June 2010
Exploring A New Connection With ATLAS
Here’s a brief update on the project I described last September in this space: my co-chairing the Task Force to explore creating a new School of Information that would involve our J-school.
In the ensuing nine months, a major (really major) budget reduction descended on the entire campus. While the SJMC and most other schools and colleges have managed to cut back without having to lay off faculty or staff, it’s clear that the Task Force’s ambitious visions will be deferred at least for a while. But that doesn’t mean the campus has lost interest in new ideas for media education. In fact, in April, when Chancellor Phil DiStefano described what he saw as the silver linings in the budget gloom, he included “seeking efficiencies as well as new career and educational opportunities by bridging the School of Journalism and Mass Communication with ATLAS.” ATLAS (Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society), you may recall, is the “incubator and catalyst” for technological innovations in programs all over campus.
So what’s that “bridging” all about? This is the focus of discussions soon to be under way with the campus leadership. While we may not roll out a sweeping transformation of communication education in the next six months, a new connection with ATLAS is an excellent place to start. Consider these synergies:
Our broadcast journalism classes are already making full use of ATLAS’s state-of-the-art studio.
SJMC majors comprise nearly 30 percent of the enrollment in ATLAS’s one undergraduate minor (Technology, Arts and Media, open to students campus-wide).
ATLAS’s mission is fundamentally interdisciplinary; dedicated to outreach to the professions; actively preparing students for the fast-changing networked information environment; and global in spirit and scope. Just like us. I see plenty of space for bridges.
Again, I’ll keep you posted.
Dean Paul S. Voakes
It’s a (W)rap
Chris Dea (’09) wrapped up his CU experience with a staccato rap, “Boulder the talented, the creative and bold.”
Dea, a December Advertising graduate, wrote a rap song and produced a music video as the thesis project for his capstone TAM (Technology Arts & Media Certificate) class through ATLAS. He was assisted by Nicole Dietz (’09) and Michael McCarthy, a Leeds School of Business graduate.
Dea is looking for a job in advertising.
Alumni Updates
Screen Dream
Dig out that script or screenplay you’ve got shoved in the back of your file cabinet! Sarah McLaughlin (’96) wants to help you polish your plot and find the right market for your great idea. She is using her fourteen years of experience writing on TV shows such as “That 70s Show,” and “Southpark,” to help others launch their TV writing career. McLaughlin offers script reading and mentoring services through her website tvscriptdoctor.com.
In the Slick of It
Christine Dell’Amore (MA ’05), a writer for National Geographic Online, has been covering the BP oil spill on location in Louisiana and from Washington, D.C.
Blogs Aplenty
Kent Green (’05) went to Costa Rica as a volunteer English teacher. He’s now blogging about the experience for La Vida Idealist, Idealist’s Latin American blog.
Michael Ross (’79), left, a veteran print and online journalist, producer and blogger, writes about the arts, politics, race and pop culture on his eclectic blog, Short Sharp Shock.
And master’s student Kristen Painter is blogging from Uganda where she is doing fieldwork for her professional project on women who suffer from obstetric fistulas.
Kentucky Green
Kiley Lane (MA ’03) and her partner, George Parker, launched an Internet-based TV station on Earth Day of this year. kyGREEN.tv covers “all things green and sustainable across the great state of Kentucky.”
Picture This
Tomas van Houtryve (’99), named this year’s Freelance Photographer of the Year in the Pictures of the Year International competition, was invited to join VII Network, a branch of the agency VII Photo (founded by great conflict photographer James Nachtwey and several other renowned photographers). And Krisanne Johnson (’00) is one of very few photographers to receive a grant this year from the influential Magnum Foundation, for her project on AIDS and gender in Lesotho.
Anchor’s Reign Remembered
Kim Christiansen (’84), right, 9News afternoon anchor, was honored at this month’s Miss Colorado Pageant at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Christiansen told The Denver Post that her year as Miss Colorado (1980-81) was great preparation for her career in TV news because she had to learn to think on her feet and speak “at a moment’s notice.”
News & Events
New York Digital Works
Associate Professor David Slayden and Boulder Digital Works hit the road. Boulder Digital Works gave a workshop, What Not to Do: 10 Rules for Transitioning to Digital, in New York City this month. The workshop featured five of the advertising industry’s top creative strategists.
Budding Entrepreneur
What is $0.99 times 1,200? A great start for journalism junior Zach Shapiro!
Shapiro started his company, 59thirty, in April following the success of his first iPhone app “RTD Mobile Bus Times,” which he wrote for a computer science class. Shapiro recently released a new app and is working on another that he hopes to finish this summer.
Five Selected to Participate in NAHJ National Convention in Denver
Four SJMC students and a May graduate have been selected to participate in the 28th annual convention of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in Denver June 23 to 26. News-Editorial junior Esteban Hernandez, right, Broadcast News junior Nicole Sandoval and prejournalism sophomore Lauren Archuletta participated in the NAHJ Student Campus, an intensive multimedia workshop, at the SJMC in the days before the convention. Fernando Diaz, editor of Hoy, the Chicago Tribune’s Spanish-language newspaper, left, was on a career panel during the Student Campus. Broadcast Production senior Genesis Samayoa and Jason Gonzales (’10) were accepted to NAHJ’s Student Projects and will be covering the convention live from Denver.
2010-11 Ted Scripps Fellows Named
The SJMC and Center for Environmental Journalism are preparing to welcome a new group of excellent journalists to the Ted Scripps Program in August.
- Karen Coates, a freelance journalist, author and media trainer, is a correspondent for Archaeology, writes a food culture column for The Faster Times and has written for publications including the Christian Science Monitor.
- Erin Espelie is executive editor at Natural History magazine and a filmmaker. At the magazine, she covers the interactions between humans and Earth’s natural processes and writes a monthly column, “The Natural Explanation.”
- Leah McGrath Goodman is a freelance journalist and author based in New York City who writes business, news and culture stories for Condé Nast Portfolio, Forbes, Profile, The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, The Guardian and The Financial Times. Her first book, an insider’s account of the lives and times of the traders who built the global oil market, is due out in 2011.
- Ryan L. Nave was a staff writer at Illinois Times for five years where he covered politics and state legislative issues as well as the Illinois coal, nuclear and biofuels industries. Now a freelance journalist based in Seattle, Nave’s recent stories have focused on the relationship between energy, the economy and the environment.
- Jonathan Waldman has written about science, culture and the environment for newspapers, magazines, radio shows and blogs, including The Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Outside magazine and High Country News. He is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco.
San Francisco Alumni Reception
Bay Area alumni, watch for an invitation to a get together on Thursday evening, Sept. 9, in San Francisco. Of course, other alumni in the area for the Sept. 11 CU-Boulder-UC Berkeley football game are invited too! Details coming soon. More information on CU events that weekend.
Get Linked
The SJMC LinkedIn group has more than 680 members and is growing every day. Sign up to find old friends and make new contacts.
Pay it Forward
Join the Career Network.
You’ll become a contact for other SJMC graduates looking for jobs in your area of the country or field of work. Our Career Network has hundreds of alumni contacts. Adding your name is an easy way to give back to the School by sharing your expertise with other SJMC alums.
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Tell us what’s new!
We hope you’re enjoying summer in your town. Be sure to email us with changes to your contact info and any news you have. We want to keep in touch!
Regards,
Beth Gaeddert
Director of Career Services and External Affairs
&
Felicia Russell
Newsletter Editor
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Armory Building, 1511 University Ave. 478 UCB
University of Colorado, Boulder
Boulder, CO 80309-0478
303-492-5007
