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.

Beth Quill Moves to Smithsonian Magazine

Beth Quill and friend in Madrid.

After almost five years as an editor at Science News in Washington, D.C., former Ithacan Editor in Chief Beth Quill ’06 has moved over to Smithsonian magazine, where she has been hired as senior science editor.
“I am so excited to bring compelling science stories to millions of readers.” she said.
Beth’s career has been an impressive one. After graduating from Ithaca with a degree in journalism, she went on to earn a master’s degree in MIT’s prestigious science writing program. From there she went to England for a five-month stint writing daily news stories at Science magazine, and then came back to the U.S. to work for Science News.
It will be exciting to see what she brings to one of the country’s most prestigious magazines.

Chili Fest, Team Newsday and Others

Team Newsday, from left: Casey
Musarra, Kaydi Poirier and Erin Geismar

Chili Fest last Saturday brought students flocking to The Commons — and alumni returning to town. Among those who came in for the event were our three alumni at newsday.com: former Ithacan Editor in Chief Erin Geismar ’09, now newsday.com's online community news editor; former Multimedia Editor Kaydi Poirier ’11, now newsday.com's assistant entertainment news editor; and former Managing Editor Casey Musarra ’11, now a newsday.com sports web producer. They drove up from the city with former Multimedia Editor Andy Swift ’09, now senior entertainment editor at hollywoodlife.com.

From left: Kaydi Poirier, Andy Swift,
 current Editor in Chief Kelsey O’Connor,
Aaron Edwards and Erin Geismar.

We made the rounds of chili stands (VIP tickets are the only way to go) and later ran into Aaron Munzer ’08 and   Kara Cusolito ’08. Last year’s editor in chief, Aaron Edwards ’12, was here for the weekend as well. He’s currently a news producer at Digital First Media in New York. In addition to attending Chili Fest, he spoke to a group of our feature writers on Sunday, spent some time in the Ithacan office and gave us all his cold. Thanks, Aaron.

Aaron Munzer and Kara
Cusolito

Kerry Tkacik ’12, who’s living in Queens and freelancing in Manhattan after interning at Rolling Stone last fall and graduating in December, stopped in on Friday on her way to visit her family. And former Managing Editor Deepa Shah ’06 was in town this weekend as well, although we missed each other.
One highlight of Chili Fest was watching our current sports editor, junior Taylor Palmer, compete in the  hot pepper–eating contest. He’d won the competition the past two years, but finished second this year. You can read his first-person account of the experience in this Thursday’s Ithacan.
Seeing these former students was a pleasant preview of next month’s annual dinner with the New York alumni in conjunction with the spring National College Media Convention at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers in Manhattan. Eight students and I will be attending.

Taylor Palmer competing in the hot pepper–eating contest.

The Return of Taylor Long

Taylor Long at the Berlin Wall

Senior Taylor Long is back at The Ithacan this semester editing the 2013 edition of Year in Review after a summer in New York at Food & Wine magazine and a semester abroad in Prague.
She was at Food & Wine as an American Society of Magazine Editors intern, following in the footsteps of such ASME-intern alumni as Libby Sile ’11 (Reader’s Digest), Erin Geismar ’09 (Smart Money), Vanessa Schneider ’07 (InStyle), Elizabeth Quill ’06 (National Geographic), Michelle Theis Cuthrell ’04 (Smithsonian Magazine) and Kelli Grant ’04 (Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine).
“My internship with Food & Wine and the ASME internship program as a whole completely exceeded my expectations,” she said. “There were many lessons learned and friendships made last summer that I take with me as I prepare for graduation.”
As for her four months in the Czech Republic, “Because creative and political movements in Prague have often been closely linked, it was the perfect environment to experiment with fiction writing while continuing to develop political themes in my work.”
She’s writing for the paper again as well. Check out her latest story, an observational piece on rapper Talib Kweli’s visit to Ithaca College.

IC Journalism Makes the A-List

Ithaca College's journalism department was recently included on a list of The 50 Best Journalism Schools and Programs at U.S. Colleges and Universities compiled by the student media blog College Media Media Matters. Check it out.

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.