The Press Club of Southwest Florida Scholarship Committee wants to invite our press club and its members to establish a closer relationship with the ever-growing FGCU Journalism program (now with 166 students). To help build the relationship, NPC plans to host two panel presentations at FGCU during the 2015-16 academic year, one in the fall and one in the spring.
The first one, “How to get a job” will be Thursday, Oct. 29 from 2:30 to 4 p.m. The panel will be comprised of five or six experienced journalists, and each of them will have 10 minutes to talk about what it takes to “get a job – and keep a job” in their various media organizations. The students will be able to ask questions and talk with the presenters after the panel discussion.
As NPC Scholarship Committee Chairman, I am currently seeking experienced panel participants from NPC members. Contact me to volunteer your services. If you or your firm could help in this endeavor reach out to me at conskind@aol.com or 239-249-4969. You could be one of the panelists if you work for a daily newspaper, online newspaper, weekly newspaper, independent news organization; if you work for a radio or television broadcasting company or a magazine publisher; or if you are an editor, a news reporter, an investigative reporter, a columnist, a news photographer or a sports writer. Contact me if you are willing to donate a couple of hours of your time to help the next generation of journalists.
FGCU has reserved an on-campus space for the presentation and is inviting all of the journalism students to attend (at no cost), and will be providing refreshments. NPC will act as the host, will provide panel speakers and will get the word out to you, the NPC members, encouraging you to attend. If you’d like to attend, contact me and make your reservation early—space is limited.
NPC Scholarship Program Background: In addition to the annual $1,000 Renewable Terrence J. Miller NPC Journalism Scholarships given each spring to deserving Collier County high school graduating seniors who plan to major in journalism at an accredited college/university, NPC established the NPC $25,000 Endowed Scholarship through the FGCU charitable foundation in 2010. The annual endowed scholarship of $1,000 is awarded annually to one FGCU student who is majoring in Journalism/Media Studies. This student is chosen by the NPC Scholarship Committee,
Currently, NPC has two Terrence J. Miller NPC scholarship students in the FGCU Journalism program: Oscar Santiago-Torres and John Marshall Wix III (both graduates of Golden Gate High School), and one student who holds the NPC Endowed Scholarship, Rebecca VanEtten. In the recent past, NPC scholarship students who have attended or graduated from FGCU as journalism majors are: Brooke Mundy (Barron Collier), Myrlande Charleus (Golden Gate), Mary Castro (Immokalee), Eric Crum (Barron Collier), Andrew Friedgen and Krista J. Sinclair.
As the overall enrollment at FGCU has increased, so has the number of students in the FGCU journalism program. There are now 166 students in the journalism program (up from 110 students in 2014), along with three professors: Lyn Millner, Judd Cribbs and Jeff Riley, Ph.D.
HOW CAN YOU HELP? If you agree that supporting the FGCU Journalism Program is a worthwhile project for the Press Club of Southwest Florida, contact me to offer to help with this or the next panel presentation as a participant, make a reservation to attend the Oct. 29 panel presentation program, or donate money toward the NPC Scholarship program. (See the current “Scoop” article on Scholarship Funding written by Phil Beuth.) Another way you could help is for your media firm to provide a journalism internship experience for an FGCU student. If you want more information on that, let me know and I’ll give your name/contact info to Judd Cribbs, FGCU Journalism Professor.