EJ News
Updates from the Knight Center and Its Alumni
- Workshop benefits students
- EJA plans photo contest, workshop
- RecycleMania contests sweep nation
- A master's program for journalists, by journalists now available
- Letter: Story overlooked dam options
- Names in the News
Workshop benefits students
High schoolers learn about the environment
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Kelley Carter, a reporter from the Detroit Free Press, teaches high school students how to make cosmetics from environmentally friendly products. Photo by Katie Coleman |
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism co-sponsored a workshop, “Lipstick, Rockets and Jump shots: Journalism and the Environment,” for high school journalism students at the New Detroit Science Center on Feb. 9, 2006.
More than 230 students from 14 high schools attended the workshop, which was also sponsored by the Detroit Free Press, Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, Michigan State University School of Jour-nalism, New Detroit Science Center, Detroit Public Schools, Asian American Journalism Association and National Asso-ciation of Hispanic Journalism.
Sandra Combs Birdiett, director of Multicultural Afffairs at MSU’s College of Comm-unication Arts and Sciences, said the workshop was a great opportunity to expose Detroit high school students and teachers to areas of science and the environment and it enabled experts and journalists to share information with small groups interested in the subjects.
“The workshop was very successful,” said Jim Detjen, director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.
“We helped the students become aware of opportunities that exist in the field of environmental and science journalism.
“Several students approached me during the workshop and asked me about careers in these fields and about Knight Center activities at Michigan State University. This was our goal, and I think we achieved it,” Detjen said.
EJA plans photo contest, workshop
The Environmental Journ-alism Association at Michigan State University — the only student environmental journalism group in the nation — held its inaugural nature photography contest in October 2005. Students from across MSU’s campus submitted 37 entries, which were judged by journalism professor Darcy Greene.
The winning photographs, displayed on p. 28, are:
- First place: “Mackinac Bridge” by Trevor Wagner, a doctoral genetics student;
- Second place: “The Golden Path” by Paul Curran, a first-year master’s student studying psychology; and
- Third place: “Metamor-phosis” by Carol Navarro, a senior in the School of Journalism.
EJA plans to hold another nature photography contest and workshop during fall 2006.
RecycleMania contests sweep nation
93 schools participate in eco-friendly events.
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The school that wins the Per Capita Classic and the Waste Minimization Championship earns a trophy made from recycled materials. Photo courtesy of RecycleMania |
NCAA Final Four glory might be for more than basketball fans this year, as colleges and universities throughout the country compete in the Per Capita Classic and the Waste Minimization Championship.
RecycleMania — an eco-friendly collegiate competition — may have started amidst friendly chides between two professors, but now it comes complete with trophies, titles, pride and 93 participating schools.
“We both chided each other in a friendly way who is the top dog in Ohio in recycling,” said Edward Newman of Ohio University in an e-mail. He and Miami University colleague Stacy Edmonds started RecycleMania in 2001. Students were encouraged to go door to door collecting recyclables and got “ … into RecycleMania [just like] they do at a traditional sporting event,” Newman said.
Five years later, 93 colleges and universities competed for 10 weeks, from Jan. 29 to April 8, according to www.recyclemania.com. Each university or college decided on its own plan of action and goals to reduce waste, competing in either the Per Capita Classic or the Waste Minimization Championship.
The Per Capita Classic was the first and original competition. Participating schools aim to have the most recyclables per student. Schools are responsible for weighing and calculating their own results.
New this year, the Waste Min-imization Championship competition gives schools an opportunity to successfully reduce the amount of municipal solid waste, including trash and pounds of recyclable materials, per student.
This competition focuses on reducing and reusing.
There will also be recognition for the school that excels in both the Per Capita and Waste Minimization competitions, proving that their school can master both material reduction and recycling.
Any school proving its superiority in waste reduction and/or recycling will receive a trophy.
The trophies are originally des-igned by Rabin Kelly and are made completely from recycled materials using a bowling ball and bowling pin for the per capita and waste minimization competitions, respectively.
A master's program for journalists,
by journalists now available
The University of Nevada-Reno cuts between traditional
skill-based and academic models
The Reynolds School of Journ-alism at the University of Nevada-Reno is launching a master’s degree program focused on interactive environmental journalism.
The program is aimed at professional journalists, who will spend 10 months at the school inventing or adapting interactive media tools. Participants will publish a Web site that connects citizens to experts and policy-makers in discussing environmental threats to the Lake Tahoe basin. The program will partner with newspapers, television stations and online sites that cover Lake Tahoe, Northern California and Nevada.
According to Edward Lenert, UN-Reno’s Fred W. Smith Chair in Critical Thinking and Ethical Practice, most master’s programs at journalism schools teach the tools of the trade or scholarly methods for critiquing media performance.
“Experienced journalists can teach most of what’s offered in the first model, and they don’t want to learn most of what’s offered in the second,” said Dean Cole C. Campbell. “Our approach is entirely different. We are not going to teach experienced journalists journalism. We are going to engage experienced journalists in inventing journalism anew.”
Campbell said Nevada is a great place to study environmental issues. Among the lower 48 contiguous states, Nevada is the least disturbed by human impact. According to the Nature Conservancy, Nevada ranks fourth in the nation for biodiversity (California ranks first), while the Great Basin that runs through the state ranks third in the number of species that occur nowhere else in the world and third in the number of imperiled species.
For more information about the program, contact Donica Mensing at dmensing@unr.edu or (775) 784-4187.
Letter: Story overlooked dam options
Dear Editor:
Thanks very much for including Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park in EJ Magazine. It was a very good article — both a good summary of historic and recent events and a compelling account of the potential for restoration — much better than we have seen in many mainstream newspapers.
I do want to explain why we were not as specific in identifying solutions as one might have liked. The article is critical of “Paradise Regained” for not providing enough specifics in some areas: “In the final chapter, where the conclusions and recommendations are stated, phrases like ‘should be investigated’ appear where no specific alternatives to a problem are given.”
We believe we have laid out a variety of options and stimulated the debate over the future of Hetch Hetchy. While there a number of technically viable water and power alternatives, it is important that the communities that rely on the Tuolumne River for water and power have a voice in crafting a solution. The State of California has begun a public process that is incorporating the views of these communities, as well as the broader public, and we are hopeful that they will continue the path toward restoration.
I hope you will have the opportunity to write about Hetch Hetchy again. EJ readers can find our study and other information about restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley at www.discoverhetchhetchy.org.
Spreck Rosekrans
Senior Analyst, Environmental Defense
Elizabeth Burch, Ph.D. ’97, is spending the spring 2006 semester in Jamaica on a Fulbright Scholarship. She is teaching environmental journalism and other subjects at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication at the University of the West Indies in Kingston. She is also researching constraints that environmental journalists face in Jamaica. She can be reached at burche@sonoma.edu.
Katie Coleman, M.A. ‘07 and EJ editor, received the 2006 Rachel Carson Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Environmental Journalism. Reach her at colem221@msu.edu.
Bill Cote, a retired MSU journalism professor and long-time capital reporter for Booth Newspapers, was elected to the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame. Cote is credited with starting the Capital News Service and the school’s Victims and the Media program.
Chad Dally, M.A. ‘05, is a reporter for The Hillsdale (Mich.) Daily News. He may be reached at chad.dally@hillsdale.net.
Jim Detjen, director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism, received the 2006 Ralph Smuckler award for advancing international studies and programs at Michigan State University. He was honored at a university-wide ceremony on March 29, 2006. He also spoke about trends in environmental journalism to the Michigan Botanical Club on Jan. 3, the Mid-Michigan chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists on Feb. 13 and the University Lutheran Church on March 26, 2006. Contact him at detjen@msu.edu.
Lauren Filo, Joey Levine and Matt Schuler, all B.A. ‘06, won a first-place award in March 2006 from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters for an environmental piece about the Red Cedar River that was aired on Impact 89FM, MSU’s campus radio station. The story was produced for the Radio Student Bureau, which was sponsored by the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism and directed by assistant journalism professor Geri Zeldes.
Brian Foley, M.A. ’05, is now a reporter for the Tri-Valley Herald in Pleasanton, Calif. He may be reached at foleybr1@msu.edu.
Eric Freedman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and an assistant professor at MSU’s journalism school, co-authored “John F. Kennedy in His Own Words” (Citadel, 2005, $12.95) with clinical psychologist Edward Hoffman. Publisher Kensington Books says of the collection: “Taken from a wide range of sources that include formal addresses, speeches, newspaper and magazine articles and presidential debates, as well as private correspondence with friends and aides, conversations, and his college diary, ‘John F. Kennedy in His Own Words’ reveals a complex, candid man as capable of an unscripted, politically withering remark as he was of compassion, brilliance and forceful vision – a man whose words are as timely as they are timeless.” Freedman also says that dozens of excerpts reveal Kennedy’s thoughts on environmental protection and the use of natural resources. Reach him at freedma5@msu.edu.
Emily Friedman, B.A.’03, is now working with the Colorado Public Interest Research Group in Denver, Colo. She is helping recruit college students and writing about environmental issues.
Kai Guo, M.A. ’06, won the Mildred B. Erickson fellowship from the Women’s Resource Center at MSU. She is also serving as the graduate student president of the MSU International Students Association for the 2005-06 academic year. Reach her at guokai@msu.edu.
Madison Hall, M.A. ’07, was elected president of the Environmental Journalism Association at MSU. Reach her at madisonhall@hotmail.com.
Sarah Hulett, Great Lakes ’05, until recently the state capital correspondent for Michigan Public Radio, is the Detroit reporter for the network’s University of Michigan stations.
Chris JacketT, B.A. ’07, won six Michigan Press Association awards for his sports writing while attending Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Mich. Reach him at jackettc@msu.edu.
Krista Latham, B.A. ’02, is reporting about the Detroit Pistons, professional basketball and other sports for the Detroit Free Press.
Yu-Ting Lin, M.A. ’06, is the winner of the 2006 Len Barnes Scholarship and the 2006 Knight Center Service Award. She also won the award for Outstanding Graduate Student in MSU’s School of Journalism. During the summer of 2006, she will intern at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Reach her at linyutin@msu.edu.
William A. McWhirter, editor-in-residence and director of MSU’s magazine program, won MSU’s award for excellence in undergraduate teaching in February 2006. McWhirter was a foreign correspondent, bureau chief and business correspondent for Time Magazine. Reach him at mcwhirt1@msu.edu.
Carol Navarro, B.A. ‘06, received the 2006 Edward Meeman Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Environmental Journalism. Reach her at navarr16@msu.edu.
Hannah Northey, M.A. ’07, received the Nick Kerbawy graduate student research award. She also received an award from the Lansing State Journal for her story about a town in Michigan that had adopted a town devastated by Hurricane Katrina last fall. Reach her at hannahnorthey@hotmail.com.
Alex Nixon, M.A. ’04, is the night editor of the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette.
Dave Poulson was promoted from assistant to associate director of the Knight Center. He spoke at an environmental journalism workshop in Delhi, India, and visited the Ranthambhore National Park to observe endangered tigers and other animals. He recently attended an Advanced CAR Statistics Workshop at Arizona State University. Reach him at poulson@msu.edu.
Corbin Sullivan, M.A. ’04 and former EJ Magazine editor, was admitted to the University of Wisconsin’s medical school and will begin studying there in the fall of 2006.
Aileo Weinmann, M.A. ’05 and former EJ Magazine editor, is planning to marry Heather Hopgood on Aug. 19, 2006, in Yosemite National Park. During the summer of 2005, he worked as a reporter and producer for Alaska Public Radio’s weekend magazine, AK, which was named the best news/public affairs program in 2005 by the Public Radio News Directors, Inc.
Karessa Weir, B.A. ’95 and M.A. ’04, is the proud mother of Alastair James Wheeler, who was born Feb. 4. Karessa is the editor of Echo, an online news service about Michigan environmental news published by the Knight Center.
Patrick Wellever, B.A. ‘06, was named one of the top collegiate feature writers in the nation for an article he wrote in the spring 2005 issue of EJ magazine. He won 10th place in college feature writing in the 2005 national William Randolph Hearst Foundation awards for collegiate journalism. Contact him at welleve1@msu.edu.
Lt. Elaine Wolff, B.S. 1999, has been working to develop federal plans for a possible avian flu pandemic in her office at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C. Contact her in the Science &Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security at (202) 254-6085. Or e-mail her at
elaine.wolff@dhs.gov.
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