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Student Press Review

Fund expands Center for Editing Excellence

By Dow Jones Newspaper Fund
Editor's note: Originally published: January 16, 2004

Photo : Dow Jones Newspaper Fund

PRINCETON, NJ (Dec. 22, 2003) - The board of directors of the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund expanded its Centers for Editing Excellence, a key part of its Newspaper Editing Intern Program, in approving $560,500 in grants and operating expenses for 2004 programs for college and high school journalism teachers, and high school and college students.

The Fund will add a Center for Editing Excellence at Pennsylvania State University, where interns sponsored by Ottaway Newspapers Inc. will train before beginning their 2004 internships. The Penn State program joins seven other centers across the country. "The training program at our Centers for Editing Excellence is critical to the success of our intern program," Richard Holden, Fund executive director, said. The addition reflects Ottaway's commitment to sponsor 12 interns in 2004, he said.

The Fund will provide 120 internships in 2004 to college students who are juniors, seniors and graduate students in its copy editing and sports copy editing programs, and to minority college sophomores and juniors in business reporting.

The Fund also will publish Adviser Update, its tabloid newspaper for high school journalism teachers, four times instead of three times in 2004. "The success of advertising in Adviser Update makes it possible to return it to quarterly publication," Mr. Holden said.

Programs approved for grants are:

COLLEGE PROGRAMS

Newspaper Editing Intern Program - $210,500 was approved for training college juniors, seniors and graduate students who will work as copy editors and sports copy editors during the summer of 2004. They will attend training at eight Centers for Editing Excellence. The Fund allocated $50,000 to cover scholarships and $40,000 for intern travel in addition to $30,000 in operating costs.

The training centers are at Temple University, Philadelphia, directed by Dr. Edward Trayes; Florida Southern College, Lakeland, directed by Dr. Rick Kenney; University of Nebraska, Lincoln, directed by Dr. Charlyne Berens; San Jose State University, directed by Dr. William Tillinghast; University of Texas at Austin taught by S. Griffin Singer; University of Missouri, Columbia, directed by Brian Brooks; University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, directed by George William Cloud, and taught by Frank Fee and Deborah Gump; and Penn State University, directed by Gene Foreman and Marie Hardin. The University of North Carolina center trains interns sponsored by Knight Ridder news outlets, while the University of Nebraska trains interns in the sports copy editing program.

Business Reporting Program - $11,000 was approved for training at New York University for 15 minority college sophomores and juniors who will work as reporting interns in the business sections of daily newspapers during the summer of 2004. The program will be directed by Royce Hall, a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal.

HBC Editing Seminar - An editing seminar for professors from Historically Black Colleges and Universities received $10,000 in funding. Professors will come to the Princeton campus of Dow Jones & Co. for training.

TEACHER PROGRAMS

National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year - $3,000 was allotted for scholarships to be awarded in 2004 to students of five high school journalism teachers chosen as best in 2003. An additional $3,000 was granted to promote the program through travel and speaking engagements for the 2003 Teacher of the Year at newspaper industry and academic conferences. The program will be supported in 2004 by in-kind services provided by sponsors American Airlines and Hilton hotels.

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT PROGRAMS

Minority High School Journalism Workshops - $119,000 in grants to operate 28 summer workshops was offered to the following colleges and organizations: Bakersfield (Calif.) College; California Chicano News Media Association/San Diego; California Chicano News Media Association, Mosaic/San Jose, Calif.; Daily Princetonian Class of 2001; Eastern Illinois University, Charleston; Florida A&M University, Tallahassee; Howard University, Washington, D.C.; Marquette University, Milwaukee; Monmouth University, West Long Branch, N.J.; New York University; Pennsylvania State University, University Park; San Antonio College; San Francisco State University; Seattle University; Texas Christian University, Fort Worth; University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; University of Arizona, Tucson; University of Massachusetts, Boston; University of Miami; University of Mississippi, Oxford; University of Missouri, Columbia; University of Oklahoma, Norman; University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.; University of Texas at El Paso; Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond; Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green; Youth Communication, Chicago; Philadelphia Daily News.

Summer Workshops Writing Competition - $8,000 will go toward college scholarships for the best student writers of the 2003 summer high school journalism workshops for minorities and renewed scholarships for previous winners.

High School Newspaper Project - $20,000 was allocated to sustain high school newspapers at five urban high schools. The Fund helped start two school papers in New York and one each in Washington, D.C., Lafayette, La., and Chicago.

About $46,000 will be used for program operating costs and for distributing and publishing career literature including Adviser Update, the newspaper for high school journalism teachers, and the Journalist's Road to Success: A Career Guide.

The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund is a non-profit foundation supported by the Dow Jones Foundation and other newspaper companies.
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