the California Chicano News Media Association conference Oct. 27-28 in Los Angeles. They were: Victoria Tinajero, Lorena Barraza, Dalina Castellanos, Valarie Potell, Justin Stock and John deDios. The department received a $300 grant from Xerox Corp. to offset expenses. Professor Bill Greer accompanied the students.
October 2006
The Tombstone Epitaph took home several awards from the Oct. 14 Arizona Newspapers Association contest in Scottsdale. The Epitaph, whose faculty advisor is Bill Greer, earned an honorable mention for departmental news and copy editing excellence. Three 2006 alumni also earned awards: Dana Crudo took third place in features; Emily Kraft won third place in features and photo layout; and James Patrick earned a second place for feature photos.
Dave Hatfield, editor of Inside Tucson Business, recently enlisted the help of three UA Journalism students to write for their annual Tucson "Up and Comers" feature that hit newsstands Oct. 9. Katie Klein, Valerie Potell and Mitra Taj of Jay Rochlin's Feature Writing course interviewed five up-and- coming business leaders in the Tucson community. Hatfield mentioned the opportunity to write the "Up and Comers" articles while speaking in Rochlin's 411 class. The opportunity has helped build a relationship between Inside Tucson Business and the journalism department, and Hatfield has subsequently accepted several freelance story proposals from students.
Senior journalism major Mitra Taj wrote a story on a native seeds program started by the Tohono O'odham that ran in the Oct. 11 Neighbors section of the Arizona Daily Star. Taj had written a version of the article for Tom Beal's RPA class. He encouraged her to submit it to the Star. Read it here.
September 2006
Victoria Harben had a guest column on airport safety published in the Sept. 22 issue of the Arizona Daily Star. Read it here.
Senior Kari Shaffer, a student in Steve Auslander's Opinion Writing class, had an opinion piece published on Labor Day in the Tucson Citizen. It was titled, "For those who toil in retail, it truly is Labor Day."
Student Heather Raftery had two stories and a two-page photo spread published in the September 2006 issue of Cutting Horse Chatter, the official publication of the National Cutting Horse Association. Raftery is a writer, photographer and cutting horse rider.
The UA chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists earned the Outstanding Campus Chapter award for its region at the organization's Aug. 23-25 conference in Chicago. This is the second straight year the UA has earned the top chapter honor in the region that includes Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and California. Susan Knight is the group's advisor. Members of the executive board are: Mika Mandelbaum, president; Anthony Avila, vice president; and David Kemper, treasurer.
April 2006
Journalism Student Named a Chips Quinn Scholar
Journalism major Andrea Rivera has been named a 2006 Chips Quinn Scholar. Rivera, who is set to graduate in May 2006, will work for 10-12 weeks this summer as a general assignment reporter at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore.
Rivera is a Pueblo High School graduate. She is a part-time sports reporter for the Arizona Daily Star and works on the staff of The Tombstone Epitaph, a capstone course in the department that allows students to produce a community newspaper for the town of Tombstone, Ariz.
The Chips Quinn program helps provide support to emerging print news reporters and to foster diversity in U.S. newspaper newsrooms. The program is named for John "Chips" Quinn Jr. who was editor of the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal before he died at age 34. He was the son of John Quinn, former deputy chairman of the Freedom Forum, and Loie Quinn.
Two win Dow Jones internships
A University of Arizona journalism major and a recent graduate have earned summer internships through the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. The summer 2006 positions include free pre-internship training seminars on college campuses and weekly salaries starting at $350 for a minimum of 10 weeks.
Alex Chihak, who graduated in December 2005 with a journalism degree, will work this summer at the Denver Post. UA junior Anthony Avila will edit copy at the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Chihak said experience in and out of the classroom helped him land his internship. He spent four semesters as a copy editor for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the UA student newspaper. Maintaining the marshal's log, similar to the police beat, for The Tombstone Epitaph "helped me learn how to work on a deadline," said Chihak.
But he says his Reporting Public Affairs class with Susan Knight, assistant professor of practice, gave him the best preparation for a possible career in newspapers.
"The intense deadline writing and constantly attending city meetings really helped me learn how to work on a deadline," he said.
A newspaper career would certainly be in keeping for the Chihak family, says Alex, who hails from Kayenta, Ariz., on the Navajo Reservation. His uncle Michael Chihak is the publisher of the Tucson Citizen. His daughter -- Alex's cousin -- was a copy editor at the Arizona Republic. Both are University of Arizona journalism graduates.
Anthony Avila realizes it's no hardship to spend a summer in San Diego, so he's grateful for his opportunity to work on the night desk at the San Diego Union-Tribune. "I'll have the mornings to surf before I go into work in the afternoon," he says with a smile.
Avila says he was encouraged to pursue editing by Professor Bill Greer, who taught his editing class. "That prepared me in terms of editing a publication," he says, and and was a helpful addition when he began reporting -- and eventually became assistant news editor -- at the Wildcat.
A 2003 graduate of Tucson's Arizona College Preparatory Academy, Avila says he wrote on his Dow Jones editing application that reporting, editing and class work all helped shape his experience.
"You're constantly editing, no matter what you're doing," he says. "You have a copy editor and a desk editor, but your first editor is you."