'Grizzly National Journalism Champs'
bring home RFK bust and award $$

By Carol Van Valkenburg
J-School print department chair

photo by Teresa Tamura

UM Native News Honors Project participants meet Ethel Kennedy at the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards reception at George Washington University on May 24. From left: Joe Friedrichs, Natalie Storey, Jessica Wambach, Carol Van Valkenburg, Noelle Teixeira, Ethel Kennedy, Heather Telesca, Fred Miller and Mike Cohea.

UM J-School students rubbed elbows with some of the nation’s elite journalists in late May as they received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in Washington, D.C., for their work reporting from Montana’s seven Indian reservations.

The Kennedy award is given for writing about the disadvantaged. Only a single college winner is named. The student reporters and photographers won for their publication “Sovereignty,” a 36-page report that culminated their work in the Native News Honors Project, taught by professors Carol Van Valkenburg and Teresa Tamura.

Seven students attended the ceremony where Robert Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, presented them with a bust of her husband. The award also carries a $500 prize.

At a private gathering before the presentations, the students chatted with winners from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Sacramento Bee, Frontline and National Public Radio. Only a few minutes after arriving, student Joe Friedrichs found that Mark Fiore, winner in the cartoon category, has a brother who lives in Missoula. Before the evening ended Van Valkenburg got a promise from him to visit the J-School.

At the main ceremony at George Washington University, a Who’s Who of journalists attended, including Bob Woodward, who was hard to miss as he made a late appearance. John Seigenthaler, former Tennessean editor and publisher and founder of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, was master of ceremonies.

Aside from the UM students’ award, a highlight of the event was the lifetime achievement award given to historian and Pulitzer winner Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. After accepting the award and giving a brief talk, the 88-year-old Schlesinger was interviewed on stage by the year’s book award winners, Jim Wooten, author of “We Are All the Same,” and Geoffrey Stone, author of “Perilous Times.” He gave his assessment of the Bush presidency and recalled his experiences during World War II working with the Office of War Information.

The following day the students and professors were treated to a tour of the Washington Post, thanks to last fall’s Pollner Professor Nancy Szokan, an editor in the Post’s Outlook section. The first person the students saw as they entered the newsroom was J-alum Jonathan Krim, who was sitting in the Post’s makeshift TV newsroom doing an interview for TV about a story published that day. Krim is a technology writer at the paper. At a nearby desk was alumna Lexie Verdon Barr, assistant managing editor for the Post’s online news publication, PM Extra.

Szokan had other reporters and photojournalists join the group for lunch, where they sat at a table next to former editor Ben Bradlee, who just a week later was back on the front pages when the identity of Deep Throat was revealed.

The students also sat in on the Post’s afternoon news meeting, conducted by editor Len Downie, and attended by about 25 of the paper’s editors. During the meeting, outgoing Kaimin editor Jessica Wambach turned to Van Valkenburg and said, “This is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me.”

When the students arrived in Missoula with the hefty Kennedy bust, they pulled it from a backpack and raised it high as they descended the steps at Missoula International Airport, attracting applause from supporters and attention from curious onlookers.

One person shouted, “What’s it for?”

“You’ve heard about the Grizzly national football champions?" Van Valkenburg answered. “These are the Grizzly national journalism champions.”

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