Pinyot's Summer of Social Change

Junior SPJ member Catherine Pinyot is the summer 2013 public relations and graphic design intern for the Crealdè School of Art in beautiful Winter Park, Fla.

Crealdè's mission is to use visual arts to provide outreach, foster cultural diversity and preserve cultural history and understanding through summer art camps for children, Neighborhood Pride mural projects and a fellowship program for emerging young artists, just to name a few. In 2007, Crealdè, in partnership with the Hannibal Square community and the City of Winter Park, established the Hannibal Square Heritage Center as a tribute to this historic Winter Park African-American community.

How wonderful to have one of our SPJ members to devote her summer to such important social programs -looking forward to hearing about Pinyot's experiences in the non-profit sector on the 2013 SPJ Internship Panel in the fall!

Goodman's Way West

Senior SPJ member Ashley Goodman will spend the summer in Seaside, Cali., as a reporter intern for Monterey County Weekly.

What makes the rest of us so envious? As most Californians, the Weekly is much hipper than many of its counterparts -a newspaper with solar panels on the roof of its offices? Yes, that's the Weekly, providing local, independent journalism to such beautiful places as Big Sur, Pebble Beach and Carmel, Cali.

Looking forward to Goodman sharing her California dreams on the 2013 SPJ Internship Panel in the fall!

Have a lovely summer!

Some SPJ members are already in summer classes, others are getting ready for their internships... Those of you with summer internships, please e-mail the details, with your professional photo, to Dr. Sarkio so that they can be included on this blog! (Ashley, please send a photo!)

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing this summer, hope it is a lovely one so you can return to campus in the fall refreshed and ready to pursue both your academic and professional goals!

Flagler Communication Majors Take on D.C.

From left, Alexa Epitropoulos, Abby Meyers, Darq Neimar, Alexis Mortenson and Lois Goh.

Two incoming SPJ officers, vice president Alexa Epitropoulos and treasurer Darq Neimark, have been accepted into the Fund for American Studies 2013 Institute on Political Journalism in Washington, D.C.

Next month, Epitropoulos and Neimark will be joined by Flagler communication majors Lois Goh, Abby Meyers and Alexis Mortenson in the program that has them interning at various news outlets and public relations agencies in the nation's capital during the day, and taking courses at George Mason University at night. While living in the heart of D.C., Epitropoulos, Goh, Meyers, Mortenson and Neimark will also experience guest lectures and panel discussions by leading media professionals, site briefings at D.C. institutions and social events with the other 80 students from around the country and the world accepted into the program this summer. The IPJ interns also have access to professional development seminars, networking events and a mentor program.

After a rigorous application process, Epitropoulos, Goh, Meyers, Mortenson and Neimark were awarded over $14,000 in scholarship money to attend IPJ and received the following internship placements:

• Epitropoulos: Hispanic Link News Service (tentative)
• Goh: k-global
• Meyers: CRC Public Relations
• Mortenson: k-global
• Neimark: Federal News Service

Congratulations to all five on both being accepted and receiving scholarships to IPJ -this calls for a special IPJ Internship Panel for the fall, as this is the largest Flagler contingency in the program's history!  

Quillian Tackles Hard News at CNN

Incoming SPJ president Kathleen Quillian will start as The Row intern at CNN in Atlanta, Ga., this month.

The Row is the editorial quality control of CNN's original reporting where The Row researchers fact check each script in a high pressure environment. The Row internships are extremely competitive and give the interns a hands-on, up-close experience of CNN's daily editorial process.

Congratulations to Quillian for qualifying for such a prestigious opportunity -looking forward to hearing all about it at the 2013 SPJ Internship Panel in the fall!

Reynolds Wins Inaugural SPJ Anthology Award

Reynolds at the Gargoyle Anthology reception.

In April, senior Tiffanie Reynolds won the inaugural SPJ Social Issues Reporting Award for the 2013 Gargoyle Anthology with her article Bible Study Group Bridges Religion and Sexual Orientation. The award is the result of SPJ's efforts to strengthen its ties with the Gargoyle -outgoing SPJ president Danielle Ruckert and vice president Jaime Greco worked closely with Gargoyle adviser Brian Thompson to coordinate the process.

The award gives Reynolds a one-year membership to the national SPJ organization, which includes subscriptions to SPJ's Quill magazine and SPJ Leads, a weekly e-newsletter about SPJ and its members, as well as access to various professional programs, reference guides and SPJ's listing of job openings. The national SPJ organization also organizes regional and national conferences and works tirelessly to defend journalists' First Amendment rights.

A few days after graduation in April, Reynolds started working as a general assignment reporter for the Osceola News Gazette in Kissimmee, Fla. Congratulations to Reynolds on both the SPJ Social Issues Reporting Award and her first job!

Unprecedented MOE Success for Flagler

Flagler College's student journalists have outdone themselves again in SPJ's Mark of Excellence awards, winning a national award for the first time in the college's history, and having two national finalists, also a first for Flagler.

Grech

Senior Phil Grech is the 2012 Online Opinion and Commentary category winner, while both alumnus Lauren Ely and senior Sarah Williamson are 2012 national finalists in the Online Feature Reporting and Feature Photography categories, respectively. All three awards came in the small school division and the works were published in the Gargoyle. Additionally, Lauren Ely's article A Difference Between Faiths: Politically Irrelevant, was the result of her semester-long reporting project in Dr. Sarkio's Advanced Reporting course in spring 2012.

In March, Flagler's student journalists won 17 Region 3 MOE awards, including seven first place finishes. All seven winners advanced to the national MOE competition, which received more than 4,600 entries this year, with Grech, Ely and Williamson making Flagler College history. The Gargoyle also finished second in the Best Independent Online Student Publication category in Region 3.

Region 3 covers all colleges and universities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. 

First Place

• General News Reporting: Ryan Buffa
• Feature Photography: Sarah Willamson**
• Online News Reporting: Sarah Willamson
• Online Feature Reporting: Lauren Ely**
• Online In-Depth Reporting: Ryan Buffa
• Online Sports Reporting: Eric Albury
• Online Opinion and Commentary: Phil Grech*

Second Place

• Feature Writing: Emily Hoover
• Television Breaking News Reporting: Ryan Buffa and Joshua Santos
• Online News Reporting: Ryan Buffa and Joshua Santos
• Online Feature Reporting: Tiffanie Reynolds
• Online In-Depth Reporting: Michael Newberger
• Online Sports Reporting: Jaycob Ammerman

Third Place

• Feature Writing: Tiffanie Reynolds
• Online Feature Reporting: Adam Hunt
• Online Sports Reporting: Eric Albury

* (denotes national winner)
** (denotes national finalist)

While the Region 3 winners were recognized at the Region 3 Conference in Atlanta, Ga., in March, the national winners will be recognized at the national SPJ Excellence in Journalism 2013 Conference in Anaheim, Calif., in August.