Chips Watch: Summer brings more hot news

Special to chipsquinn.org

Posted: July 25, 2003

Well folks, in case last week’s Chips Watch didn’t satisfy every corner of your curiosity, here is Round 2 of the latest from your Chipster colleagues working in news. Fasten your seatbelts.

Checkin‘ in … Jennifer Dronkers (Spring 2002) has taken her photography skills to the Mountain Democrat in Placerville, Calif. She started as a temp, “but once the regular staff photographer came back from maternity leave, they offered me a job as a photographer/writer. Writing? I decided to give it a whirl.” Keep us posted on your dual identity in California.

Onward … Michelle Lee (Summer 2002) has been hard at work in New York for The Times. “No, not that one,” she says. It’s a weekly newspaper in Westchester County, just north of New York City. “It's part of the Gannett chain, tied to a larger daily newspaper, with a circulation of about 12,000. The paper covers a population of roughly 35,000 in Mamaroneck and Larchmont. The neighborhoods are interesting, with dynamics that I think are begging to be explored. Larchmont is a ritzy village, with an average salary of $126,000, while Mamaroneck Village has a working-class group and a rising Hispanic immigrant population.” Sounds like a perfect reporting playground.

More jobs news … Two other Spring 2003 Scholars report getting full-time jobs:

Isabelle Gan is the city hall reporter for the Press Journal in Vero Beach, Fla., and Chris Young is a reporter at The Bulletin in Bend, Ore.

And … Sarah Jimenez (Summer 2001) was graduated from the University of Southern California in May. She is working as an intern at the Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald.

Winning news … Brenda Duran (Summer 2002) received the Chicano News Media Association’s Joel Garcia Memorial Scholarship. Brenda thanked one of her recommencers, CQ Writing Coach Dick Thien, with heartfelt thanks and the comment: “The world is a better place with programs like the Chips Quinn Scholars and people like you.” Amen to that!

Moving with AP … Jack Hagel (Summer 2000) is working in the Providence bureau of The Associated Press since February. Since graduating last year, he has worked with AP in its Boston and Detroit bureaus.

California dreamin’ … Melbert B. Sebayan (Summer 2001) has graduated Indiana University. Melbert accepted a news designer position with The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif. What great news.

More westward movement … Chaundra Perkins (Summer 2001), who did her internship at the Lancaster (Pa.) New Era, has gone on to become a Scripps Howard Top Ten Scholar. She is spending the Summer at The Oregonian in Portland.

Short takes:

• Brent Champaco (Spring 2000) is in Washington State writing for the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick.

• Cristina Elias (Summer 2001) works for El Sentinel, a Tribune Co. bilingual paper produced by the Orlando Sentinel.

• Jon Perez (Summer 1999) is a sports designer at The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

• Clarissa Aljentera (Summer 2000) is a metro/general-assignment reporter at The Monterey County (Calif.) Herald.

• After finishing an internship with The Associated Press in Louisville, Ky., Javacia N. Harris (Summer 2002) will begin graduate work in journalism at the University of California-Berkeley.

Free-lance work … Tilde Herrera (Spring 2003) reports that she got a free-lance gig from the San Francisco Chronicle food section, reviewing restaurants on the peninsula. “I used to work in the food section as an editorial assistant before I quit to go back to school for my journalism degree. My former mentor is now the food editor, and she wants to give me a shot.” Tilde also reports that Ali Fard (Spring 2003) became managing editor of a start-up magazine called Karma. Tilde plans to do some free-lance work for its first issue.

That handy binder … Adrian Rodriguez (Summer 2001) is working as an intern at The Fresno (Calif.) Bee. Adrian says, “I still use the binder I got from Dick Thien, and I still have everything from the orientation before my first internship in San Luis Obispo.”

And ... Joy Green (Summer 2000) was graduated from Morgan State University last year and now is teaching high school English at DuBois High School in Baltimore City, Md. … Graig Brooks (Summer 1999) has been working as a production technician at Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. in El Cerrito, Calif. He reports in with the hot news that he wrote a script for the Bay Vision East Network. … Bernice Guity (Summer 1994 and 1995), who runs a public relations firm in Georgia, says she has written a book for high school and college students interested in journalism. The book, being printed this Summer, is called Inside the Notepad of A Reporter. … Shani J. Bell (Summer 1996) reports that she finished her MBA at Kent State and is staying at the university as editorial/communication coordinator for the Division of Information Services.

A final thought for everyone from humorist James Thurber, on the world of newspapering: “There is, of course, a certain amount of drudgery in newspaper work, just as there is in teaching classes, tunneling into a bank, or being president of the United States. I suppose that even the most pleasurable of imaginable occupations, that of batting baseballs through the windows of the RCA building, would pall a little as the days ran on.”

He said that in 1945, and it’s true today.

Heartiest congratulations to all whose news we now know.

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

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