By Marco Santana

To meet John Seigenthaler is to be inspired. The 82-year-old founder of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn., has lived a life that you usually only read about. Starting in 1961, he served as an administrative assistant to then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

When the Freedom Rides of 1961 reached Montgomery, Ala., Seigenthaler was sent as an escort and, while trying to protect two young women, he was hit with a lead pipe and knocked unconscious for about 25 minute. Afterward, Kennedy sent Seigenthaler a lead pipe as a memento of the trip. That pipe now is on display in the hallway of the First Amendment Center.

In January of 2009, I had the privilege of meeting Seigenthaler during a week-long trip to the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute in Nashville. It was a Chips Quinn Scholars trip that deserves its own blog entry some day. But, long story short, I met a lot of talented young journalists, and the trip changed me quite a bit.

One of the main messages I took from that trip, however, was to give back wherever you could. This past weekend, I had a chance to do just that.

For years, I have attended the Illinois College Press Association’s annual convention in Chicago as a student. For the first time this year, I attended as an instructor. Even typing that makes me cringe. How the heck could I teach anybody anything? I could barely make it to class when I was in school. Nonetheless, I led a session on covering meetings and, to my surprise, we had a nearly full house.

It took a couple of minutes to get comfortable in front of the student-journalists, who attend colleges throughout Illinois. But once I was comfortable, I believe the session went smoothly. The students asked questions and even laughed at some of my jokes. That’s always a good sign.

My hope is that this will turn into a regular thing. It’s the least I can do to thank those endless advisers, professional reporters, professors (who can confirm my attendance record) and student editors who selflessly helped me at school.

In the end, I hope to make a difference in some people’s lives, whether they are up-and-coming journalists or beneficiaries of volunteer opportunities in the area.

It is nowhere near the work that Seigenthaler, who went on to become the founding editorial director of the USA Today, has done in his life. I doubt if I will ever be able to make the difference that he has made. But at the very least, I hope to take the message I learned in Nashville and put it to work on behalf of others.

Marco Santana is a local government reporter for the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights, Ill., working in the Dupage County bureau. Previously he was an education reporter for The Register-Mail in Galesburg, Ill. He was a Spring 2009 Chips Quinn Scholar for The Associated Press in Des Moines, Iowa. A journalism graduate of Eastern Illinois University, Santana began as a staff reporter and copy editor, then was sports editor, associate sports editor, editor in chief, campus editor, and arts and entertainment editor for The Daily Eastern News, EIU’s newspaper. He was president of the school’s chapter of the American Copy Editors Society. He has been an intern for the Northwest Herald in Crystal Lake, Ill., and twice at the Daily Herald in the Chicago area.

We’ve had a request this week for help with story organization.

Please share your technique(s) for organizing your reported material into a story. How do you organize a story being written on a tight deadline?  How about a longer enterprise piece? And when do you start organizing your story — once you have all the material in hand or before that point?

Looking for your answers by March 14.

Thanks,

Coach Col

Sean Jensen (Summer 1996) has accepted a new position at the Chicago Sun-Times as the Chicago Bears/NFL writer and columnist. He says, “I’m very excited about the new opportunity.” Jensen was the Vikings writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press for 10 years.

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Brenda Duran (Summer 2002) is the editor in chief of Long Beach Magazine in Southern California. The magazine is a full color, full-gloss monthly publication that celebrates the lifestyles of various communities within Long Beach and also includes fashion, dining and community features.

Lailani Upham (Summer 2004) is a reporter and photographer for the Char-Koosta News, a tribal paper on the Flathead reservation in Montana.

Simmi Aujla (Summer 2008) is a legislative reporter at The Associated Press in Boise, Idaho. Previously she was an intern for The Chronicle of Higher Education in Washington, D.C.

Vanessa Miranda (Summer 2008) is an assistant editor for PR Newswire in Washington, D.C.

Workshops:

Six Chipsters participated in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute in Tucson, Ariz., in January. They are Derrick Henry (Summer 1997), Dalina Castellanos (Spring 2009), Veronica Cruz (Spring 2010), Jamie Klein (Summer 2010), Elvia Malagon (Spring 2010) and Diego James Robles (Summer 2008). Henry, a senior Web news producer, The New York Times, was an instructor.

Other news:

Lisa Cawley (Summer 2004) is a communications specialist for the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami. She writes, “I will be creating and managing content on the Sylvester Web site and launching a social media campaign.” Previously she was a page designer/copy editor for The Miami Herald.

Leah Caudle (Summer 2007) is a news bureau editor for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. Previously she was a reporter for The Tennessean in Nashville.

LaVondia Majors (Spring 2002) is a program coordinator for the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute in Nashville. Previously she was a photographer for The Tennessean.

Corinthia McCoy (Summer 2006) is a coordinator for AmeriCorps VISTA in Benton Harbor, Mich. She writes, “I am serving a year of service with Southwest Michigan Neighborhood Housing Services. Our goal is to help families remain in their homes by providing foreclosure prevention counseling, assisting in the loan modification process and providing financial education. My aspect is community outreach. The funny part about it is that I’m using the same skills I acquired in journalism. I am discovering that writing is still very much a part of me, and I can’t seem to escape it.” Previously she was reporter for the Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette.

Yesenia Mojarro (Spring 2005) is teaching English at Hebei University of Economics and English in Shijiazhuang, China. She says, “I have been here for a year and a half and have committed to staying another one and a half (years) before returning to the United States. Journalism is still in my heart and I plan to pursue it further in the future.” Previously she was editor of Vision Latina, a Spanish publication in Lakeland, Fla.

Babies:

Jeremy Verdusco (Spring 2003) and wife Kisha welcomed Rachel Alyssa on Oct. 26, 2009. She weighed 7 pounds, 15 oz, and was 20 inches long. Writes Dad, “She’s over four months now, and Kisha and I are adjusting well to the joyous challenge of being parents. Rachel has a good appetite and is probably looking forward to her first spoon foods, and now sleeps through most nights.” Verdusco is a copy editor for The Detroit News.

Maria Montoya (Summer 1999) and her husband welcomed Press on Nov. 11, 2009. Montoya is a reporter for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

Engagements:

Mae Yousif-Bashi (Spring 2005), reporter and photographer for The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., is to marry Jon Daniels on Oct. 16 in Michigan. Daniels is a home entertainment adviser with Best Buy. She says, “The plan is to incorporate a little bit from each of our backgrounds — he being Irish and me, Chaldean (Middle Eastern) — into one event. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and hopefully, we’ll be able to show each other’s families what our cultures and traditions are all about.”

Keep your news coming. Send updates to Michelle Hedenskoog.

Who among us has to deal with assignments from more than one editor? And has anyone noticed that sometimes these editors aren’t aware of all the assignments on your plate at a given time? How do you handle the juggling game?

And/or…..If you’re fortunate to have only one editor, how do you juggle your daily assignments with longer enterprise stories?

Looking forward to your posts by March 7,

Coach Col

You rock! I’m loving reading your posts. Be sure to keep checking earlier posts now and then — we’re all busy and sometimes responses trickle in a little late.

Here’s our situation this week: Your editor assigns you to a story about which you know nothing. I mean absolutely nothing. Then she gives you a ridiculously tight deadline. Maybe just three or four hours.

First, you allow yourself a moment of panic. Then you………?

Take good care,

Colleen

The Camel Invasion
Jan. 18, 2010

After two weeks at work, it’s obvious that I need a crash course in western politics. High Country News reports on issues of environment and policy in the western 11 states. On the surface it means we write about cute animals affected by the Endangered Species Act, the endless water wars over the region’s rivers, or solar and wind farms being built in various deserts. But that kind of stuff gets national attention, so HCN is really about the West with a capital W—the west of split estate, BLM, BuRec, the ebb and flow of the mining, oil and gas industries.

It’ll take some time for me to learn the context of these issues. The editors are all native Coloradans, so they have an incredible institutional memory. Any time I have a question they can deliver long oral histories that explain everything.

But one of my first assignments was something I felt comfortable about. In mid-January there was a symposium on tamarisk, the invasive plant that’s taking over thousands of acres. Coming from a science background, I thought it would be easy to find at least one story from the conference. Plus, it was held within driving distance of Paonia, and I even got a free press pass.

The day came and went. I watched a dozen scientists lecture from PowerPoint presentations. A lot of the material was fascinating, but it didn’t fit HCN. It was the kind of stuff that would’ve been perfect for a news update in Scientific American or Science magazine. So I went for the non-science angle. Someone had left a pile of pamphlets at the symposium, pamphlets that caused much head-scratching for the scientists. They were titled “Camels—the going green answer to tamarisk control.”

Here’s the blog post I eventually wrote. It actually got picked up by a DiscoveryNews blog, and it was probably the most fun I’d had in reporting for months.

Living in a Snow Globe
Jan 7, 2010

I’ve just moved to Paonia, Colo., for my internship at High Country News. The town has a bizarre mix of 1,500 people, 18 churches and two bars—one of which is housed in a former church and closes at 8 p.m. every night (at which time all the customers move across the street to the pizza restaurant for more beer, TV and sometimes live music).

One of the churches, just across the street from the house where the interns live, is striving toward European castle-hood:

This is the sort of small-town life I’ve often read about, but never experienced. Drivers wave at you when you cross the street. The post office worker knew me by name after my first visit (incidentally, everyone, or almost everyone in town has a P.O. box because there’s no street address postal delivery). The downside is that everything except the grocery store is closed on Sundays. Kind of problematic when you’re hunting for that elusive coffee house experience on the weekends.

By day Paonia looks like the inside of a snow globe. There are mountains in every direction and “hills” that would qualify as ski-worthy slopes anywhere in the East. A simple 20-minute walk toward the edge of town brought me to this sight:

Then there’s the “other Paonia,” which is much less fantastical. Most Paonians (is that a word?) work several jobs, doing part-time stints in offices, stores, construction, etc. Hundreds are employed by the neighboring coal mines, whose revenues support much of the town. The recent slump in the coal industry is having dire effects on school funding—they’re talking about shortening the elementary school week from five to four days to save money.

At night, and several times during the day, a trainload of coal rumbles past the town, doing its best to remind me that yes, I am truly in the West.

Lisa Song is a Spring 2009 Chips Quinn Scholar for High Country News in Paonia, Colo. She has an M.S. in science writing and a B.S. in environmental science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Song was an intern for the radio show “Living on Earth” and has freelanced for EARTH magazine. She has created museum exhibits and science education videos. She speaks French and spent a summer (2007) researching paleoclimatology in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Great posts, everyone!

For this week’s post, let’s combine Diane’s and one of Kristy’s questions into the following: How do you come up with or get at original story ideas in a new city? How can the process of “settling in” to a new place work in your favor in terms of identifying story ideas?

Thanks,

Colleen

The Chips Quinn Scholars reunion at John Quinn’s Florida beach house was bittersweet. The cold weather kept us inside, but there was nothing bitter about that. We enjoyed sitting around Quinn’s semi-circular editor’s desk in his living room at “The Folly.”

Rather, the bitterness had to do with the frustration aired by some Chipsters who recently lost their newspaper jobs and by those who say they feel stuck and uninspired in newsrooms with low morale.

But how sweet it was to have Quinn listen to us and say that he and the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute were committed to helping us re-tool for success, whether inside or outside the newsroom, in print or online.

0210_fla_reunion1 0210_fla_reunion2 0210_fla_reunion3 0210_fla_reunion4 0210_fla_reunion5 0210_fla_reunion6 0210_fla_reunion_hogan 0210_fla_reunion7 0210_fla_reunion_group 0210_iuspa 0210_yousif-bashi

Photos by Mae Yousif-Bashi

“Because of this discussion, tonight I am going to sleep better,” said Quinn, who with his late wife Loie founded the Chips Quinn Scholars program. He added that as a result of the discussion, he better understood the needs of Chipsters as they work in an industry in the throes of change.

Most Scholars agreed that journalists leaving newsrooms need to learn entrepreneurial skills so they can use their investigative, reporting and writing talents to start their own business, either writing for nonprofits or starting blogs and online publications. Quinn said he would like to see the Freedom Forum become a catalyst for making that happen and be at the forefront of the next big thing.

Adapting to the times seems to come easy to Quinn, who was part of the Al Neuharth team that gave birth to USA Today. Quinn recounted that groundbreaking effort.

CQS Career Coach Mary Ann Hogan said journalists from diverse backgrounds are finding business opportunities by creating content and writing articles for nonprofit and other organizations that increasingly are using social media to communicate with donors and supporters.

Yet, she said, reporters need help identifying revenue sources to make the big step and create sustainable businesses. She suggested that Scholars hold seminars to exchange ideas and information with former reporters who have started innovative businesses using the principles of journalism. She referred us to the winning projects of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight News Challenge to understand where journalism is heading.

Some Chipsters suggested that we share information about job openings and freelance opportunities on the Facebook page that Karen Catone, director of the Chips Quinn Scholars Program, and Jack Marsh, vice president of diversity programs for the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, are about to launch for the Scholars.

To help reporters become more competitive in today’s market, the Freedom Forum offers fee-based multimedia boot camps. Some Chipsters who have attended the training said they are putting the training to good use in their jobs. Others said they aren’t because only online reporters, not beat or general assignment reporters, are allowed to provide multimedia content in their newsrooms.

The brainstorming session brought us closer together and helped us to realize that we Chipsters are a community of involved journalists – no matter what. Circumstances beyond our control can remove us from a newsroom but they cannot take the newsroom out of us. We are grieving the loss of what we had as print and broadcast journalists but we are willing to take the lead in transforming ourselves to bring journalisms into new fields and new forms of media.

“We can’t die. … the world needs journalists,” said Frank Gonzales, a 1995 Chip Quinn Scholar. “We have to stay alive, and that has to be our goal.”

* * *

The reunion prompted some reflection among Scholars, who later shared the following thoughts and ideas.

In considering the Freedom Forum’s mission, I think it would be beneficial if we could find a way to bring more software and technology-application developers into our field. Mary Ann (Hogan) mentioned Adrian Holovaty, who created EveryBlock.com and helped develop Django, the (open source) programming language for Web sites. We need more people like him. Maybe you could recruit computer science majors with an interest in journalism to CQS or expand the internship placements to places like Ellington (a content management system created by the Lawrence World-Journal in Kansas) or to the operations side of news outlets.

Another idea is to offer some kind of journalism boot camp for Web developers and technology professors to help them develop the new platforms without leaving the old ones out.

I work on the Web everyday, and I’ve found that it’d be really helpful for me to have more than basic input-content skills. We need more folks out there who understand the ethics of news but also know enough about creating technology so that they can come up with new ways to present news. That’s the only way legacy media will survive — we won’t if we’re constantly playing catch up.

—Daniela Velazquez (in an e-mail to Jack Marsh)

Paola Iuspa is a reporter for the Daily Business Review in Miami. A graduate of Florida International University, she was a Summer 2000 Chips Quinn Scholar at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky.

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Mae Yousif-Bashi is a reporter/photographer for The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla., where she was a Spring 2005 Chips Quinn Scholar. Yousef-Bashi is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit.

Ernst Lamothe Jr. was a Chips Quinn Scholar during the summer of 2000, working for the Star-Gazette in Elmira, N.Y. A Chicago native, he graduated from the University of Illinois in 2001. He went on to The News-Gazette in Champaign, Ill., where he reported first on business and then on his alma mater. Lamothe is currently a reporter at the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, where I met and interviewed him. He covers government, schools and public safety in three surrounding communities.

Q: Do you prefer covering a range of topics or a beat?

A: I like the variety. If I had to pick one thing I would want to do, it would be a schools reporter. But if I can’t do that I like the ability to cover many different things. You’re able to pick and choose a bit … and you get your hands in everywhere in town.

Q: Were you nervous going to your first internship through the CQS program?

A: It was (a nervous experience). I was pressured to find an internship for the summer after my junior year, and after I found it there was pressure to actually do well. You can work at the school paper, but it’s not like being in a newsroom where you have to write every single day.

Q: Did you feel prepared going into the internship?

A: I felt semi-prepared. I could do the basics of writing, but you often don’t get much editing at school papers. Ninety-nine percent of what I wrote would fall into the paper in the exact way I wrote it. (Going to a professional newspaper) was kind of a culture shock. You see how much you don’t know when you are working with professional bosses and they’re telling you how to improve your writing and pointing out something you did, like burying the lead.

Q: What attracted you to journalism?

A: I wanted to be a doctor or lawyer, something with good money. But did I like science as I much I thought I did? Probably not. …I started working for the (high) school paper because I wanted to add activities to my resume for college applications. It was so much fun. I was always a reader of newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and the Sun Times. And you see newspaper movies and it seems like it’s going to be fun, and it is. So in my freshman year of college, I just jumped in.

Q: Tell me about having to cover the university from which you graduated.

A: I covered business for a year at (The News-Gazette in Champaign). They liked what I was doing and created a new beat for me, covering the University of Illinois, the biggest university in the state, a top 20 university overall. It was nerve-wracking at first, but it was also exciting because what young journalist is able to cover something that big? The fact that I could relate to those kids because of my age made it easy for me to talk to them. But talking to officials was a different story. They would look at me like, “You’re my son’s age.” That was the hard part. But the more articles I wrote, the more they realized I was not some random kid and started gaining respect for me. That is everything, especially when you’re starting out. Most of the time you’re never going to get the respect you want when you’re young. But officials can tell the difference between someone who knows what they are doing and someone who doesn’t. When they know you know what you’re doing, your age no longer becomes a factor. They’ll return your calls and respect you more when they see the quality of work you can do.

Q: How do you cope with the downsizing and other changes in the industry?

A: It is difficult to see the layoffs, but two things are happening within Gannett papers, one good, one bad. The good thing is that Gannett is always ahead when it comes to technology. …The bad thing is that with these layoffs you’re being asked to do so much more than you’re able to. Even though the paper and staff are shrinking, your requirements aren’t. I’m doing the job of three and a half people. So even though I’ve been trained to shoot video, where is the time to do these new things? …How do you balance wanting to be tremendously good at every aspect of your job and not feel like it’s drive-through journalism?

Q: What does it mean to you to be a person of color in media?

A: It is very important. I like that Gannett really focuses on (diversity) because I was coming from a newsroom where maybe another reporter and I were the only persons who weren’t white. To be able to cover an area well, you’ve got to have a diverse staff because people have different experiences. …It’s important to have … a face of someone who is a minority covering news.

Christopher Ramirez is a reporter for The Press of Atlantic City in New Jersey. He was a Summer 2009 Chips Quinn Scholar for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle. A journalism graduate of Arizona State University, Ramirez was a reporter for ASU’s student newspaper, The State Press, where he covered football and women’s basketball before becoming sports editor. He worked at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, covering breaking news, public safety, neighborhoods and, as a Pulliam Fellow, sports. He has participated in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute in Miami and provided freelance coverage of the 2009 World Baseball Classic in Mexico City for MLB.com.

Vallejo, Calif. (03/5/10)

From left: Chipsters Shauntel Lowe (Summer 2008), Lanz Christian Bańes (Spring 2009) and Jose San Mateo (Summer 2008) stand near the waterfront in Vallejo, Calif. The three alums work together at the Times-Herald in Vallejo. Shauntel is the K-12 education and health reporter, Lanz is the crime and diversity reporter and Jose is a sports reporter and paginator. The Chipsters have launched the Times-Herald’s multimedia and social media presence. “We had a pretty rough start, but Chipsters are an annoyingly persistent bunch, aren’t we?” Lanz said.

Washington, D.C. (02/17/10)

Chipsters working at The Chronicle of Higher Education or The Chronicle of Philanthropy in Washington, D.C. From left: Richard White (Spring 2010), Emma Carew (Summer 2009), Ashley Marchand (Spring 2010) and Simmi Aujla (Summer 2008). All are or were interns except Carew, who is an editorial assistant. Aujla now is at The Associated Press in Boise, Idaho.

Tucson, Ariz. (02/02/10)

Chipsters at the banquet for The New York Times Student Journalism Institute in Tucson, Ariz., in January. From left: Derrick Henry (Summer 1997), Veronica Cruz (Spring 2010), Dalina Castellanos (Spring 2009), Diego James Robles (Summer 2008), Elvia Malagon (Spring 2010) and Jamie Lee Klein (Summer 2010). Henry, a senior Web news producer for The New York Times, served as an instructor.

Boston, Mass. (01/06/10)

Chipsters Zuri Berry (Summer 2006), left, and Greg Lee (Summer 1995) at The Boston Globe newsroom. Zuri is sports producer at Boston.com, the Globe’s Web site, and Greg is senior assistant sports editor for the paper.

China (12/14/09)

Chipsters (from left) Jenny Poon Domingo (Spring 2004), Marianne Refuerzo Herricht (Summer 2005) and Odeen Domingo (Spring 2004) at the Great Wall in China. Marianne says, “We visited Shanghai and Beijing on a 10-day tour from December 4-14. Jenny had previously been, but it was the first time for me and Odeen. I really enjoyed seeing all the historic sites and eating the local food.” Jenny is a freelance graphic designer, Marianne is an enrollment specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona and Odeen is a sports reporter for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix.

Barcelona, Spain (11/13/09)

Chipsters Aaron Morrison (Summer 2008) and Talia Buford (Summer 2004) at The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Morrison, a freelance writer living in New York City, and Buford, a reporter for The Providence Journal in Rhode Island, met in 2006 at a National Association of Black Journalists convention. He says, “We’ve been friends ever since. We also wrote a blog together with our friends, Ten95, until earlier this year. Spain happened when a few of us decided to make the trip a ‘family’ affair. Seven journalists in Spain equaled great, hilarious fun.”

Washington, D.C. (10/22/09)
Chipster Vanessa Casavant (Spring 2006) with CQS Program Director Karen Catone at the Freedom Forum office in Washington, D.C. Casavant is a Seattle-based content strategist/writer for electronic media with AdoptUsKids. “It is a group of several nonprofits around the country specializing in adoption and foster care services,” she says. “I’m leading the overhaul of the Web site and launching the collaboration’s new social media campaign.” She was in the nation’s capital for a conference.

Washington, D.C. (9/25/09)

Chipster Ryan Hiraki (Summer 2001 and Spring 2002), visits CQS co-founder John C. Quinn (left) and Program Director Karen Catone at the Freedom Forum office in Washington, D.C. Hiraki is enrolled at George Washington University’s graduate school of political management. He says, “It’s supposed to help prepare me for a career working on Capitol Hill or in the private sector, but it leans more toward public policy.”

Boston, Mass. (8/15/09)

Chipsters at the Asian American Journalists Association convention in Boston this month. Clockwise from left: Michelle Lee (Summer 2002), Adam Causey (Spring 2006), Leezel Tanglao (Summer 2003), Emma Carew (Summer 2009), Sophia Tareen (Summer 2003), Derek Sijder (Summer 2009), Daniel Sato (Summer 2007), Katie Nelson (Summer 2001), Carolyn Chin (Summer 2009), Nancy Yang (Spring 2003) and Meena Thiruvengadam (Summer 2003). Causey, Sijder, Sato, Nelson and Chin worked at the convention news project Voices.

Nashville, Tenn. (8/11/09)

Chips Quinn alums attend the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute Multimedia Boot Camp for Journalism Professionals and Educators in Nashville, Tenn. From left: Jillian Ogawa (Summer 2004), Richard Koonce (Summer 1991), Danese Kenon (Fall 2000) and Mauro Diaz (Summer 1997). Kenon, a multimedia journalist at The Indianapolis Star, served as an instructor at the boot camp.

Washington, D.C. (8/05/09)

CQS co-founder John C. Quinn with Scholars (from left): Rick Rojas (Summer 2008), Emma Carew (Summer 2009), Ally Smith (Summer 2007), Chloe Thompson (Summer 2008) and Andrew Villegas (Spring 2008) at The Capital Grille in Washington, D.C. Rojas and Carew are interns at The Washington Post; Smith is an intern for The First Amendment Center; Thompson recently graduated from the University of Rhode Island; and Villegas is Web producer/reporter for Kaiser Health News.

Washington, D.C. (7/30/09)

Summer 2009 Scholars (from left): Emma Carew, Adolfo Flores and Andrea Vasquez outside of Chinatown Express in Washington, D.C. Carew is a business intern at The Washington Post; Flores is at the The Dispatch in Lexington, N.C.; and Vasquez, at The Vicksburg (Miss.) Post.

Hartford, Conn. (7/16/09)

From left: Everton Bailey (Summer 2009), Colleen Fitzpatrick (CQS career coach) and Bettina Hansen (Spring 2009) at Monte Alban restaurant in Hartford, Conn. Bailey and Hansen met last week while on assignment covering a hostage situation in South Windsor, Conn. Bailey is an intern at The Associated Press-Hartford; Hansen is a photography intern at The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

Manhattan Beach, Calif. (6/17/09)

From left: Jeannette Ceja (Summer 2008), Carley Dryden (Summer 2008), James Wagner (Summer 2007) and Lorinda Toledo (Summer 2008) at the Manhattan Beach pier. Ceja is attending a summer professional program for film and television production at UCLA; Dryden, Manhattan Beach news editor for Easy Reader, a weekly publication; Wagner, a reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune; and Toledo, a freelance writer in Los Angeles.

New York, N.Y. (4/27/09)

Donna Lee (Summer 2007) interviews Victoria Oluwole, 11, and Olujimi Oluwole, 8, while they fish with their father on a Sunday in Staten Island.

Lee is a master’s degree candidate at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City. Her most recent editorial internship was at Capital Public Radio, Sacramento’s NPR station. There she was an associate producer for the local news/interview program, “Insight.” She also has been an intern at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., as a Chips Quinn Scholar, and the Sacramento News & Review, an alternative weekly. Lee expects to graduate in May.

To visit this feature’s photo archives, please go to http://www.chipsquinn.org/news/chipsnews/chips_news.aspx?id=623.

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