What a fun semester it has been at UMass Journalism! We are one year into our beautiful new building, and student events are at an all-time high, both in attendance and quantity.
This fall, we welcomed two new faculty members to our team: Josh Braun and Rodrigo Zamith, both scholars in journalism studies. We’re up to nearly 400 students in the major and continuing to grow.
Before the semester began, we offered a multimedia bootcamp, taught by Steve Fox and Greeley Kyle. Students learned the ins and outs of digital reporting technologies by conducting interviews, filming and editing packages.
We officially kicked off the semester with a welcome event for all Journalism majors, featuring 30-second pitches from faculty, staff and campus media to introduce incoming students to our department. We ate pizza and played team-building games to help students and faculty get to know each other. (See top left photo).
This welcome event set a strong precedent for events across the semester, with the average attendance being 60 students and faculty. Our biggest problem was usually finding more chairs.
September continued with a strong upswing, with Sports Journalism students traveling to Fenway for its first-ever Press Night, where students were able to network with regional sports journalists and attend a Red Sox game.
That same night, David Maraniss, associate editor at the Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize winner, shared his latest book “Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story” and talked with students about his writing process. (See bottom left photo).
The fun kept going that week with the Friends of Howard Ziff Reunion. Through the generous donations of Sean (’85) and Jayne (’85) Dandley, we dedicated our main departmental gathering space as the “Professor Howard M. Ziff Gallery,” known to us as the “Ziff.”
The party then moved to the Amherst Room where we dined and celebrated the life and influence of Professor Ziff. Please visit our page for more event photos and videos, as well as speeches from alumni Kevin Cullen ‘81 and Larry Carpman ’75.
The Ziff Reunion kick started our latest giving campaign “The Ziff Fund for Student Innovation,” which funds student scholarships and special reporting projects. We hope you will consider giving back to UMass Journalism, as every donation makes a difference.
We probably could have stopped at the reunion and felt successful, but we kept going. We hosted a variety of guest speakers who brought a wealth of information to our students:
Kate Fagan of ESPN Sports spoke to more than 100 students about her acclaimed story “Split Image,” which covered the heartbreaking death of Madison Holleran. The Sports Journalism Concentration sponsored this event.
The next week, Kathy Roberts Forde, our department chair, delivered the Cole Lecture in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences: “Journalism and the Enduring Struggle for Racial Justice.”
Marc Berman, Journalism adjunct instructor, hosted Penny Muse Abernathy, who spoke about the financial future of community journalism. Abernathy is the Knight Chair in Journalism and Digital Media Economics at the University of North Carolina and author of “Saving Community Journalism: The Path to Profitability.”
Later in the month, Mona Eltahawy discussed resistance and global feminism as part of the SBS Lecture Series. Eltahawy, an award-winning columnist and activist, said the “double revolution” in the Middle East must involve not only political change but also cultural and sexual change. Eltahawy spoke to roughly 100 students and faculty from across campus. (See top right photo).
Madeleine Blais hosted Debra Monroe, a memoir writer, who spoke about the history of memoirs. She also offered writing tips.
Josh Stearns, a visiting scholar in the Journalism and Communication Departments, discussed how universities play a critical role in promoting a bold future for innovative public interest journalism. Stearns directs the Journalism and Sustainability Project at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
Jon Adolph, a magazine writer and editor, offered students a crash course in how to pitch magazine stories.
We have been awash in rich learning experiences for our students, both inside and outside of the classroom. Our dedicated instructors continue to push students to achieve their best.
Through B.J. Roche’s Entrepreneurial Journalism class, three students pitched their startup business Swivel at the UMass Innovation Challenge. Swivel helps small businesses effectively use social media to promote their services and products. The team won $1000 to continue its project, and the students will work with the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship this spring semester.
We celebrated the end of a great semester with a study break for our students on the last day of classes. We ate pizza, handed out UMass Journalism t-shirts and Whitey Bulger books donated by author Kevin Cullen ’81 and enjoyed time together. (See bottom right photo).
Our final event was a trip to see Spotlight, a movie based on The Boston Globe’s investigative team and how it uncovered the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal.
For the spring semester, we are planning alumni networking opportunities for students and a career fair for graduating seniors. We are in the beginning stages of this process. If you are a Journalism alum, please contact us if you are interested in participating in a panel or the career fair.
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