Journalism, here we come

Photo by Bob Siddens

The Summer 2007 class of Chips Quinn Scholars gathered at the Diversity Institute in Nashville, Tenn.

It's a wrap

Photo by Daniel Sato
Chips Quinn Director Karen Catone

"Amen," as John Quinn says.

Four days of listening, learning and laughing are over. Orientation has ended, and scholars are headed to internships at daily newspapers across the country.

Good luck.

And keep in touch.

A new adventure

This must be what the Chipsters feel like when they leave orientation. Excited. Nervous. Inspired. Supported. Ready for the adventure that lies ahead. Blessed. After six years, I’m leaving the Chips Quinn program to return to the Newseum’s Visitor Services staff. I am excited because the next few months will be very busy as we prepare for the October opening of the Newseum. I am nervous to leave the comfort of the CQ program. I am inspired by the alums and the current scholars. You step out of your comfort zones to go to a new town, a new home and a new job just to do what you do. You all are my heroes. I feel supported by the entire Chips Quinn family – from John Quinn, Karen Catone and Michelle Hedenskoog to every speaker, alum and coach. I am grateful to have you in my corner. Because of your caring and support, I am ready for my next adventure. I am blessed to have been a part of this amazing program.

-- Kristen Smith, administrative assistant, Chips Quinn Scholars Program

On affirmation and ambassadors

The most valuable gift I received this weekend was affirmation. I am awestruck by the compassion, enthusiasm and commitment that everyone has brought to this experience. I thank each of you for sharing some part of yourself with me and regret not being able to share more of myself with you in return.

I will leave here emboldened, having been newly designated an ambassador of this program. I cannot anticipate what triumphs and tribulations life might hand me as I continue on my journey. However, I am certain now that the seat I occupied this weekend was rightly mine – in spite of my inexperience and insecurities. I have a talent that others believe should be nurtured and developed. I will carry that knowledge with me through the coming summer and my professional career.


-- Tierra L. Palmer, Ohio University, Smith College, Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette

Ready for the real world

I'm looking forward to getting to my internship because I'm moving to the Big Apple. I hope to get there about a week before my start date so I have the opportunity to get to know my neighborhood and the area where I'll be working.

If all goes well, I plan to live in Washington Heights, which is in the north of Manhattan. From what I've heard, the area is predominantly Dominican, so I'm excited to be able to utilize my Spanish in everyday life. Needless to say, it's hard to find fellow Spanish speakers in Athens, Ohio. Aside from the diverse neighborhood that I'll be living in, I'm looking forward to finding out about the other diverse cultures that have settled in New York.

And, of course, I'm looking forward to testing my skills during my internship at the world headquarters of The Associated Press, located in Midtown Manhattan. I've never worked in a breaking-news environment. I know from talking with my newsroom buddy that I'll have a large responsibility in the newsroom during the weekends toward the end of my internship. I won't be there alone, but I'll have an important role in handling breaking news. That's an exhilarating thought and an intimidating thought. But after this weekend, I'm ready to face those challenges and test what I can do in the real world.

-- Arian Celeste Smedley, Ohio University, The Associated Press, New York

‘Taking care of society is the best job anyone can hope to have’

The most important lesson I am leaving orientation with is a better understanding of how valuable journalism is for society. When I came to the Chips Quinn orientation, I was a little worried about the journalism profession. It is scary to know that hard-copy newspapers are dying out, and that journalism is not exactly the career that will make you a millionaire. Fortunately, my experiences at orientation have eradicated those thoughts. News will never die; the only thing that will change is the way news is delivered. There will always be a demand for journalists to report the news. Journalism is so important to society because it serves as a watchdog, and to be taking care of society is the best job anyone can hope to have. This orientation has given me more faith and confidence in my future.

-- Jennifer Muhmel, University of South Dakota, Ventura County (Calif.) Star

Rolling out the skills

Being bombarded with information in a short amount of time is always difficult, especially for a student. You want to incorporate everything you learn into your routine but that isn’t always realistic. I am looking forward to actually putting into action at least a few of the lessons I have learned as a Chips Quinn Scholar and from other programs and school. I am looking forward to experiencing different situations and being able to reach into my bag of tricks and find something that can get me out of the situation. I’m about to be a senior in college, which means real life hits in less than a year. Might as well start acting like a professional now, since not too far down the road, that is exactly how others will refer to me.

-- Ronald Clark, Hampton University, Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat

Diversity within communities of color

Too often in newsrooms, editors and even reporters view people of color as representative of their entire community. I had a conversation with Chandra Thomas, (shown at left) staff reporter of Atlanta magazine, in which she told me about the pressure of covering Atlanta's black community as the only African-American person on staff. She struggles with covering such a varied community by herself. Even when other staff members help, she said she still feels a responsibility to be an advocate and a representative.

The coolest thing about orientation has been the recognition by Freedom Forum staff that communities of color have diversity within them, sometimes around class, region or national background. The Chipsters reflect that vision. We are different ages, we come from different backgrounds and we represent a rich cultural mix. In the coming months it will be important for us to support one another and draw from this experience to deal with newsrooms that may not yet understand diversity to the full extent that the Freedom Forum does. Even though I'm aware of the challenges ahead, I feel secure knowing I have this group around me.

-- Gabriela Resto-Montero, University of Colorado, The Salinas Californian

Appreciation for the alums

It was very cool that so many alumni of the Chips Quinn program came back to speak during orientation. Their insight was helpful because they were once in our shoes. I was glad that the orientation touched on a wide variety of topics. Many of them were lessons you can’t learn in college. The speakers were interesting and helpful. Overall, the program was a good experience and I'm glad I had a chance to be a part of it.

-- Shawn Smith, University of Arizona, Observer-Dispatch, Utica, N.Y.

Doing what’s right for journalism and myself

Two-thirds of the way through orientation, I half-jokingly told fellow Chipster Olga Munoz that I was waiting for the "breakthrough" portion, with revelations and "a-ha" moments.

Well, they came on the third day. The workshop, “A Conversation about Our Differences" (by Poynter’s Keith Woods), was easily the most emotional part of the orientation for me. We talked about incidents in which we felt that we were being singled out because of our respective races. Events ranged from the blatantly racist to the frustratingly ambiguous. How can we as journalists separate how we feel when we perceive that our identity is being attacked or slandered? This was a question seen earlier this year in Mary Ann Hogan's “Ask the Coach” column about the use of offensive language.

The hardest part about dealing with offensive comments is that I have to put my job as a journalist first. At the same time, I don't want to put up with prejudice. It's hard to take my Hispanic heritage out of the situation, but I know it's what I must do. At the end of the day, I hope that I can do what's right for journalism and what's right for myself.

-- Charles Menchaca, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, The Wausau (Wis.) Daily Herald

Eager to confront fears

I cannot wait to get to my internship to overcome my fear of news writing. I am not a journalism major, nor does my school have a communications department or classes, but I have some experience. My school newspaper does not come out as frequently as it should, so I don’t write articles on a daily basis. I have reached a point where I am ready to “just do it,” as the Nike ads admonish.

I also cannot wait to learn about and do some multimedia work. When I see the impact of capturing stories with audio and video, I feel like journalism is serving its purpose. Hearing and seeing are among the best ways to touch the human heart.

-- Sha’Day Jackson, Tuskegee University, The Dispatch, Lexington, N.C.

The value of collaboration

In our break-out session, (Scholar) Kainaz Amaria mentioned collaboration as one of her goals for the summer. I was glad because collaboration is one the most important things we can do in journalism. Sometimes, journalists get so wrapped up in their work that they don’t consider collaboration.

Some of my best reporting experiences have occurred when I was with a photographer. Photographers often see and notice things that I don’t and they are very skilled at getting people to be comfortable with them, even when they are sticking a giant camera in their faces.

When I first met (Scholar) Colleen Cummins (at San Francisco State University) we had to cover an event involving elementary and middle-school kids who were visiting our campus. While I was on one side of the room getting quotes from teachers and administrators, Colleen was on the other shooting and talking to the kids. We were able to compare quotes and notes. We pointed things out to each other, covered more ground and came away with a pretty decent story and some great photos of kids doing experiments (and of one of them beating up our mascot).

We need to recognize the diversity of newsrooms in this way. We’re all journalists trying to get the stories and we are all on the same team. This applies to multimedia producers, copy editors and other writers. If we work together and discuss our ideas and share our concerns, then we can only make the product better.

-- Donna Tam, San Francisco State University, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

'Listen carefully, World’

I can’t wait to get to my internship to put into practice the skills I have learned at orientation. I was geeked (this may be a regional word but it means excited), anticipating my arrival to Nashville for the orientation. Now I am extremely geeked for my departure.

I have learned so many lessons from the various panels and workshops and even from personal discussions. I can’t wait to prove to myself and others that a big-mouth city girl can earn a living doing what she does best – being nosy. You will hear me before you see me, World, so listen carefully.

-- Aerial McCall, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette

Adding a family

Never has anything felt like a new beginning for me – until now. This summer will be my first step into the professional world and I carry with me a quiet confidence in my abilities. I am extremely grateful for this experience and I can't help but think again about my parents, who brought me to this country. Without their hard work, sacrifice and encouragement, I doubt I could have made it this far. This weekend has left me awestruck that there are others like me and that they have news experiences similar to mine. I've always felt that my family are the only people I have in my corner. Now I have two families in my corner.

-- Joe Lacdan, Southern Illinois University, San Angelo (Texas) Standard-Times

Going in with a plan – and staying flexible

I'm nervous and excited. I'm beginning to outline exactly what I want out of my internship. I want to go in with a plan but maintain a lot of flexibility. Mary Ann Hogan is a tremendous career coach and I am going to make an effort to stay in contact with her throughout my internship and journalism career. One of today’s panelists bounced from a career as a florist to journalism. This is interesting because while I have a passion for spreading information, I sometimes think about switching to a field that has to do with economics, finance or urban planning. But since I plan on living a long life I will do it all. I cannot get over how great this experience has been. The people are helpful and the students are open and friendly.

-- Renita Burns, Temple University, Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

Juggling work and play

(Scholar) Tony Gonzalez dropped by my room Saturday night to see if I wanted to go juggling with him and a Vanderbilt student he met over the Internet. It had been years since I juggled seriously. Self-taught by Juggling for the Complete Klutz in middle school, I used to juggle fruit during high school to get some smiles (or looks of pity). In college, I wanted to focus on my studies and work for campus media, so I stopped juggling. I jumped at the chance to revisit an old hobby. Tony, (Scholars) Daniel Davis, Megan Gordon and I walked over to the Vandy campus to meet at the chosen location, a spooky, isolated portico in the middle of a deserted campus that made me extremely conscious of the amount of money I had in my wallet. But my fears were unfounded; Jacob arrived on time, towing behind him a suitcase full of juggling pins. Tony quickly taught Daniel and Megan how to juggle balls, and gave me some tips on how I could juggle pins. Tony blew our minds with a complicated routine he did with Jacob, passing six, seven and then eight pins.

Because of this little adventure, I will contact the juggling club when I return to school in the fall and learn how to juggle pins.

-- Stuart Woo, Brown University, The Providence (R.I.) Journal

A once-daunting mission now seems doable

The program portion of the Chips Quinn program isn’t fluff — it’s all about throwing down on journalism. In one weekend, hard-hitting speakers and thought-evoking exercises hyped up the scholars like a boxing coach in the corner of a ring. From the First Amendment to the first five graphs, the program’s content awakened a sense of urgency in the scholars — to freely reveal the truth to the public and to work vigorously toward mastering the craft.

On the verge of our internships, we carry with us the voices and spirit of dedication from the Chips Quinn leaders, making the success of this big, daunting mission seem, well, possible.

-- Donna Lee, University of California-Berkeley, Sacramento City College, Statesman Journal, Salem, Ore.

Lessons to remember

When I start my internship at the Star Tribune next week, I will take with me so many ideas and suggestions from this weekend. As journalists, we never can be reminded enough about the importance of accuracy, the freedoms of the First Amendment or the ethical responsibilities we are given as we do our work. We also can never forget – even in the midst of our healthy, journalistic skepticism – to feel a story's depth or emotion, especially in times of crisis or tragedy. (Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center vice president) Gene Policinski touched on this important point during the “Freedom Sings” presentation.

-- Mary Hudetz, University of Montana, Fordham University, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minn.

An inspiring alum

The New York Times? Check!

Twenty-six years old? Check!

Listings editor for the newspaper’s Culture section? Check!

Minority? Check!

(Alum) LaSharah Bunting (shown at right) is all of the above and more. She will always be an inspiration to me because she proves that you don’t have to settle. LaSharah is honest and real with a capital “r.”

I want to thank all the Chips Quinn alums and administration for their time and expertise. The information, contacts and all the Chipsters were a blessing. The orientation is one experience I will carry with me throughout my life. Becoming a great journalist is in my future. Thank you, Chips Quinn.

-- Jamaal Johnson, San Francisco State University, The Oakland (Calif.) Tribune

A full notebook

At the end of the First Amendment presentation by John Seigenthaler and Ken Paulson, they presented results of a survey of Chipsters. The survey asked if we thought we had too much freedom, along with questions about the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment. It was interesting to hear the results of a larger survey that one in four Americans believes that we have too much freedom. I'm still trying to digest what that means to me.

My notebook is almost full. The panelists and mentors have done a supreme job of giving me noteworthy tips to carry with me and apply forever.

--Natasha Robinson, Wayne State University, The Associated Press, Richmond, Va.

My comfort zone renewed

What I see in this program: Humorous, spontaneous, articulate, colorful, driven, open-minded and goal-oriented young professionals. Just like me. I see comfort. I’m experiencing many new things in this short amount of time. I'm warming up to 44 people quickly. They are as passionate and determined about their futures as I am. It’s amazing; I’m taking it all in and loving it.

Before I was named a Chips Quinn Scholar, I went through a doubtful period -- doubting my talents and place in the newsroom. But after being here, my confidence has been restored. I have a burst of energy I haven’t felt in a long time. I’m super sad to leave, but I will go back home knowing that I’m not alone in the journey to becoming a successful journalist.

-- Natalie Gilmore, Austin Peay State University, and

copy editor, Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader