The WORD’s Blog

I’m not identifying anyone regarding recent email correspondence sent to me as part of an info-outreach by the Region I Director of the Society of Professional Journalists. Since several WORD writers have won SPJ Mark of Excellence awards in recent years, I try to be in contact with the organization though not actively involved. 

Dear Professor:

As the Region One Director for the National Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), I am reaching out to you as I have your name and email address on my list as the SPJ liaison for your college or university’s SPJ chapter. I would like you to know that I am available to you as a source of information and support for your chapter.

What follows is the edited response from a journalism professor who has been seriously involved with the organization for several years.  I thought I would post without explanation an edited version of what he wrote to the regional director but if several days from now I notice the need for more clarity, I will re-address this decision. I think the whole matter is very informative.

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From Jacqueline Fernandez: 

The Filipino Express hired me as a correspondent for them … $50 an article and $50 if I get a photo …  I get to cover the President of the Philippines’ speech today [June 26] at the UN and then I’m also covering the reception for all these prominent people in the FIl-Am community at the Hilton.”

“So that is pretty exciting.”

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This is probably more tattling about F/M politics than most students (and others) may want to know - Lingua Franca, not - but students should be aware that their careers can be affected by the vicissitudes of department politicking, especially if the politicking is lame and feeble and partisan with a narcissistic bent so that earning and education are devalued in pursuit of the great game.

Thus:

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This post may help clarify for students any confusion regarding publication of the WORD. It may also provide clarification for others on and off the Hunter College campus who come across this blog.

The WORD is an innovative pedagogical tool to teach students journalism. It’s based on this principle: Require students to write for publication and provide media that will showcase their work. The publishing imperative requires the students and the instructor to strive for higher academic standards and achievement. Burgeoning technology, of course, has significantly increased not only this potential for improving student writing but also the potential for enhancing student education. The WORD has also significantly improved student opportunities for getting internships and jobs.

True, a lot of professors believe that it’s not their responsibility to help students get internships and jobs, that such responsibility regarding career choices and decisions falls on the the students’ shoulders or with their colleges’ career services support systems. Hunter has a really good support system but this instructor believes that J-professors, especially, should be proactive mentorers (especially when there are operations like the WORD that can help make it easier for them to contribute to students’ careers).

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… that for now she only accepts $$$ for movie projects and she is appearing in several soon-to-be released pics.

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Disastrous.

These classes weren’t as organized as they should have been (too many departmental distractions for the instructor) and too many students in the poorly under-enrolled classes weren’t prepared, that is, their introductory news classes hadn’t prepped them for advanced courses. That’s been happening a lot.

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Final Grades

A+ (1) 
A   (1) 
B+ (3)
B   (4)
B- (2)
C+ (1)
C   (3)

Again, another semester showing a paltry number of A students. I’m not sure why, though there were B+ students who could have earned higher grades.

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The award by the Society of Professional Journalists honors public service journalism collaborations that include ethnic media in order to explore and expose an issue of importance to immigrant or ethnic communities in the United States. Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska, who was mentioned or featured in articles written by WORD writers who toured her newspaper, Nowy Dziennik, located in mid town Manhattan, produced a two-part series about New York’s Polish immigrant community for WNYC, New York Public Radio: “Feet in Two Words: Greenpoint Brooklyn.

The second part in the series, “Asbestos Workers Who Toiled Near Ground Zero Sick 6 Years Later,” focused on Polish immigrants living and working in New York. For the report, Kern-Jedrychowska teamed up with WNYC reporter Fred Mogul, who reports on health issues. They told the story of unionized Polish asbestos workers who were assigned to clean-up duties near Ground Zero.

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Former WORD writer and copyeditor Katherine Santiago, who recently graduated from Columbia University’s graduate journalism school, was selected for a Dow Jones editing internship. She recently completed the first phase of the internship which required her to bivouac at Temple University in Philadelphia and is now at the New York Times. “I have a Times ID and an email address - I’m very excited about the little things, and, oh, we (two other interns) ran into Arthur Sulzberger Jr. on Monday during a tour of the corporate offices, and I met Bill Keller.”