Flinn Publishes Third Novel

Kevin Flinn ’01 has just published his third novel, “Ghosts,” which resets Henrik Ibsen's classic moral drama in northwest Pennsylvania in 1910. It is available in paperback or as a file download here. Kevin's first two novels, “Because” (2007) and “Through Night and Wind” (2009) are still available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other outlets.

An Update from Emily Paulsen

I've now been at the College Board almost five years. I just moved into a new role as the product manager for ReadiStep, an 8th grade assessment program that launched about a year ago. Previously, I had been managing publications and other communications projects for the PSAT/NMSQT program. And though it seems that much of my life is spent at the College Board, I'm also working on an MBA at Fordham and training for my future career as a professional runner (ok, not exactly, but I am preparing to run my first half marathon in a couple weeks and, assuming I survive, I'll also be running the NYC marathon this fall).

Kelli Grant: "Life is Good"

I've asked our alumni to provides updates on their recent activities. Here's the latest from former News Editor and Special Projects Manager Kelli Grant ’04:

"I'm still the senior consumer reporter at SmartMoney — June marks my third year in that position, my sixth at the site, and my seventh with Dow Jones. My crazy list of weekly duties includes writing my Deal of the Day column (2-4x), a column for The Wall Street Journal Saturday, a spot with The Wall Street Journal Radio Network, a SmartMoney segment on CBS, a video for the site and, now, a handful of posts for our new blog Paydirt. The site pitches me out as a personal finance expert, so in any given week I'm on Fox, CBS, ABC or other networks talking about my stories and other finance news. On top of all that, I still freelance — Real Simple, Good Housekeeping and Family Circle are the big three. And every once in a while, I get to sleep in. Still living out in Park Slope, dating a wonderful guy — life is good."

The Art of the Revku

Former Accent editor and Buzzsaw Haircut co-founder James Sigman ’98 just returned from L.A., where he was attending a “Freaks and Geeks/Undeclared” reunion at the Paley Center for Media's 28th Annual PaleyFest at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, and visiting Sarah Wright-Killinger ’00.

He is currently a copy editor at John Wiley and Sons in Hoboken, home of the Cake Boss. His latest project is is a series of “revku” —  haiku about books — which can be found on his blog, Tinsel and Rot. He is eagerly anticipating the 15 –year anniversary of Buzzsaw (Haircut) in 2014.

Alumni March Madness

Our annual alumni dinner at Heartland Brewery on 43rd St. in conjunction with the spring National Student Media Convention drew a great crowd this year. Twenty alums showed up to see old friends and meet the eight current students attending the conference.
Alumni in attendance were Nic Barajas ’08, Michelle Barrie ’10, Stephanie Belsky ’06, Lisa Boyars ’01, Mike Cagnazzi ’98, Stacey Coburn ’06, Paul Colombo ’00, Jennifer (Quinzi) D'Agnes ’00, Bill Earl ’09, Erin Geismar ’09, Kelli B. Grant ’04, Vanessa Leong ’00, Cole Louison ’00, Emily Paulsen ’05, LIz (Crowley) Pontillo ’04 along with new husband David, Matt Quintanilla ’07, Deepa Shah ’06, James Sigman ’98, Andy Swift ’09 and Kiersten Timpe ’10.

Bill Earl with current students Molly Apfelroth, Megan Devlin and Michelle Boulé

Paul Colombo, Lisa Boyars, Jen Quinzi D'Agnes and Vanessa Leong

Andy Swift, Matt Quintanilla and Stacey Coburn

Kiersten Timpe, Deepa Shah, Michelle Barrie and Erin Geismar

Another Apple for the Orchard

At the closing ceremony of the spring National College Media Convention in New York, The Ithacan Online walked away with the Apple Award for first place in the Best of Show competition and the print edition with second place.
Back row, left to right: freshman Assistant Photo Editor James Earl, sophomore Assistant Design Editor Molly Apfelroth and sophomore Photo Editor Graham Hebel; front row: sophomore Photo Editor Michelle Boulé, freshman Assistant Accent Editor Megan Devlin, sophomore News Editor Alexandra Evans and junior Assistant Sports Editor Kevin McCall.

Word is Out

Overheard at a Tuesday morning conference session:
Male Student: Are you going to the Apple Awards later?
Female Student: No, are you?
Male Student: Yeah, we're nominated for best print weekly, but The Ithacan is nominated too. It's probably worth going anyway, though.

Ithacan Website Wins Online Crown Award

The Ithacan Online, the Ithacan's website, was presented with a Silver Online Crown for overall excellence by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association this afternoon at the National College Media Convention in New York City. The Ithacan was the only weekly publication to win a Crown Award in any category.
At the awards ceremony, left to right: freshman Assistant Photo Editor James Earl, junior Assistant Sports Editor Kevin McCall, sophomore Photo Editor Michelle Boulé, sophomore News Editor Taylor Long, freshman Assistant Accent Editor Megan Devlin, sophomore Assistant Design Editor Molly Apfelroth, sophomore News Editor Alexandra Evans and sophomore Photo Editor Graham Hebel.

The Legendary Sami Khan

In New York for the National College Media Convention, we had Sunday brunch with Sami Khan ’02, who’s living in Brooklyn and “still causing trouble.” After two years with the Toronto Film Festival, he moved to New York to earn a master’s in film at Columbia, and now works as a producer for the StyleCaster Media Group, producing fashion editorials and video content. 

The Ithacan Named SPJ Region 1 Finalist

The Society of Professional Journalists has named The Ithacan a finalist for the Mark of Excellence Award for Best Non-Daily Newspaper in the Northeast region. The paper is consistently ranked among the top three papers in the Northeast, and three years ago was ranked number two in the country by SPJ.

In addition, junior Whitney Faber's story "Behind the Lens," which appeared in the September 2, 2010 issue of The Ithacan, was named a finalist in the competition's feature writing category.

The winners will be announced at the SPJ Region 1 Spring Conference in Providence, R.I., April 8–9. First-place winners from SPJ's 12 regions go on to compete for the national Mark of Excellence Award in their categories. 

Bouncing Back

The Ithacan has just posted the third in a series of four in-depth multimedia packages. Check out “Bouncing Back: Local Dairy Farmers Recover After Milk Prices Plummet”  by Raechel Kenealy and Laura Gallup. The first two were “Big Red Greek Policy: Cornell Makes Changes to Greek System” by Sarah McCarthy and Tori McClurg, and “Step Up Your Game: Improvements and Deficiencies in IC Athletic Facilities” by Nate March and Zachary Tomanelli.

Aaron King!

Former Opinion Editor Aaron King ’09, now a grad student at Villanova, returned to the Opinion pages of The Ithacan this week with a commentary on the longterm implications of the political  antics in Wisconsin.

Aaron Edwards Reports from London

Alumni aren't the only ones getting stories out there. Last semester's news editor, junior Aaron Edwards, is interning at the Associated Press in London this spring, and has seen his work picked up by the Washington Post, Forbes,  the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post and MSNBC, among others.

Fennessey's Freelancing, Coast to Coast

Sean Fennessey ’03’s freelance work has been popping up in some impressive publications recently. This week alone,  “The ‘Bold, Crazy’ World of Adult Swim” was published in the Los Angeles Times, his review of Gil Scot-Heron and Jamie Smith's “We’re Still Here” ran on Pitchfork and “Adele Goes Deep” appeared in the Village Voice. Sean is director of merchandising at eMusic.

Hendry's Back in the Smithsonian Magazine

Erica R. Hendry ’09's story about a small African-American community's preservation of African traditions  on Georgia's tiny Salepo Island has just been published in the Smithsonian Magazine. Erica runs the Patch.com site in Vienna, Va.

Anna Uhls Heads to Law School

After four years as a multimedia journalist at The Washington Post, Anna Uhls ’07 is moving on to go to law school.
“The decision took a lot of thought, but I think it's right for me,” she writes. “Law has always been a favorite beat for me, my greatest interest in a post-grad degree and where most of my community service hours have fallen.”
During her time at the Post she produced “Divine Impulses” with Sally Quinn, covered the 2008 presidential election, Obama's inauguration, the Metro Crash, Holocaust Museum shootings, last year's “Snowpocalypse” and — a personal favorite of mine — the National Zoo’s celebrity panda, Tai Shan.
Her last day at the Post will be March 2.

Ithacan Named Online Crown Finalist

The Ithacan Online has been named one of seven finalists for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association's 2011 Online Crown Award. 

Founded in 1925, the CSPA is owned by Columbia University and operated as a program affiliated with its Graduate School of Journalism. The Crown Awards, first presented in 1982, are the organization's highest honor. The Online Crown recognizes overall excellence in newspaper websites. The Ithacan Online was awarded the CSPA Gold Crown in 2009 and 2010.

Winners will be announced at the Spring National College Media Convention in New York City, March 13–15. 

Once again we’re in elite company. The other finalists in the national competition are the websites from:
·      The Indiana Daily Student (Indiana University)
·      The Iowa State Daily (Iowa State University)
·      The OU Daily (University of Oklahoma)
·      The Miami Hurricane (University of Miami)
·      The Daily Pennsylvanian (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia)
·      The Shorthorn (University of Texas at Arlington)

A Visit from Beth Quill

Beth Quill ’06 (EIC 2005–06) was home in Auburn, N.Y., for the holidays and was nice enough to drive down to Ithaca and to have lunch last Thursday. It was great to see her, as always. We discussed her trips to Turkey and Iceland, as well as her work at Science News in Washington, where she is now Deputy Managing Editor for Features. You can find her stories and reviews for the magazine here.

More Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

Our Thanksgiving weekend in New York continued with brunch with Edon Ophir and Erin Geismar, both ’09, at the Cookshop in Chelsea (which I highly recommend, by the way).

Edon was town in for a brief visit from Tel Aviv, where he is living and working as the broadcasting and new media coordinator at fashiontv, an international television channel devoted to fashion and modelling. Erin is now settled into her new job as a multimedia journalist at Newsday on Long Island.
That evening we had a chance to catch up with Nic Barajas ’08, who continues his work in print and web design at a little place he likes to call The New York Times, and also had the pleasure of meeting Meghan Peters, a community assistant at Mashable.
A pleasant trip all around.
In photo, Edon Ophir and Erin Geismar.

Black Friday with Alumni

Stephanie and I had dinner last night near Union Square in New York with Matt Quintanilla ’07, Vanessa Schneider ’07 and Wes Siler.
Matt recently relocated from Minneapolis to New York, where he's working at Disrupto, an interactive design and development studio that counts Mike Potter and Jason Roos, both class of 2007, among its cofounders. Vanessa recently accepted a position as community manager with Google (about which, more later); she's based in New York as well. Wes is founder and editor of the online motorcycle magazine Hell for Leather.
It was great seeing Matt again, and it's always a pleasure to see Vanessa and Wes. With the job market being what it is, it's great to see these three doing so well. Altough given who they are, it shouldn't be that surprising.