The Daily Plan-it / Dean of Students Blog, Columbia J-school

2010 Graduation Week
Congratulations to all our Columbia Journalism School graduates!

Please visit our graduation coverage page to read:
* Gail Collins’ commencement speech
* Dean Nicholas Lemann’s graduation address
* Pringle Lecture by Eugene Robinson
* Lemann’s university commencement remarks
* Remarks by Siddharth Philip, class president

Video of J-school graduation ceremony, Tuesday, May 18, 3-4:30 pm:
The sequence: Dean Nicholas Lemann (00:00-11:34)
Rebecca Castillo (11:47-14:04)
Siddharth Philip (14:06-17:00)
Gail Collins (17:29-34:31)
Dean Lemann reads the award winners’ names (34:45-41:44)
Dean Sree Sreenivasan reads the graduates’ names (41:50-1:32:45)

Also see video of main university-wide Commencement

Read Dean Huff’s 2010 Year-end Manual (info about use of the building, Columbia e-mail, computers, alumni services, etc).

Download photo of J-School class of 2010: Class photo

See a year’s worth of Student Affairs photos. (e-mail sree[at]sree.net if you’d like to contribute pix)

Not our graduation, but Prof. Sig Gissler, in 2008, recommended this short AP story about Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCollough’s commencement address at Boston College:

“Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation.”He said he’s particularly troubled by the “relentless, wearisome use of words” such as like, awesome and actually.”

AWARDS: The following awards were presented on May 17 and the winners were acknowledged again at the main graduation ceremony on May 18, 2010.

PULITZER TRAVELING FELLOWSHIPS & EIBEL AWARD for the top six students in the Class of 2010

PULITZER FELLOWSHIP WINNERS:
Lauren Kirchner - class valedictorian
Sasha Chavkin
John Tucker
Rory Weisbrod
Katherine Clarke (specializing in criticism of the arts)

David Marcus Eibel Memorial Scholarship: Mara Zepeda

The M.A. Program Prize:
Arthur Harris Award for Best M.A. Thesis: Rohini Mohan
runner-up: Carrie Peyton Dahlberg
runner-up: David Zax

Henry Taylor award for outstanding international student: Frances McInnis

Award & Winner(s):
Baker for Bronx Ink: Sarah Butrymowicz
Baker prize for Brooklyn Ink: Mary Plummer
Baker prize for Columbia News Service: Megan Gibson
Baker prize for Literary Journalism: Lauren Kirchner
Baker prize for magazine production A: Joel Mears
Baker prize for magazine production B: Frances McInnis
Baker prize for magazine writing A: Lisa Held
Baker prize for magazine writing B: John Tucker
Balakian prize for literary criticism: David Kessel
Blood prize for reporting: Sam Fellman
Crichton award for documentary film: Pracheta Sharma & Jessica Hopper
Digital Media Workshop - Design - prize: Shane Snow
Digital Media Workshop - Interactive - prize: Lisa Waananen
Digital Media Workshop - Multimedia Storytelling - prize: Scott Sell and Andrew Keshner
Digital Media Workshop - Visual Storytelling - prize: Lim Wui Liang
Greer award for business reporting MA: Angus Loten
Greer award for business reporting MS: Lindsay Dunsmuir
Harron award for courtesy (”nice guy/nice gal): Shefali Kulkarni
Hechinger award for education journalism: Melissa Miley & Rob Sgobbo
Horgan award for science journalism #1: Sasha Chavkin
Horgan award for science journalism #2: Delphine Reuter
Horgan award for science journalism #3: Leonard F. Schoenberger
Journalism Editorial award: Joel Mears
Keller prize for editing: Althea Fung
Konner award for broadcast journalism: Sherisse Pham
Lynton Fellowship for book writing: Artis Herderson
Lynton Fellowship for book writing: Nathaniel Adams
Mencher prize for superior reporting: Chasen Marshall
Nelson award for national affairs reporting: Sam Fellman
Nightly News Workshop prize: Tammy Mutasa and Kelly Koopmans
Photography prize: Diana Markosian and Chris Geier
Radio Workshop prize: Katie Simon and Lindsay Dunsmuir
Sackett award for the law class: Maria Del Mar & Cabra Valero & Daniel Benjamin Roberts
Video Storytelling Workshop prize: Edward Chun
Weschler award for international reporting: Artis Herderson
Weschler award for national reporting: Katya Wachtel
Weschler award for local reporting: Sommer Saadi
Winnick award for RW1: Lauren Kirchner

The winners of the two awards presented by the students :
SPJ Teacher of the Year: Michael Shapiro
SPJ Student of the Year: Barry Whyte

List of Students Graduating with Honors
Sarah Butrymowicz
Yilun Chen
Frederick Dreier Frederick
Lindsay Dunsmuir
Sasha Freudenberg-Chavkin
Sara Hamdan
Artis Henderson
Andrew Keshner
Lauren Kirchner
Christopher Livesay
Frances McInnis
Joel Meares
Ada Muellner
Stephen Nessen
Sherisse Pham
Leslie Picker
Mary Plummer
Susanna Poppick
Scott Sell
Emma Silvers
Shreeya Sinha
John Tucker
Kim Velsey
Lisa Waananen
Rory Weisbrod
Mara Zepeda

Here’s an explanation of how the awards are selected.

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Greetings!

As the administrator of the part-time program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, I am delighted to welcome you to the school. We are looking forward to working with you this summer and in the semesters to come.

Please go to https://ssol.columbia.edu/ (you will need your UNI and password) to look up your class schedule for the summer. Your first class in the M.S. program is Reporting and Writing I, which begins May 22 and ends Sept. 4. Prof. Addie Rimmer’s RW1 class meets on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Prof. Sam Freedman’s class meets on Wednesday from 1 to 6 p.m. In addition, we have scheduled seven weeks of digital media training that begin on May 23. You have been placed either in the Sunday digital media training section from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or the Tuesday/Thursday evening section from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

CLASS REGISTRATION: You do not have to register for classes; we will automatically place you in an RW1 class and in the sections of digital media training based on the preferences you indicated in your enrollment form. Though we did our best to accommodate your preferences, we could not guarantee everyone’s top choices in order to insure an equal number of students in each section.

ORIENTATION: Mandatory orientation for the part-time class, which includes an introductory meeting with your RW1 instructor, will be held on Friday, May 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a reception to follow from 4:30 to 6 p.m. You will also be setting up your computer accounts and receiving your ID cards, two essential items, so you do not want to miss this day.

EMAIL: When you paid your deposit, your UNI (which also serves as your Columbia e-mail address) was generated. Go to http://uni.columbia.edu/ to look up and activate your e-mail. If you want these emails to go to another address, you can set up your Columbia account to forward your mail electronically. We’ll also add you to the student listserv so that you will receive all of our updates, including information on the many special events occurring at the school.

Soon you will receive an orientation booklet with many more useful bits of information for navigating your way through the school. Please let me know if you have any questions.

See you at Orientation!

Elena Cabral
Administrator, Part-time program
Adjunct Professor
Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism
212-854-1124
mec9@columbia.edu