Here are some updates on the FGCU journalism program of which I am very excited about and anxious to share with the Club.
Starting with two of our faves:
Maryann Batlle (one of the students that presented to NPC … two years ago) has completed her master’s degree at the Cronkite School at ASU, and was a News21 Fellow this summer.
Alex Pena (the young man who went to El Paso and filmed the drug lords during a time when many gangs were busy killing each other) left for Germany/Afghanistan last week. He has accepted a job with Stars & Stripes and will be a war reporter, embedded with the military in Afghanistan.
The FGCU journalism program hired in fall 2011 Rick Kenney, Ph.D., associate professor. Immediately before coming to FGCU, Rick was the Scripps Howard Endowed Professor of Journalism at Hampton University. He has won many awards for his journalism and teaching, including Educator of the Year in 2010 by the AEJMC’s Newspaper Division.
Judd Cribbs, assistant professor at FGCU, joined the program last fall from Cape Coral High School where he taught broadcast journalism. Prior to that, Cribbs was a features reporter at WINK. He has many years of reporting and editing experience at print and broadcast outlets.
The J-School received a grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation to start the series Face-to-Face: Conversations with Journalists, which began in January, 2012. The series focuses on news literacy, allowing high school and college students to talk to journalists live in a virtual conversation. Conversation guests have included May Ying Welsh, who produced the undercover documentary “Shouting in the Dark” about protests in Bahrain. The documentary won a George Polk award. We’ve also hosted Louisa Lim, who reports from Beijing for NPR. Last month’s guest was Yochi Dreazen, who reports on nuclear security in the Middle East.
The program is embarking on a community series devoted to media ethics and accountability. This forum is in the early planning stages…it is expected to be held twice a year. The format is to choose an area of news coverage and invite the reporter who covered the news and the newsmaker to discuss the stories and their impact on the community.
More positive news: 100 students have declared a major in journalism and 50 more have declared minors!!
NPC member Bob Dimond appears with the Everglades Barbershop Chorus in an evening of “Classic Barbershop” at 7 p.m. Friday, March 22. It will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 3901 Davis Blvd. in Naples. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased from Bob at 434-6445 or by calling 250-0457. Tickets will also be available at the box office. Plenty of free parking is available.
Contributed by Phil Jason
A fun update: NPC member Bonnie Crosby in the news!
From : The Editor — Keep those notes and phone calls coming. The more info we have on members the more interesting SCOOP will be. Thanxx for the uptick in contributions. I hope this is a sign of more to come.
Regular edition of April Scoop will appear on April 5. Deadline for articles is March 28th.