J-School Breaking News

• Overby exhorts students to strive for success
• Advisory Council established
• Future editors (who can spell) may benefit from new scholarship
• Grizzly J-Camp set for high school journalists
• Hearst, SPJ awards pile up for students
• Interns contributed to Pulitzer Prize winner in Montana
• Students land internship positions nationwide

School of Journalism •

The University of Montana •

April 2000

Overby exhorts students to strive for success

Reach for excellence and remember your principles, the CEO of the Freedom Forum told School of Journalism students at the annual Dean Stone Banquet April 7.

Guest speaker Charles Overby said he was happy to make his first visit to western Montana after hearing good things about the University of Montana's journalism program. He said that the good journalism taught at UM would stand up anywhere and also congratulated the school on the number of Native American students enrolled in the program.

Mike Mansfield was Overby's first brush with Montana. He said he met Mansfield, then a senator, while covering Congress as a reporter for a Gannett newspaper.

Stressing the importance of striving for success, Overby encouraged students to follow a "momentum of excellence." Overby said that awards won while in university will push them to seek the same success throughout their lives.

Our inspirations are how we define our successes, Overby explained, but it is often how we handle the everyday stories that will create the habits that lead to excellence. "Your response to the uninspired moment and how you react to it will determine how and if you succeed," Overby said. Journalists' seek to inform the public, and in order to do so must be knowledgeable and curious individuals.

Overby encouraged students to avoid complacency. "It is what you do with your knowledge and how much you continue to learn and grow that matters," Overby said.

The School of Journalism awarded $72,000 in scholarships this year at the annual Dean Stone Banquet. The scholarships help the school maintain its history of excellence by rewarding students who show potential.

Advisory Council established

A new Advisory Council will have its first meeting in May to help the School of Journalism retain its great reputation and find more financial support. The Advisory Council is made up of distinguished alumni with Don Oliver, a veteran NBC newsman and 1958 graduate, as the initial president. The council will meet twice a year to set and advance goals designed to highlight the school's importance to Montana and the University of Montana.

"We are determined to solidify and build on our reputation as the last, best example of pure, unadulterated journalistic instruction in the nation," Dean Jerry Brown said. Former Dean Joe Durso made the initial steps in the council's start before he died in 1998.

In addition to Oliver, Advisory Council members include the following alumni, friends and supporters of the J-School:

Shane Bishop, Jack Cloherty, Larry Elkin, Jim Fall, Jack & Anne Ryan Gauer, Bob Hermes, Jerry Holloron, Chuck Johnson, Don Kinney, Jon Krim, Solomon Levy, Doug Loneman, Mike McInally, Shag Miller, Gary Moseman, Mike Oldham, Penny Peabody, Robert Pierpoint, George Remington, Bob Simonson, Gary Sorensen, Genell Subak-Sharpe, Julie Sullivan, John Talbot, Steve Tello and Jill Thompson Black.

Future editors (who can spell) may benefit from new scholarship

Thanks to a $100,000 gift from an alumnus, the School of Journalism has a new scholarship to offer a student interested in editing for a Montana newspaper. Dorothy Erickson, a 1931 graduate of UM, died in July last year. Erickson's estate trust officer informed the School of Journalism in March and requested that a permanent endowment be set up and the proceeds used to provide an annual scholarship to one student.

Erickson's late husband, Albert Erickson, was a 1931 graduate of the UM School of Journalism and owned the Dillon Tribune for a number of years in the late 1930's. He died in 1991 after a long illness. He and his wife were both lifelong resident's of Montana and lived in Helena for more than 40 years.

Dean Brown said that the first Albert Erickson Scholarship will be awarded at the Dean Stone Banquet in 2001. In the language of the trust document, the scholarship will be awarded to the "student who sincerely expresses a desire to become an editor of a newspaper in the state of Montana and who is able to spell correctly."

Grizzly J-Camp set for high school journalists

High school students will hone their journalism skills at UM this summer at the first Grizzly Journalism Camp, July 5-8.

The camp offers classes covering all the basics of journalism, including finding stories, reporting, editing, and photography. Faculty, university students, and journalism professionals will be teaching the classes and sharing their insights with the students.

Students will take four classes from a selection including Tell it to Mom: Leads and other Newswriting Fundamentals, Design & Layout: The Latest Trends, Surfing for Stories: Using the Internet, and Take Notes!: The Art of Interviews.

Tours of local newspaper and television newsrooms will give students a glimpse of professionals at work. Students will also explore their own journalistic thoughts and ambitions during roundtables with other campers and teachers. Ideas on college and careers also will be discussed.

Students and mentors will stay on the University of Montana campus in Aber Hall and eat meals at the University Center. Other activities will include an outdoor barbeque, a dance at the University Center and a hike up Mount Sentinel.

Hearst, SPJ awards pile up for students

School of Journalism students have continued their winning ways in the national Hearst Journalism competition, and have also added awards from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Dustin McDunn and Hilary Hutcheson, both seniors, placed sixth and eighth, respectively, in the second round of the television broadcast news competition. Both received $500 for their efforts.

McDunn placed for his report on Missouri River water rights and health education programs at Montana high schools. Hutcheson placed for her reports on the controversial proposed highway near the North Fork of the Flathead River. Both reports aired on Montana Public Television.

In the final Hearst photography competition this school year, James Shipley placed eighth and was awarded $500. Shipley continued his success, having placed 14th in the second of this school year's three Hearst photography competitions.

The Hearst Journalism Awards are held each year among students from accredited journalism programs across the country. Scholarships from $500 to $5,000 are awarded to the winners, depending on their placement in the competition.

In the regional Society of Professional Journalism 'Mark of Excellence' contest UM students rose to the top. The School of Journalism had four first place winners and four second-place winners.

The first place winners are Chad Dundas for sports writing, Stuart Thurkill for news photography, Kevin Van Valkenburg for column writing, and graduate students Ericka Schenck Smith, Shannon Dininny and Ben Shors for in-depth reporting.

The student newspaper, the Kaimin, took second in the student newspaper competition. Other second place winners are Emily Phillips for general news, Nate Schweber for feature writing, and Kevin Van Valkenburg for non-fiction magazine.

All first place winners will compete in the national finals of the Society of Professional Journalism competition.

Interns contributed to Pulitzer Prize winner in Montana

Two journalism students at UM contributed as interns to a series of stories in the Great Falls Tribune last year that won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism.

The prize was awarded to Eric Newhouse, projects editor at the Gannett newspaper, who wrote and edited a 12-part series on alcohol abuse in the state, titled "Alcohol: Cradle to Grave."

Students Ben Shors, now a second-year master's candidate, and Cory Myers, now a junior in the professional program, worked as reporter and photographer while interns at the Tribune to contribute the sixth story in the series, focusing on college drinking.

The Pulitzer is the second to be awarded for Montana journalism. The first went to Mel Ruder, former publisher of the Hungry Horse News, for his reports on the catastrophic Flathead Valley floods of 1964. For a more complete story, link to the Montana Kaimin story for Tuesday, April 11, 2000.

Students land intern positions nationwide

From Seattle to Baltimore, news organizations across the country are hiring a record number of University of Montana print and photojournalism students to work as interns.

More than 30 print and photo students landed internships this year, including five interns through the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund's nationally competitive Editing Internship Program. Most of the students are scheduled to work for newspapers, including some the nation's best: The Baltimore Sun, The Seattle Times, The Tennessean and The Wichita Eagle .

The list also includes a strong crop of interns who are scheduled to work at newspapers across Montana.

TOP