Monday, May 08, 2006
Diversity Institute graduates six journalism fellows
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The eighth class of six journalism fellows has graduated from the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute, a training program at Vanderbilt University for people of color who want to become journalists but have had little or no formal journalism training.
After graduating from the 12-week program April 28, fellows joined the staffs of their sponsoring newspapers as full-time journalists.
“We hope that these fellows leave us with high expectations,” said Robbie Morganfield, the institute’s executive director. “We hope that they leave us with a sense of confidence. We hope that they leave us with a sense of direction.”
Among the six Diversity Institute graduates:
- Jonathan Babalola, who for more than a decade has been working part time at a Milwaukee sports radio station while holding a series of full-time customer-service jobs.
- Louis Medina, who has spent more than half his life living in El Salvador, Spain and Japan and graduated from the University of Southern California with a double degree in East Asian languages and cultures and international relations.
- Kymburleigh Tyler, who grew up on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico and studied graphic design at the Art Institute of Phoenix and Arizona State University.
Diversity Institute fellows are people seeking a mid-career change or recent college graduates who have had little or no formal training in newspaper journalism. Applicants are nominated by newspaper editors, generally in the applicant’s hometown. Participating newspapers agree to hire the nominees as full-time journalists after they have completed the program. Since the program started in 2002, 73 fellows have graduated.
The intensive course features lectures by institute staff and professional journalists who serve as guest speakers and journalists-in-residence. Fellows receive hands-on training in all aspects of print journalism –– reporting, writing, editing, photography, ethics and other core values of journalism. They are exposed to a wide range of reporting experiences, initially covering mock situations and progressing to live assignments.
Fellows worked Saturday shifts at The Tennessean and later completed a week long internship in the newsroom. They also contributed to the newspaper’s community news section, covered daily stories that were posted on www.diversityinstitute.org, and completed a service journalism project about a neighborhood opposed to a nearby university’s expansion plans.
New graduates of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute and their sponsoring newspapers:
- Jonathan Babalola – Noblesville (Ind.) Daily Times
- Louis Medina – The Bakersfield Californian
- Martin Ricard – The Daily Review, Hayward, Calif.
- Sheldon Scruggs – The Times Herald-Record, Middletown, N.Y.
- Carolyn Barker Thompson – The Times, Munster, Ind.
- Kymburleigh Tyler – The Daily Times, Farmington, N.M.
“In 12 weeks, the Diversity Institute has transformed us,” said Medina, who spoke on behalf of classmates at the graduation ceremony. “We are journalists, journalists of diversity.
“The visions and voice of each of us matters, and through the training and encouragement we have received at the Diversity Institute, we will be able to reach many with our vision and our voice.”
Diversity Institute fellows are taught at the John Seigenthaler Center, a Freedom Forum facility on the campus of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Participants are housed in apartments and receive a stipend during the program. The Freedom Forum pays all expenses.
The Freedom Forum, based in Arlington, Va., is a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on three priorities: the Newseum, First Amendment issues and diversity in U.S. daily newspaper newsrooms. For additional information about the Diversity Institute, including application materials, visit www.diversityinstitute.org.
