Chips Watch: The who and what on Chipsters' whereabouts

Special for chipsquinn.org

Posted: March 7, 2003

Chips Watch keeps you up to date on the comings and goings of fellow Chips Quinn Scholars. Hold onto your hats. Here is the second Chips Watch of 2003:

Making us proud ... Allissa Hosten (Summer 2002 Scholar) started her graduate studies at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism recently. On her first day, a professor asked members of the class if any of them knew the First Amendment. Says our girl on the scene: "I proudly thrust my hand in the air and belted it out. Everyone started to clap. ‘How did you know that?’ some one asked. I told them about Chips Quinn and how we came to love those 45 words during orientation." Now that’s making our day!

The Florida connection continues ...Edgar Sandoval (Summer 1999) is joining the ever-growing congregation of Chipsters in Florida. Edgar will move from the Tribune Company's Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., to the Tribune-owned South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. He joins Daniella Aird (Fall 2001), who recently started at the Sun-Sentinel; ArLuther Lee (Summer 1996), a page designer; and -- coming this summer -- Christian Moises (Summer 2002), who will do a 12-week sun-drenched internship.

New bylines … Zerline Hughes Jennings (Summer 1998) and Mark Jennings (Summer 2000) welcome little Jobe Darius Jennings to the world. "Jobe," with an "e," Zerline explains, is for Job of Bible fame, and "Darius" is for Mark’s Big Brother program mentor. … And in Minnesota, Justin Hayworth (Summer 2000 Scholar) announces the birth of a daughter, Ryleigh October Hayworth. She weighed 7 pounds, 6 _ ounces and was 20 inches long. Justin, a photographer at the Duluth News-Tribune, reports that "Mom and baby are doing fine."

Answering the casting call … Anna Coats (Summer 2001) says she received a call from ABC’s "The Bachelor" TV show. She’ll interview with the network in the hopes of being one of 25 bachelorettes who will vie for a bachelor's attention. "I have to fill out another application and include a video. The rumor is that filming starts in March." The senior at Western Kentucky University promises to keep us posted.

Tears in Ariz. … Kristen Go (Summer 1996 and 1997) reports in from The Arizona Republic of Phoenix to say that folks are sad because a number of Chipsters are leaving. Theodon Janes (Summer 1994 Scholar) left to become a municipal reporter and editor at The Record in Bergen County, N.J. Stephanie Miller (Summer 1998) finished her two-year stint at The Republic and is back in Texas taking a much-needed breather. Claudia Provencio (Summer 1998) has finished her two-year fellowship and is job hunting. Mitchell Vantrease (Summer 1999) has finished his two years as well. Gee guys, it was fun while it lasted ... Guess we’ll have to find another newspaper claiming the world’s largest congregation of Chipster staff members. Any nominees?

The art of fact ... Joshua Trujillo (Summer 2001), who has been shooting photographs for Hearst Newspapers, has moved from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to Hearst’s San Antonio (Texas) Express-News. But here’s the real news: "I now have my own archive at the University of Arizona's Special Collections (at the university’s library). The archive features 36 of my photographs from Afghanistan, and I may someday add some of the artifacts I brought back from the first months of the war against al Qaeda -- including a piece of a U.S. bomb, al Qaeda propaganda, U.S. propaganda, a Taliban bullet and one of the thousands of yellow food packages that fell from the sky."

Sundance kid ... Jesus ("Jesse") Lopez (Summer 2000) has taken a job reporting for the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah. He covers business and city government in Ogden, about 40 miles from Salt Lake City. Keep your eyes peeled on these very pages for Jesse’s fabulous underbelly review of the Sundance Film Festival.

All heart ... Jason Hidalgo (1995), who writes about health for the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, has received the 2002 C. Everett Koop Media Award from the American Heart Association for feature writing. Congrats! Well-deserved. Jason also writes about matters of the heart in his monthly Sunday column "A Guy’s Life."

Extra dry ... Jose Corona (Summer 2001) is going to work for The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, Calif. He joins Richard Guzman (Summer 2000) there and wants to hear from any other Chipsters in the area. Jose has a great story to tell about how he got that job: "Thanks to the job fair. I was actually working at the Chips Quinn booth at CCNMA when The Desert Sun managing editor came looking for Richard, who was supposed to be there. We started talking ..." The rest is desert history.

Moooo-ving around ... Jenny Sit (Summer 2000) reports in from her job at The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, Calif., to say: "I’m working out of Paso Robles, which is a little town. I’ll be doing features reporting, looking for stories that tell about the enormous changes going on in the community, which is moving from cattle country to vineyard and spa country ... Still, I’ve never seen this many cows in my life!"

Hither and yon ... Danielle McNamara (Summer 2002) has landed a Knight Ridder rotating internship, a year-long program that will send her to three newspapers. She’ll spend four months at each, getting a crash course in each locale. Congrats, girl.

Long time no hear ... Arana Lynch (Summer 1994 and 1995) reports in with lots of news: He is sports editor at the Call and Post Newspapers in Cleveland, as well as part owner of a video/film/entertainment company. "We recently completed our first movie short, called "Bogards." We are in the process of finishing a documentary we filmed on Vonda Ward, the current women's world heavyweight champion. By this Spring we plan on having two to three more films completed that we’ll send off to film festivals around the world." We’ll buy the popcorn!

Did you know? ... Mary Ann Lopez (Summer 2001) has moved to Durango, Colo., to report for the Durango Herald? La Mary Ann says: "The newspaper is an award-winning daily in the Four Corners region of the state. I will be covering education, water, agriculture and non-profits." Wow — big beats, all!

More Chipster whereabouts:

Wired … Jerry Abejo (Fall 2000) has started at the Dow Jones newswire in New York.

Hiking … Jennifer Dronkers (Spring 2002) has become a photographer at the Mountain Democrat in lovely Placerville, Calif.

Reader City … Sally Farhat (Fall 1999) reports in from the Big Apple, to say she now is working as an editorial assistant at "Parents" magazine.

Up North ... Olivia Nisbet (Summer 2001) reports in from St. Paul, Minn., where she recently started work at the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Well done.

Chips ahoy ... Nerissa Pacio (Summer 2001) has graduated from the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and now is working at the San Jose Mercury News. She covers two municipalities in the vast Silicon Valley.

Starbuck-bound ... Photographer Leigh Jimmy (Summer 2002) has accepted a Summer internship at The Seattle Times. Leigh will join fellow Summer intern Ben Aguirre Jr. (Summer 2001 and 2003).

Mr. Prez .... Michael Del Muro (Summer 2002) says, "I have a new job!" That would be reporting for The Whittier Daily News, in California (home of former President Richard Nixon).

Well, that’s it. Why weren’t you mentioned? I’ll tell you ... because you didn’t send your news to Chips Watch. Do it — today. ’Till next time.

We want to hear from you. Send your news to Program Assistant Michelle Hedenskoog.

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