GRADUATION: The 2008 Graduation Speakers
Dear Students:
[PLEASE NOTE: See the full program and check for last-minute changes to venues or timings - http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/graduation2008
We are also going to hold two more briefings about all aspects of graduation - http://snurl.com/columbiajcalendar ]
Many thanks for your input for this year’s Graduation speakers. Two distinguished journalists will be speaking to you at graduation.
ON TUESDAY, MAY 20 (Journalism Day; students, faculty and staff only), the annual Henry Pringle Lecture on National Affairs will be delivered by Dan Balz, one of the most respected reporters in Washington. He is national political correspondent for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 1978 and has been involved in the paper’s political coverage as a reporter or editor for the past 30 years.
Balz has served as National Editor, Political Editor, White House correspondent and as the paper’s Texas-based Southwest correspondent. He is co-author, with Ronald Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times, of the 1996 book “Storming the Gates: Protest Politics and the Republican Revival.”
In 1999, he received the American Political Science Association award for his coverage of politics. Before coming to the Post, he worked as a reporter and deputy editor for National Journal and as a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
You can read his WP archive here:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/articles/dan+balz/
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ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 21, the winner of the school’s highest honor, the Columbia Journalism Award (and therefore, the main graduation speaker for you and your guests) is TERRY GROSS, one of the most influential journalists of her generation.
From her official bio: She is host of NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross,” the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. It is one of public radio’s most popular programs, with 4.5 million people tuning to the show’s intimate conversations on more than 450 National Public Radio stations across the country, as well as in Europe on the World Radio Network. The program began in 1975 at WHYY as a local three-hour show. Gross has interviewed thousands of prominent Americans in arts, culture, politics and other fields. These conversations are a national treasure - an informative, revealing profile of American culture, interests and perspective as they have evolved over the past quarter century.
Gross isn’t afraid to ask tough questions, but she sets an atmosphere in which her guests volunteer the answers rather than surrender them. What often puts those guests at ease is Gross’ understanding of their work. “Anyone who agrees to be interviewed must decide where to draw the line between what is public and what is private. But the line can shift, depending on who is asking the questions,” observes Gross. “What puts someone on guard isn’t necessarily the fear of being ‘found out.’ It sometimes is just the fear of being misunderstood.”
You can catch the show’s archives at http://www.FreshAir.com
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The student speaker will be YIAN HUANG, your class president - no introduction required.
- Dean Sreenivasan
