Barajas Accepted by Times Journalism Institute

Many of our alumni have had the opportunity to meet current senior Nic Barajas at events in New York and Washington over the past year. Nic has been the paper's assistant design editor, design editor and managing editor, and is currently serving as online editor.
Well here's some exciting news: Nic has just been accepted into this year's The New York Times Journalism Institute, which will take place January 2–13 at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The Institute brings students together with writers, editors and designers and photographers from The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Times Company Regional papers for 11 days of reporting, editing, designing and taking photographs as they cover real news events. Throughout the program, students have opportunities for intense discussions with award-winning journalists on everything from the nuts and bolts of the everyday life of journalists to the larger issues of the profession. Students selected to attend have all their expenses paid, including transportation, and also receive a stipend. The Institute is offered in collaboration with the Black College Communications Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Congratulations, Nic!

Fennessey Returns!

Sean Fennessey ’03 was in town last weekend for the Cortaca game and took time to stop by the Ithacan office to meet with some of our current students. After stints at Complex and Stuff magazines in New York, he is currently the associate music editor at Vibe, where he runs two sections of the magazine and assigns reviews. He shared his experience in magazine journalism and offered the students advice on preparing for the professional world. This was his first visit to campus since graduating.

Ms. Hendry Goes to Washington

Also while we were in Washington at the conference, my friend John Gizzi, political editor at Human Events, invited me and Ithacan editor in chief Erica Hendry to accompany him to the Oct. 26 White House press briefing. He introduced us to members of the White House press corps, and Erica had the opportunity to meet White House Press Secretary Dana Perino (shown above, right, with Erica).

Dinner with D.C. Alumni

The fall conference in Washington last month (see previous post) was a good opportunity to hook up with D.C.–area Ithacan alumni. Dean Lynch was kind enough to pick up the tab for dinner at the historic Old Ebbit Grill near the White House. Current editor in chief Erica Hendry was introduced to a group of her predecessors that included four former editors in chief, two former managing editors and three former news editors.
Shown above, left to right: David Wilkinson, Vanessa Leong ’00, Anna Uhls ’07, junior Erica Hendry, Melissa Bluey ’00, Rob Bluey ’01, Charlie Ellsworth ’04, Caitlin Connelly ’05, Joe Geraghty ’04, Brenda (Ludwig) Geraghty ’03, Anne (Walters) Custer ’05 and Roger Custer ’04.

Another Online Pacemaker!

It's fall conference season again. This year the National College Media Convention was held in Washington, D.C., Oct. 24–28, and for the second consecutive year The Ithacan was awarded the Online Pacemaker Award by the Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Advisers. The award recognizes overall excellence and is generally considered "the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism."
This is important recognition for our Web site which, if you read it you'll know, has become a major focus of our journalistic efforts in recent years. Gone are the days when we simply shoveled the print edition onto the Web. The Ithacan Online still has everything the print edition has, but also has breaking news, daily sports coverage and plenty of online-only features and multimedia content.
But that wasn't the only recognition the paper received at the conference. Our own Evan Falk, a junior TV-R major, took first place in the convention's "D.C. Portrait" competition, an on-site photo shoot-out that challenged the participants to capture aspects of life in the city. Evan's prize-winning photograph was of a Viet Nam vet visiting the grave of another vet who had saved his life during the war. You can check out the winning photo here. He also received honorable mention for a second photo he submitted.
The Ithacan was also recognized at the convention's Design Showcase, which identified the best work from among the papers participating in the conference. Our "Model Behavior" Accent front from October 11 was cited as an example of dynamic design, and our Accentuate and Buzzer pages were identified as the judges' favorite examples of creative presentation.
More to come on the Washington trip.
(Left to right in photo above: Assistant Sports Editor Cory Francer, Online Sports Editor Brendan O'Keefe, News writer Tristan Fowler, Editor in Chief Erica Hendry, Design Editor Lena Yue, News Editor Erin Geismar, Assistant News Editor Tricia Nadolny, and photographer Evan Falk.)