Help Out Some Young Documentarians

Current senior Alexandra Evans, a former Ithacan news editor and opinion editor (some of you had the opportunity to meet her at the recent New York alumni dinner) is hard at work with a team of student filmmakers on “Line in the Sand,” a documentary about the resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline and tar sands oil. The film began as project in Ben Crane’s documentary workshop course (you all remember what that entails) last semester, but now the students are working to complete the film. There’s a lot of travel involved, as well as all the usual costs associated with making a film, so the students have launched an indiegogo campaign to try to raise money for the project.
I attended the screening at the end of last semester and was impressed with what they've produced so far. Go to their indiegogo page, check out their pitch, and, if you you're impressed, consider a donation to help them along.

What’s New in IC Journalism?

IC’s Journalism Department now has its own Facebook page. Follow it to keep up on the latest developments in journalism education at the college.

A Good Week for Kelli B. Grant

Consumer reporter Kelli B. Grant ’04 was on a roll this week. First her twitter feed (@kelligrant) was named one of  “The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013” by Time Magazine. Then she made an appearance on “CBS This Morning” to talk to co-hosts Gayle King and Charlie Rose about states collecting online sales tax (not that television appearances are anything unusual for Kelli these days).
And, as if that weren’t enough, today is her birthday. Happy Birthday Kelli!

Ithacan Named SPJ Regional Finalist

The Ithacan has been named a finalist to receive a Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists Northeast Region (Region 1) at the group’s annual meeting, to be held April 12–13 at Rutgers University’s New Brunswick, N.J., campus.
The award is for overall excellence. The actual place awarded will be announced at the conference awards ceremony. The winner of the regional competition will go on to compete against the winners of SPJ’s other 11 regions for the national Mark of Excellence Award.
The Ithacan received SPJ’s national Mark of Excellence Award for Best Non-Daily Newspaper in the country in 2012.

New York Alumni Dinner Draws a Crowd

This spring’s dinner with New York City alumni drew a record crowd, with 21 alums and 11 current students in attendance. The dinner took place on March 11 at the Heartland Brewery Empire State Building location. The students and I were were town for the spring National College Media Convention where, as reported previously, The Ithacan picked up two Gold Crown awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
It was great catching up with everyone, as always. The alumni represented a broad range of fields:
Newspapers/websites: Nic Barajas ’08 (New York Times), Aaron Edwards ’12 (Digital First Media), Erin Geismar ’09 (newsday.com), Casey Musarra ’11 (newsday.com), Kaydi Poirier ’11 (newsday.com), Kerry Tkacik ’12 (freelance);

From left: former EIC Aaron Edwards
’12, current EIC Kelsey O’Connor ’13
 and Lara Bonner ’12, who served as
managing editor for both of them.

Magazines/websites: Patrick Doyle (Rolling Stone), Kelli Grant ’04 (smartmoney.com), Cole Louison ’00 (GQ), Deepa Shah ’06 (Maxim), Libby Sile ’11 (Esquire);
Television: Evan Falk ’09 (FOX Business News);
Publishing: Lara Bonner ’12 (Sanford J. Greenburger Associates), James Sigman ’98 (John Wiley & Sons);
Marketing and design: Paul Colombo ’00 (Deep Focus), Lisa Boyars Gehrke ’01 (Condé Nast), Anthony Iaffaldano ’99 (Undertone), Laura Lubrano ’02 (Los Angeles Times), Matt Quintanilla ’07 (Arc90), Andrew Weiser ’11 (The Cools);
Real estate: Jim Hawver ’07 (Key New York).

From left: Paul Colombo ’00, Lisa
Boyars Gehrke ’01 and Anthony
 Iaffaldano ’99.

Current students: Kelsey O'Connor ’13 (editor in chief), Noreyana Fernando ’15 (assistant news editor), Sabrina Knight ’16 (assistant news editor), Rose Vardell ’14 (assistant accent editor), Emily Hull ’15 (assistant sports editor), Rachel Woolf ’15 (photo editor), Jaclyn Cataldi ’15 (multimedia editor), Emily Fuller ’15 (design editor), Alexandra Evans ’13 (former opinion editor), Shea O'Meara ’13 (opinion editor), and Rachel Orlow ’13 (Year in Review photo editor).

From left: Laura Lubrano ’02 talks to
Kesh Center director Bob Regan.

In addition, Bob Regan, the Park School’s director of the Dr. John Keshishoglou Center for Global Communications Innovation (or the Kesh Center, for short), stopped in to talk about the school’s new Executive Master’s in Communications Innovation and bring the alumni up to speed on recent Park School developments.

From left: Libby Sile 11, Patrick Doyle and Rose Vardell ’14.

From left: current assistant sports editor Emily Hull ’15 with
former sports editors Andrew Weiser ’11 and Casey Musarra ’11.

From left: Matt Quintanilla ’07, Deepa Shah ’06 and Jim Hawver ’07.

Some High-Profile Exposure

I opened up this week's New Yorker and saw The Ithacan’s online news editor, Kacey Deamer ’13, (left) staring up at me. Disconcerting, but cool! A couple of years ago, former EIC Aaron Edwards ’12 was featured in similar ads.

Tribeca Selects Sami Khan’s ‘Khoya’ for All Access Program

“Khoya,” a film directed by Sami Khan ’02, has been selected by the Tribeca Film Institute, a nonprofit affiliated with the Tribeca Film Festival, as one of 11 projects in its Tribeca All Access program. Sami will receive $15,000 in support and will participate in a career development program as part of the 2013 festival, according to the Tribeca website. In addition, a festival jury will select two of the 11 projects to receive an additional $10,000.
The film, which is now in postproduction, tells the story of a man who, after the death of his adopted mother, journeys from Canada to rural India in search of his birth family. You can check out the promo reel for the film on Vimeo.
“As you might imagine, making a movie in India on a small budget was an unrelenting physical and emotional challenge,” Sami said. “Given those struggles, and the lonely years of prep that went into the film, it means so much to get the support of an incredible institution like the Tribeca Film Institute. I really have to credit my time at IC in helping me get to this point — I learned so much on South Hill ... mostly from my mistakes!”
Sami was Ithacan Accent editor in 2001–02.

And Also This

The Ithacan took the second place Apple Award for best multimedia package in the Best in Show awards at the March 12 closing session of the spring National College Media Convention in New York. The award was for “Ace in the Hold,” a profile of senior tennis player Allison Young. The package featured a story by staff writer Kristen Gowdy, an interactive analysis of Young's serve, and photos and a video by Shawn Steiner.

Ithacan Wins Gold Crown Awards

Ithacan editors are presented with two Gold Crown awards by C. Bruce
Watterson, chair of the CSPA judging committee.

The Ithacan has been a been presented with two Gold Crown awards by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at the spring National College Media Convention in New York City. The Gold Crown awards are the highest honors presented by CSPA.

This year the CSPA offered different category options to entrants. Publications could enter in the traditional newspaper and online categories, or in a new third “hybrid” category, described as “a publication that works to combine their digital and print publications as one.” Since this reflects the goals of the Ithacan’s editors, the publication was entered in this category. The publication won Gold Crown awards in the hybrid category for both the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters (Aaron Edwards ’12, editor in chief). The awards were presented in a ceremony on March 10 at the Sheraton Times Square Hotel.