Student News

Olympia reporting interns for 2011 are, from left, Tiffany Vu, Katie Schmidt, Janelle Kohnert, Brianna Butterfield, Joanna Nolasco, and David Krueger.

Undergraduate student news

Olympia Legislative journalism interns are learning first-hand the challenge of reporting about the law-making process. The department supports interns by providing them with equipment while news organizations generally cover living expenses. Recent economic times have made it more difficult for organizations to pay the $2,500 fee.

Communication undergrads Allison Int-Hout and Nick Visser are the 2010-11 student representatives on the Communication Alumni Board.

Editor-in-Chief and Communication alumnus Mike Seely reports that UW Journalism students Kristy Hamilton and Colin Gorenstein joined the staff at Seattle Weekly as interns and will join current intern Kat Chow at the publication in late March.

Crosscut published the editorial, "Co-ops have role in Seattle's future," written by senior Shane Clyburn during his fall quarter Opinion Writing Class. The editorial states that, in hard economic times, cooperatives like REI, PCC, and Group Health provide another model for creating good, stable jobs. The UW might want to pay more attention.

Cassie Hoeprich, left, works with Rachel Solomon on their first podcast about college life, "The Bark & the Bite."

While recovering from a sickness, senior journalism major Rachel Solomon spent her time snuggled up in bed listening to radio talk shows like This American Life and local radio programs. Having always enjoyed listening to radio, the idea began brewing in her head that maybe radio would be a great outlet for her creativity. Solomon and Cassie Hoeprich, a junior communication major, created the podcast, "The Bark & the Bite."

Graduate student news

The Center for Communication and Civic Engagement’s Professor Lance Bennett and Communication and recent grad Deen Freelon helped launch the first project from their new NSF civic technology grant - a crowd sourced voter guide called The Living Voters Guide. It is a way for voters to engage with different views on the ballot measures to help make a more informed choice.

Manoucheka Celeste is a doctoral candidate in the Department. Her piece on "Reporting Natural Disasters" was featured on the home page of the Dart Cent on Journalism and Trauma. Celeste advises educators on how to equip the journalists of the future with the cultural awareness to effectively and sensitively report on natural disasters.

In mid-November, the National Communication Association (NCA) held its 96th Annual Convention in San Francisco under the theme “Building Bridges.” University communication departments from around the country attended the event where numerous panel discussions on various topics of communication took place. Many graduate students of the UW Department of Communication showcased their work. Jason Gilmore, Lindsey Meeks, Mary Lynn Veden, and Elizabeth Scherman and Anjali Vats won awards for their work.

Katherine Turner and Carlos Javier Sanchez, students in the Master of Communication in Digital Media, are professional photographers who enjoy opportunities to practice their art. For their master’s project they boarded the Thomas G. Thompson research vessel for the Enlighten ’10 mission that took them 200 miles off the coast of Oregon. With the help of Bob Morris, Assistant Professor of Biological Oceanography, they spent two weeks collaborating on multimedia projects for the UW Oceanography Department.