Missouri Journalism Pride Points: 2007-08

• Prominent industry professionals and leading scholars shared their expertise, recruited for internships and jobs and interacted with students and faculty during campus visits and through online technology. Students and faculty also met with some of these professionals when engaged in on-site visits of their media outlets, agencies and other companies.
  
  
  • Arlan Andrews Sr., professional engineer and science-fiction writer, Corpus Christi, Texas
  • Jorge Arangure Jr., senior baseball writer, ESPN The Magazine
  • Tim Arnold, MA '73, founder, The Arnold Group, New York, N.Y.
  • Paul M. Barrett, senior special writer, The Wall Street Journal, New York, N.Y.
  • Wayne M. Brasler, journalism chairman and adviser, University of Chicago High School, Chicago, Ill.
  • Gary Burandt, BJ '66, executive director, International Communications Agency Network, Inc. (ICOM), Rollinsville, Colo.
  • Nicholas Daniloff, author, Of Spies and Spokesmen: My Life as a Cold War Correspondent, Boston, Mass.
  • Katie DeSplinter, BJ '05, copywriter, Campbell-Ewald, Los Angeles, Calif.
  • Carolina Escudero, freelance journalist, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Travis Ford, BJ '92, consumer education coordinator, Missouri Attorney General's Office, Jefferson City, Mo.
  • Pat Forde, BJ '87, senior writer, ESPN.com
  • Steve Friedman, author and magazine editor, New York, N.Y.
  • Charles Gasparino, MA '89, editor, CNBC, New York, N.Y.
  • Dirck Halstead, editor and publisher, The Digital Journalist, Austin, Texas
  • Gareth Harding, editor, This Europe, Brussels, Belgium
  • Roy Harris, senior editor, CFO magazine, Hingham, Mass.
  • Megan Henderson, BJ '07, account manager, Cannonball Agency, St. Louis, Mo.
  • Rita Henley-Jensen, founder and editor, Women's eNews, New York, N.Y.
  • Nick Kelsh, BJ '81, owner, Nick Kelsh Photography, Philadelphia, Pa.
  • Jim Kennedy, vice president and director of strategic planning, The Associated Press, New York, N.Y.
  • Sandy Kornberg, BJ '64, advisory board member, Global Advertising Strategies, New York, N.Y.
  • Daniel J. Lehmann, BJ '73, editor, The Lutheran, Chicago, Ill.
  • Frances L. Lewine, former White House correspondent, The Associated Press; assignment editor and field producer, CNN, Washington, D.C.
  • Jose Carlos Losada, professor, Universidad Catolica San Antonio de Murcia, Spain
  • Paula Madison, executive vice president of diversity, NBC Universal, Los Angeles, Calif.
  • Jeffrey Martin, sportswriter, Wichita (Kan.) Eagle
  • Victoria McCargar, MA '77, digital preservation consultant, Los Angeles, Calif.
  • Cindy McCurry-Ross, senior managing editor for information collection, The News-Press, Fort Myers, Fla.
  • Bryce McTavish, BJ '83, vice president for special promotions, Coors Brewing Company, Golden, Colo.
  • Oh Yeon Ho, founder, citizen journalism Web site OhmyNews, Seoul, South Korea
  • Sherre Paris, photographer, University of Texas at Austin
  • Ken Paulson, BJ '75, editor and senior vice president for news, USA TODAY, Washington, D.C.
  • Larry C. Price, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, Denver, Colo.
  • Mary Beth Price, founder, Empower MediaMarketing, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • William C. Price, chairman/CEO, Empower MediaMarketing, Cincinnati, Ohio
  • Ruth Reichl, editor in chief, Gourmet magazine, New York, N.Y.
  • Harry M. Rosenfeld, former assistant managing editor for metropolitan affairs, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
  • Joel Sartore, photographer, National Geographic
  • Michael Schudson, distinguished professor of communication, University of California, San Diego
  • Dave Senay, president and CEO, Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, St. Louis, Mo.
  • Greg Shadwick, BJ '05, writer, CORE, St. Louis, Mo.
  • Jane Ellen Stevens, editorial director, Oceans Now, Berkeley, Calif.
  • Brian Storm, MA '97, president, MediaStorm.org, New York, N.Y.
  • Federico Subervi, director, Center for the Study of Latino Media & Markets, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
  • Matt Thompson, deputy Web editor, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn.
  • Timothy P. Vos, assistant professor of communication, Seton Hall University, South Orange, N.J.
  • Don Wyatt, executive editor, News-Leader Media Group, Springfield, Mo.
  • Rocio Zamora, professor, Universidad Catolica San Antonio de Murcia, Spain

Throughout the year, the Missouri School of Journalism received and presented a host of awards. In addition, new partnerships with foundations and professional organizations created unprecedented opportunities to help Missouri Journalism students learn and succeed.

• The School of Journalism recognized 499 May and August graduates at the spring commencement ceremonies held May 16 at Mizzou Arena. [More]
  
  
• Russell G. Smith II, BJ '67, MA '71, established the Smith/Patterson Science Journalism Fellowship and Lecture Series with a $100,000 gift. Smith named the gift in honor of former Missouri Journalism Professor Joye Patterson, who was Smith's mentor during graduate school. The fellowship will be awarded to a journalism graduate student who is interested in health or science writing and has a journalism, science or business background. The student will receive a stipend and full tuition waiver, valued at $20,000, for one academic year. [More]
  
  
• Steven Fainaru, BJ '84, a Washington Post correspondent, won a 2008 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for his heavily reported series on private security contractors in Iraq that operate outside most of the laws governing American forces. His was one of six Pulitzer Prizes won by The Washington Post in 2008. [More]
  
  
• The Missouri School of Journalism participated in a joint centennial celebration with the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on March 28. The program, The Next Century: Journalism for a Digital Globe, provided news professionals from Ghana, the United Kingdom, Canada and Sweden with an opportunity to share innovations that offer promise for the next 100 years. [More]
  
  
• Writing coach Roy Peter Clark at the Poynter Institute named the Missouri School of Journalism one of his "85 Wonders of the Journalism World," which are separated by category: story forms, technologies, documents, people and institutions/organizations. The School was No. 8 in the institutions/organizations category.
  
  
• The Missouri School of Journalism launched a new Innocence Project, created in conjunction with law schools at MU and the University of Missouri–Kansas City, in January 2008. Innocence projects around the country perform research and advocacy related to awareness and overturning wrongful convictions. Professor Steve Weinberg is teaching an introductory Innocence Project course, which will be a collaborative effort between students at both campuses, and a second-semester fieldwork course. [More]
  
  
• Missouri Journalism alumna Louise Black Jadel, BJ '46, gave $100,000 to create an endowed scholarship for future Missouri Journalism students studying strategic communication. The gift supports 100 by 100: The Centennial Campaign for the Missouri School of Journalism, an effort to increase financial commitments to the School's endowment to $100 million by 2008. [More]
  
  
• Researchers from the Missouri School of Journalism and universities around the world met via videoconference Dec. 4 to discuss recent election coverage in Argentina, Poland and Russia. The videoconference was one of several such events organized by the Center for the Digital Globe, a research body that promotes interdisciplinary work through technology. [More]
  
  
• The Missouri School of Journalism, in conjunction with the MU Center for Health Policy, received a $726,784 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health to build an infrastructure that will become an interactive and comprehensive health literacy resource throughout the state. Several faculty members and the Center for Advanced Social Research are conducting two national surveys about ways to better improve health literacy among Missourians. [More]
  
  
• The Missouri School of Journalism launched a study abroad program in Brussels, Belgium, where the European Union maintains its headquarters. Modeled after the school's Washington Program, the Brussels Program will allow advanced undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity spend a semester reporting on the European Union, a political body largely underrepresented in American media. [More]
  
  
• The Missouri School of Journalism awarded the 2007 Darrell Sifford Memorial Prize in Journalism to Amy Driscoll and Lisa Arthur of The Miami Herald for their series of articles on apartment tenants ousted by the South Florida building boom. The $1,000 prize honors Darrell Sifford, BJ '53, a popular columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer who died in 1992. [More]
  
  
• Celebrated photojournalist Dirck Halstead delivered his "Platypus Short Course," a two-day condensed version of his nine-day workshop Oct. 10-11. The seminar is designed to help photojournalists learn how to plan, shoot and edit Web video. [More]
  
  
• Indiana University professor David Paul Nord, a pre-eminent scholar of journalism history, lectured at the School Oct. 24 as part of the Distinguished Visiting Scholar program. His lecture, "What Should a Newspaper Do? Editors, Reporters and Readers Argue about Journalism in Early 20th Century New York," brought students and faculty together to consider how journalism's past affects its future. [More]
  
  
• Columbia Missourian writers, photographers and designers claimed 30 awards in the 2007 Missouri Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. [More]
  
  
• Along with The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the School announced the launch of three new online resources from The Frontline Editors Project - the culmination of a three-year study that analyzed the role of the frontline editor in order to better prepare journalists for the pivotal newsroom role. The project features a forum hosted by Jacqui Banaszynski, Knight Chair in Editing at the School. [More]
  
  
• The 2007 Curtis B. Hurley Symposium took place Oct. 29 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The program, "New Media, Enduring Values," featured the results of a yearlong project by three different kinds of media organizations to see how the time-honored values of the journalist's craft can be brought alive in a digital world. [More]
  
  
• Four Missouri School of Journalism alumni were among the 16 faculty members and University alumni honored with Mizzou Alumni Association 2007 Faculty-Alumni Awards. The winners from the School of Journalism are: John K. Anderson, BJ '87, a broadcast sports anchor from Canton, Conn.; Doug Crews, BJ '73, executive director of the Missouri Press Association in Columbia; Lewis W. Diuguid, BJ '77, a newspaper executive in Kansas City, Mo.; and Walter H. Harwell Jr., BJ '51, a newspaper executive in Port Orange, Fla. [More]
  
  
• The Missouri School of Journalism's International Programs office hosted the first study abroad fair Friday, Sept. 21. Former study abroad students, advisers and exchange students were on hand to answer questions from those interested in studying abroad. The student-organized fair featured free food, plus a drawing for $500 applicable to one of the School's 18 study abroad programs. [More]
  
  
• Forty incoming Walter Williams Scholars attended an official welcoming ceremony Aug. 30, where they met their individual faculty mentor and received a copy of the book, A Creed for My Profession, written by Ronald T. Farrar, PhD '65. The new students are now part of an elite group of close to 160 Walter Williams Scholars currently enrolled in the Missouri School of Journalism. They receive a $1,000 scholarship to study off campus, an individual faculty mentor and the option to be in a Freshman Interest Group. [More]
  
  
• MIZZOU, the magazine of the Mizzou Alumni Association, featured the School in three separate articles in its fall edition. Respectively, the articles discussed the School's future, its traditions and the dazzling publishing career of George Hodgman, BJ '81. The articles will be available on the magazine's Web site, http://mizzoumag.missouri.edu/, by Oct. 21. [More]
  
  
• The strategic communication faculty celebrated an educational partnership with Bill, BJ '63, and Mary Beth, BJ '71, Price of Empower MediaMarketing on Aug. 30. The Prices arranged for one of their top instructors, Stephanie Padgett, to teach the media planning and buying course at the School in the spring 2007 semester. The group also planned ways to expand the Missouri-Empower relationship. [More]
  
  
• Ten outstanding leaders in the field of journalism received the prestigious Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, presented annually by the Missouri School of Journalism. Recipients included: Dean Baquet, Washington bureau chief and assistant managing editor for The New York Times; Wayne M. Brasler, journalism chairman and adviser at the University of Chicago High School; Dirck Halstead, editor and publisher of The Digital Journalist; Frances L. Lewine, former White House correspondent for The Associated Press; assignment editor and field producer for CNN; Paula Madison, executive vice president of diversity for NBC Universal; Russ Mitchell, anchor and correspondent for CBS News; Oh Yeon Ho, founder of citizen journalism Web site OhmyNews; Mary Beth Price, founder of Empower MediaMarketing; William C. Price, chairman/CEO of Empower MediaMarketing; and Ruth Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet magazine. [More]
  
  
• The Center on Religion & the Professions (formerly the Center for Religion, the Professions & the Public) debuted its new name in the fall semester. The Missouri School of Journalism affiliate's event schedule will include a film series and lecture on "Religious Literacy and American Politics" by Stephen Prothero, author of Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know - and Doesn't. [More]
  
  
• The Missouri School of Journalism, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and Renmin University of China signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide up to 50 Missouri Journalism students to work in media operations at the 2008 Summer Olympics. As part of this project, MU and RUC will cooperate to select and train journalism students to work as part of the Olympic News Service International Volunteers Project. [More]
  
  
• Three professors and a master's student conducted the media and communications class at Missouri Girls State, a project of the American Legion Auxiliary that brings together more than 700 high-caliber high school students to study American democracy each summer. The class faculty included: Sandy Davidson, associate professor of journalism studies; Elizabeth Brixey, assistant professor of newspaper journalism; Michael Grinfeld, associate professor of magazine journalism, and Traci Angel, a master's student and former Knight Fellow at the Columbia Missourian. [More]
  
  

Missouri Journalism faculty members and students presented and published their latest scholarly works at conferences and in journals throughout the year.

• Missouri Journalism graduate students and professors showcased their scholarly work in 47 paper presentations and panel discussions at the 2007 meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which took place August 8-12 in Washington, D.C. [More]
  
  

New academic appointments and the publication or revision of books were among the year's highlights for Missouri Journalism faculty members.

• Suzette Heiman, associate professor and director of planning and communications, is one of 6-10 people invited to serve a two-year term on the first national Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program's appellate review panel. ERSP is a division of the New York-based National Advertising Review Council.
  
  
• Associate Professor Stacey Woelfel was elected national chairman-elect of the Radio-Television News Directors Association at an RTNDA meeting in Las Vegas. Woelfel also serves as news director for KOMU-TV, the only university-owned commercial television station in the United States that uses its newsroom as a working lab for students. [More]
  
  
• Mark Carter, a 20-year veteran media executive, strategist, reporter and executive producer, was named the new executive director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists and the Goldenson Chair in Community Broadcasting at the Missouri School of Journalism on March 17. [More]
  
  
• Betty Winfield, an MU Curators' professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, is the co-author of "The Continuous Past: Historical Referents in Nineteenth-Century American Journalism," a study published in Journalism and Communication Monographs (summer 2007). The study, conducted with Janice Hume, BJ '81, MA '95, PhD '97, associate professor at the University of Georgia, revealed that 19th century American journalism was significantly influential in shaping the nation's early history in an era when there were little or no published history records. [More]
  
  
• Eight Missouri Journalism faculty members were speakers at the fourth annual Missouri Association of Publications Summit March 6-7. They delivered editorial, design and publishing knowledge to more than 175 professionals attending the conference. [More]
  
  
• John Merrill, professor emeritus, has been invited to be the highlight plenary speaker at the 2008 conference of the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations. The conference, taking place April 4-6, brings faculty and students from across the country to Harvard Yard. Merrill's topic will be "Voices of Rising Authority: Mass Media in Asia." Past conference speakers have included Secretary General Ong Keng Yong of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; President S.R. Nathan of Singapore; and Secretary General-elect Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations.
  
  
• The Missouri School of Journalism welcomed three visiting fellows to its campus this semester. Jeanne Abbott, from the Des Moines Register, and Liz Heitzman, from the Columbia Daily Tribune, are serving as fellows of the Knight Center for Editing Excellence. Each works in the newsroom of the Columbia Missourian, a community newspaper that serves as a working laboratory for students. The third fellow, Keith Claxton, is a visual journalist from the Chicago Tribune here as the Harte Information Graphics Teaching fellow. He works in the newsroom and teaches the information graphics course. [More]
  
  
• Missouri School of Journalism professor Glen Cameron, who holds the Maxine Wilson Gregory Chair of Journalism Research, released the first edition of his newest public relations textbook, Public Relations Today: Managing Competition and Conflict. Designed for introductory undergraduate courses, the book uses classic and contemporary cases to illustrate public relations theory and practice. Cameron partnered with four School of Journalism alumni to write the book. [More]
  
  
• Lee Wilkins, professor of journalism, published the sixth edition of Media Ethics: Issues and Cases. Wilkins coauthored the book with Philip Patterson, of Oklahoma Christian University. [More]
  
  
• Marty Steffens, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Chair in Business and Financial Journalism, was one of 12 educators who rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange Aug. 21. She was part of a select group attending a training session there.
  
  
• Professor Emeritus John C. Merrill was honored for his more than 60 years of service to journalism education in a new book, Freedom Fighter, A Festschrift Honoring John C. Merrill on His Six Decades of Service to Journalism Education, published by the Northwestern (La.) State University Press. [More]
  
  
• Twelve members of the faculty collaborated on the book, What Good Is Journalism? How Reporters and Editors Are Saving America's Way of Life, edited by Professor Emeritus George Kennedy and Professor Daryl Moen. [More]
  
  
• Geneva Overholser, the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting in the School’s Washington, D.C., office, has been elected to lead the board of directors at The Center for Public Integrity, an independent Washington, D.C.-based organization that does investigative reporting and research on significant public issues. [More]
  
  
• A study by assistant professor of strategic communication Kevin Wise and Kimberlee (Belcher) Pepple, BJ '04, MA '05, "The Effect of Available Choice on Cognitive Processing of Pictures," has been accepted for publication in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. [More]
  
  

Missouri Journalism graduate students earned numerous awards for their professional, scholarly and creative achievements.

• Traci Angel, MA '07, is the Missouri School of Journalism's recipient of the 2008 Merck Science Journalism Award in recognition of her outstanding work in science and health writing. In addition to receiving a $1,000 monetary award and plaque, Angel participated in a four-day conference at Rutgers University along with 11 other student winners from journalism schools throughout the United States and Canada. Angel served as a Knight Editing Fellow at the School for the 2005-2006 academic year, working as the co-editor of the general assignment beat at the Columbia Missourian.
  
  
• The White House Correspondents' Association announced a new WHCA-Missouri Fellowship Program in government affairs reporting beginning in the 2008-2009 school year. A total of 10 graduate students will be selected to receive a $2,500 WHCA-Missouri fellowship while participating in the School's semester-long Washington Program. The fellowship will waive full tuition costs (both resident and non-resident) and applicable on-campus fees for each student. [More]
  
  
• Graduate student Jake Siegel won the 2008 Don Romero Prize for outstanding magazine writing, a $700 award given by the Missouri Journalism magazine faculty. Don Romero served on the faculty for many years, and the prize was established by his former students to honor his contributions and to recognize and encourage excellence in magazine writing.
  
  
• Missouri School of Journalism photojournalism graduate student Leah Gallo used skills she learned during her master's program to get a job photographing on the set of the movie Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Photojournalism students have many avenues to use their skills, other than traditional jobs. [More]
  
  
• Master's student David Schneider was one of six graduate students nationwide to receive a 2007 Carnegie Fellowship at ABC News in the Brian Ross Investigative Unit. The team's assignment was to discover whether troops returning home after serving in Iraq are facing the same battles with drug addiction as soldiers did when they came back from Vietnam. For their series, "Coming Home: Soldiers and Drugs," the students traveled across the country from Fort Carson in Colorado to Fort Bragg in North Carolina to examine the accuracy of the Army's assurances that drug abuse among ex-combatants isn't growing. The fellowship, in its third year with support from the Carnegie Corporation, allowed Schneider, a New York City native, to work with Ross and five other graduate students from top programs such as Columbia University and Harvard. Schneider's stories are available at http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/2020/.
  
  
• Master's student Melissa Chee was named the 2007-2008 Kaplan Fellow at ABC News. The fellowship includes a paid position at the ABC News Washington Bureau and a $10,000 stipend during the winter semester. [More]
  
  
• Master's student Lene Johansen was named the 2007-2008 Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. As a Brookes Fellow, she will continue to research and write a book on the human cost of plant biotechnology regulation, as well as work on contrarian feature stories on agricultural subsidies, global warming and Food and Drug Administration reforms. [More]
  
  
• Close to 20 students in the Missouri School of Journalism's online master's degree program met in Columbia Aug. 17-19 for a three-day seminar, "The Chaos Scenario in News and Advertising." The diverse group of mid-career professionals, whose ages ranged from 25 to 53, got a glimpse of campus life while learning about new media and journalism's evolving role in public discourse. [More]
  
  
• Doctoral student Daxton R. "Chip" Stewart, MA '04, presented his paper "Harry Potter and the Exploitative Jackals: How do J.K. Rowling's books about the boy wizard impact the salience of media credibility attributes in young audiences?" at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in August. His paper tied for second place in the student paper competition in the Mass Communication and Society Division. [More]
  
  

• Eleven Missouri School of Journalism students were accepted by the prestigious Dow Jones Newspaper Fund for 2008 summer internships. The Newspaper Fund, which was founded in 1958 by editors of The Wall Street Journal, matches students with professional summer internships to improve the quality of journalism education. [More]
  
  
• Seniors Ikuru Kuwajima and Ben Fredman placed second and fifth, respectively, in the Picture Story/Series Competition in the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Kuwajima won a $1,500 scholarship and Fredman won a $600 scholarship in the contest, in which 43 students from journalism schools nationwide competed to place in the top 20. With those finishes, the Missouri School of Journalism placed first overall in the three-part Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition, and Kuwajima and Fredman qualified to compete in the National Championship Photojournalism Semi-Finals in San Francisco in June.
  
  
• Junior Andrew Astleford's Columbia Missourian story, "A Question of Acceptance," was ranked third nationally in explanatory reporting in the final rankings of the Associated Press Sports Editors Best of Writing 2007 contest. The story had been named a Top 10 finalist in the initial round of contest judging, in which students competed against professional sports writers. [More]
  
  
• Senior Christopher Hrabe tied for 12th place and junior Sean Powers won 16th place in the Radio II competition of the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. They received certificates of merit in the contest, which recognizes the top 20 students in the category.
  
  
• Senior Lorenzo Hall and senior Ryan Luby tied for 13th and 17th place, respectively, in the Television II competition of the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. They received certificates of merit in the contest, in which 54 students from 34 journalism schools nationwide competed to place in the top 20.
  
  
• Cristof Traudes, BJ '07, won second place in the Personality/Profile Writing competition of the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Traudes wrote the winning piece, a personal account of growing up with a brother with Asperger's Syndrome, as a senior. He won a $1,500 scholarship in the contest, in which 101 students from 60 journalism schools nationwide competed to place in the top 20.
  
  
• Mojo Ad, the student-staffed strategic communication agency at the Missouri School of Journalism, pitched three mobile advertising campaigns for possible implementation by the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), a New York-based trade association that promotes local broadcast advertising platforms. The TVB selected Mojo Ad for the project because of its unique research and strategy development with the youth and young adult (YAYA©) market. The TVB will develop one of the digital strategies for its member stations. [More]
  
  
• The Mizzou Alumni Association Student Board (AASB) named 12 Missouri School of Journalism seniors to the elite 2008 class of Mizzou '39. Yearly, AASB names 39 outstanding seniors who excel in academics, leadership and community service. [More]
  
  
• The sports desk at the Columbia Missourian, one of the Missouri School of Journalism's real-world media outlets, brought home three awards from the Associated Press Sports Editors contest. APSE named the Missourian as one of the top 20 special sections for "A season to remember." Missouri journalism senior Jeff Birnbaum's story "Willy-Mo" was named one of the top 10 features, and junior Andrew Astleford's story "A question of acceptance" was named one of the top 10 explanatory pieces. [More]
  
  
• Ashley Reynolds, a senior at the Missouri School of Journalism, reported on an in-depth, 14-part series that explored different angles of autism for KOMU-TV, the University-owned commercial television affiliate used as a training lab for students. Reynolds' series received worldwide attention and featured a Web site component that allowed audience members to better communicate with the TV station. [More]
  
  
• Senior Ikuru Kuwajima earned a bronze award in the fall 2007 College Photographer of the Year (CPOY) competition in the International Picture Story category. He is currently in Kosovo photographing the activities related to the country's recent declaration of independence.
  
  
• Senior Jason Lamb won third place in the Television Broadcast News Feature competition in the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. He won a $1,000 scholarship in the contest, in which 65 students from 38 journalism schools nationwide competed to place in the top 20. With the third place finish, Lamb also qualified for the semifinal round of judging for the National Broadcast News Championships to be held in San Francisco in June.
  
  
• Junior Sean Powers won 12th place in the Radio I competition in the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. He received a certificate of merit in the contest, in which 43 students from 26 journalism schools nationwide competed to place in the top 20.
  
  
• Seniors John Tully and Ben Fredman won third and 11th place, respectively, in the News and Sports Photo competition in the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Tully won a $1,000 scholarship in the contest, in which 50 students from 28 journalism schools nationwide competed to placed in the top 20. He also qualified for the semifinal round of portfolio judging for the National Photojournalism Championship to be held in San Francisco in June. Fredman won a certificate of merit for his entry.
  
  
• Junior Andrew Astleford and senior Brittany Darwell won 12th and 13th place, respectively, in the Sports Writing competition in the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. They each won a certificate of merit in the contest, in which 83 students from 49 journalism schools nationwide competed to place in the top 20.
  
  
• Brandon C. Byrd, a Missouri School of Journalism senior majoring in strategic communication, was one of 50 students in the nation who was selected by the American Advertising Federation to join the Most Promising Minority Students Program (MPMS). The prestigious award allowed him to travel to New York City with fellow students from Feb. 5-7 to meet with representatives from successful advertising agencies and media companies at the New York Athletic Club. [More]
  
  
• Freshman radio-television journalism major John Regan received a scholarship for the Chancellor's Leadership Class, a University of Missouri program designed to recognize incoming freshmen who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to achieving their leadership potential. A native of Hudson, Ohio, Regan has worked at KOMU-TV, the School's NBC affiliate, and MUTV, the campus cable station.
  
  
• As the final project in Associate Professor John Fennell's magazine publishing capstone course, six magazine students revamped the fundraising publication of Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. The students redesigned the publication's layout, reported the stories, compiled the photography and re-conceptualized the magazine to give it a stronger focus on sharing inspiration. [More]
  
  
• Senior photojournalism majors Ben Fredman and John Tully won fifth and eighth place, respectively, in the Portrait/Personality, Feature and Personal Vision competition in the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Fredman won $600 and Tully won $500 in the contest, in which 67 students from 41 journalism schools across the country competed.
  
  
• Senior Jacob Stokes won seventh place in the Editorial Writing contest in the 2007-2008 Hearst Journalism Awards Program, while senior Derek Kravitz placed 10th in the In-Depth Writing contest. They each won a $500 scholarship in their respective competitions. The Editorial Writing contest featured 102 students from 61 journalism schools nationwide competing to place in the top 20; the In-Depth Writing contest featured 90 students from 53 schools nationwide.
  
  
• Missouri School of Journalism junior Sean Powers was a runner-up for the Nancy Dickerson Whitehead Award, a national award specific to coverage of drug and alcohol issues. He is the first student to be named a finalist in the professional competition. [More]
  
  
• For the second consecutive year, students from the Missouri School of Journalism's Media Sales Class partnered with the professionals in the Columbia Missourian's advertising department to set record sales for a special 28-page Homecoming section. A computerized version of the section sent to alumni via e-mail helped generate the sales. [More]
  
  
• Megan Rolland, BJ '07, won third place in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation's 2007-2008 Journalism Awards Program for a feature story she wrote for the Columbia Missourian as a senior. She received a $1,000 scholarship for the award. Senior Charlotte Bellis tied for 16th place in the same competition.
  
  
• Missouri School of Journalism students Darla Cameron and Bryan Wendell received free admission to the six-week Poynter Institute Summer Fellowship for Young Journalists by winning a Society for News Design conference competition in Boston Oct. 11-13. They will be working in teams of four covering a community beat for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. [More]
  
  
• Dozens of Missouri School of Journalism students excelled at prestigious internships over the summer. They worked at some of the nation's top media institutions, including ESPN, Billboard Magazine, The Dallas Morning News, Good Morning America, The Oregonian and others. Internships are a crucial element of the Missouri Method, which emphasizes learning by doing. [More]
  
  
• Senior magazine journalism major Jamille Fields won a $5,000 Newhouse Foundation scholarship from the National Association of Black Journalists. The scholarship recognizes talented African-American students majoring in print journalism. [More]
  
  
• Senior Elizabeth Manring was named a Murray Scholar by the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation. As a scholar, Manring received a $5,000 scholarship and an expenses-paid trip to La Quinta, Calif., for the annual Murray Scholars Award Dinner. Her winning essay was named the best entry of the competition, which included seven scholarship recipients from 29 participating universities. [More]