Alumni Association honors 5 JAMM seniors

Five seniors in the School of Journalism and Mass Media received Awards for Excellence Dec. 8. The awards, given annually by the UI Alumni Association, recognize academic achievement, extracurricular activities and community service. Each student must have a GPA of 3.5 or higher to be nominated. JAMM seniors collected five of the 40 awards for undergraduates, more than any other UI department.

Each student was asked to nominate a faculty or staff member who was most inspirational during their time at the UI. Their names follow in parentheses. The award winners, pictured above, are (from left):

• Katelyn Shook, Radio-Television-Digital Media Production. (Glenn Mosley, JAMM faculty)
• Heather Coddington, Public Relations. (Sue Hinz, JAMM faculty)
  
• Bridget Pitman, Public Relations. (Jim Clark, JAMM faculty)
• Hartley Riedner, Journalism. (Tim Helmke, UI alumni office.)
• Mackenzie Stone, Journalism. (Shawn O’Neal, Student Media advisor.)

Coddington, who graduated Dec. 9, begins work in January for Northwest Media Productions in Clarkston, Wash.. Shook and her sister Laurie, also a December graduate, are pursuing a musical career. (Check out their Web site.) Pitman, communications director for the ASUI; Riedner, a member of the Student Alumni Relations Board, and Stone, sports editor of the Argonaut, will graduate next May.

I’m proud of these five students for their diligence, hard work and engagement outside the classroom – not to mention their vitality and good humor. And I’m pleased that each chose a different faculty or staff member to honor, a reflection of the excellent teaching and mentoring they received here. For more photos of the mid-year graduation, in which 22 JAMM seniors participated, see our main JAMM page. Photo: Karin Clifford

UI grad takes office as Alaska's governor

Sarah Palin was sworn in as Alaska’s 9th governor Dec. 4. Palin, a 1987 UI journalism graduate (see Sept. 10 entry below), defeated former Gov. Tony Knowles in the Nov. 7 general election.
Accompanied by her husband, Todd, and their daughters, she took the oath of office in Fairbanks, site of Alaska’s constitutional convention 50 years ago. Palin, a Republican, plans to challenge the state’s oil industry, which has been “making mind-boggling profits” from Alaska's resources, she told the Christian Science Monitor.
JAMM sends its congratulations to the first UI graduate to become governor of a state other than Idaho. Photo by Al Grillo, Associated Press