At the Trumansburg Veterans' Sanctuary

Check out the latest New York Times piece by Lauren DeCicca ’11. 

Fall Awards Wrap-Up

Editor in Chief Kelsey
O'Connor and Webmaster
Honest Charley Bodkin
at the Fall National
College Media Convention

The academic year began well on the external-recognition front. This fall’s award parade started with The Ithacan being presented with the Mark of Excellence Award for Best All-Around Non-Daily Newspaper in the country (announced back in April) at the Society of Professional Journalists’ national convention on Sept. 22 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Then at the end of October, The Ithacan was honored with the Online Pacemaker Award for 2012 at the Fall National College Media Convention in Chicago. The Pacemakers are the highest honors awarded by the Associated Collegiate Press and are widely regarded as “the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism.” The Ithacan website has won the Pacemaker Award five times in the past seven years. The paper’s website was also awarded second place in the convention’s on-site Best in Show competition. 

In addition, the print edition of the paper was presented with a Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist Award at the convention and won second place in its category in the Best in Show competition as well. 
Finally, in a combined newspaper/website critique, The Ithacan was named a Gold Medalist for both the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s annual college publication critique.
Among the judge’s comments for the fall semester: “When a reader picks up the newspaper, the stories and design, the complete package are so compelling, that he feels he must read almost every story before putting the paper down.” And for the spring semester he began, “I've run out of superlatives.”
Each year the CSPA evaluates member papers on overall content news, depth reporting, features, opinion/editorial, sports, arts/entertainment, editing/headline writing, and design/graphics based on more than 150 specific criteria. This year the paper’s scores on the critique’s 1,000-point scale were 954 for the fall semester and 961 for the spring. The CSPA consistently ranks The Ithacan as a Gold Medalist, its highest category.

Sami Khan’s ‘Kursk’ Video

The legendary Sami Khan ’02 recently wrote and directed the official music video for “Kursk” by the Brooklyn band KNTRLR. Says Sami, "The movie is inspired by old Soviet movies and even older Soviet submarines.” You need to watch this. Check it out.

Lindsey Hollenbaugh Gets Married

The Ithacan crew: front row, from left, Allie Musante ’10, Andrew Weiser ’11, Lindsey Hollenbaugh ’10, Michelle Barrie ’10; back row, from left, Libby Sile ’11, Jackie Palochko ’11, Michelle Bizon ’11, Casey Musarra ’11.

After a two-year engagement, former Editor in Chief Lindsey Hollenbaugh ’10 and Lenny Griesemer were married Sept. 8 in a Catholic ceremony in Troy, N.Y. A reception followed at Crystal Cove in Averill Park. “We all danced for hours,” writes Jackie Palochko ’11. “Lindsey’s college buddies were recognized with the song, “Party in the U.S.A.” And yes, Casey pulled out her Michael Jackson dance moves.”

Movin’ on Up

Some recent job changes among Ithacan alumni: 
Aaron Edwards ’12 is now a News Producer at Digital First Media in New York.
Charlie Ellsworth ’04 is now a Senior Advisor at Baker & Hostetler, LLP in Washington, D.C.
Lindsey Hollenbaugh Griesemer ’10 is Online News Editor at the Glens Falls (N.Y.) Post-Star.
Erica Hendry ’09 has been promoted to Associate Regional Editor for Patch.com in Virginia.
Andrew Lovell ’08 has been promoted to Associate News Editor at ESPN.
Casey Musarra ’11 is now a Multimedia Sports Reporter at Newsday on Long Island.
Jackie Palochko ’11 is now a Reporter at the Keene (N.H.) Sentinel.

Family Guy

Juliet and Mike Cagnazzi do a shift at the front desk.

Mike Cagnazzi ’97 stopped in at the Ithacan office at the end of September to catch up and show off his beautiful family. He’s currently Vice President of Product Development at AMC Networks in New York. 

Summer Wrap-Up

We always say that getting involved with The Ithacan is more like becoming part of a family than being a member of an organization, and few things provide better evidence of that than the continuing connections among our alumni. This year's summer gathering of Washington, D.C., Ithacan alumni was held at our usual venue, the Old Ebbitt Grill on June 23. There were about 20 of us this year, and the food and company were great, as always. Among the usual crowd were Rob Bluey ’01, Ann Walters Custer ’05, Roger Custer ’04, Caitlin Connelly Ellsworth ’05, Charlie Ellsworth ’04, Brenda Ludwig Geraghty ’03, Joe Geraghty ’04, Erica Hendry ’09, Rachel Berlin Moir ’00 along with her husband Michael, Elizabeth Quill ’06, Max Steinmetz ’08 and Nate Weixel ’08. 
Joining us this year for the first time were recently married Kate Sheppard ’06 and her husband Deen Freelon; recent grad Alexandra Palombo ’11, who was interning at American Bridge PAC; assistant New York Times national editor Jill Agostino ’86, who was in D.C. at the Times' Washington bureau for a couple of weeks; and Kacey Deamer ’13, who was interning with Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones for the summer.

With Benjamin Bluey

Unfortunately, Melissa Bloomrose Bluey ’00 couldn't make it to the dinner — after all, someone has to take care of the kids, and it was apparently her turn. Note wanting to miss her or young Ben, to say nothing of meeting young Luke for the first time, I drove down to Alexandria the next day. Luke was adorable and Ben was full of energy. 

From left, Max Steinmetz, Erica
Hendry, Andy Swift, Erin Geismar and Byard Duncan.

A week later the 2009 Fight Club crew met in New York to reunite with Byard Duncan ’09 on one his visits from the West Coast. Erin Geismar ’09, Erica Hendry ’09, Max Steinmetz ’08 (honorary member) and Andy Swift ’09 made it in for a fun evening of food and libation. Jen Nevins ’09 and Edon Ophir ’09 couldn't make it, and were very much missed.

Vanessa Schneider

Six weeks later I was passing through the city again, on my way home from two weeks in the Baltic, and was able to meet up with Vanessa Schneider ’07, who was in New York from San Francisco on Google Business. She's doing media outreach for Google Maps and Google Earth.

From left, Kelsey O'Connor, Erica Hendry, Lara Bonner and
Erin Geismar.

Finally, summer unofficially ended on Labor Day weekend, when a group of Ithacan alumni and friends, frustrated by the cancellation of the annual Ithaca Brew Fest this year while Ithaca Brewery worked on building its new facility, decided to come to town and stage an Ithacan Brew Fest of their own. Among the former Ithacan personnel were Kara Cusolito ’08, Lydia Dimitriadis ’08, Erin Geismar ’09, Erica Hendry ’09, Andrew Lovell ’08, Aaron Munzer ’08, Max Steinmetz ’08. Current Editor in Chief Kelsey O'Connor ’13 and Managing Editor Lara Bonner ’12 joined the party as well, connecting with past generations of Ithacan leadership. The weather was beautiful. It was a perfect end to the summer.