AWARDS: Our Students & Alumni Have Quite the Tuesday
Tuesday was quite a day for student and alumni achievement.
- I walked in to the office and Dean Klatell told me that students in the Stabile Investigative Journalism program had a major expose about the former Pataki administration in Albany. The story, “Plans, but little else; Questions arise over $1.8M spent on the Pataki-era Museum of Women, which is still unbuilt,” was first published on Sunday, April 29, in the Albany Times Union and continued to be featured on the website. ELLEN GABLER, IRENE JAY LIU and C. ONUR ANT, who are part of a team of students working closely with TU investigations editor and adjunct professor ROBERT PORT, received a joint byline and this credit line: “Ellen Gabler, Irene Jay Liu and C. Onur Ant are students at the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, which is part of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in Manhattan. They prepared this story under the supervision of Times Union Senior Editor Bob Port, who can be reached at 454-5064 or by e-mail at bport@timesunion.com.” Full story here.
- An hour later, student CHRISTIE NICHOLSON came to tell me that her team (ANNE MACHALINSKI and AILI McCONNON) Master’s Project had won TWO 2007 Webby Awards (”Oscars of the Internet”) in the student category for their new media Master’s Project, ScienceandSex.com. They won the judge’s award for the student category and the People’s Voice Award. See listing here. It’s quite an achievement, since only three student projects from around the world were even selected as finalists. The students will receive their awards at a gala June 5th ceremony, along with fellow winners David Bowie, the founder of YouTube, et al. The ceremony is famous for its five-word acceptance speeches. When Al Gore won a couple of years ago, his five words: “Please don’t recount this vote.”
- Later in the day, the finalists for the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists were announced. They recognize outstanding achievement by journalists under the age of 35 in the previous year. This year’s finalists include the following:
* GREG GILDERMAN, who will be graduating in two weeks - for his Master’s Project-turned Philadelphia magazine cover story.
* CLAIRE HOFFMAN, J2004, of The Los Angeles Times (see story).
* JOSHUA BOAK, J2005, of the Toledo Blade.
* ANDREA ELLIOTT, J’99, of The New York Times (who won a Pulitzer Prize two weeks ago, one of four alumni to win a Pulitzer this year).
* LYDIA POLGREEN, J2000, of The New York Times.
See full list of finalists here.
* Kara Spak, J’98, of Paddock Publications/Daily Herald - Before I went to bed, I checked out the winners of the National Magazine Awards and found at least one prominent alum winner (there might be others, but the awards are mostly for the magazines themselves, rather than individual journalists).
The reporting award winner was C.J. CHIVERS, J’95, for his story in Esquire (June 2006) about the 2004 terrorist attack on a school in Beslan, Russia. Accepting the award, Esquire editor David Granger calls it the “greatest example of reporting I’ve ever read.” Read his story here and see awards press release here. Chivers is a foreign correspondent for The New York Times and has a major story in the paper today from Afghanistan (see index of his stories here).
Of course, not all our days are like this. But throughout the year
UPDATE: This posting has generated some reminders from proud professors about the following items:
- Two Sundays ago, the cover story of the City section of The New York Times was “Monks Who Play Punk” by John Mitchell. He’s graduating in a couple of weeks and it’s his Master’s Projects.
- The current issue of Harper’s features a major story by Victoria Schlesigner, MS 2005 and MA 2006. It’s called “The Continuation of Poverty: Rebranding of Foreign Aid” (she got a photo credit as well.
- Neil Katz J2005, a Frontline World Fellow and freelance journalist, just published an online report on the deep cultural preference for sons over daughters in India.
- Tom Rinaldi, J’93, a reporter for ESPN, won an Emmy Monday night for outstanding long feature (scroll down).
