What a great day it was

My favorite day of the school year was on Sunday (Aril 27). It’s the day of our J-School Awards Program. Students, parents and faculty gather in the Kellogg Center Auditorium to honor student successes.

Among the awardees this year were:

• Julie Goldsmith, Outstanding Doctoral Student
  


• Three Outstanding Master’s Students: Sarah Crespi, Jessica Knoblauch and Jonathan Oosting
  


• Outstanding Senior, a gal who has scored terrific internships and now a job already, Alexandra Bahou.

Check out the Awards Program itself at jrn.msu.edu and see what great successes students are having winning awards, scholarships and landing prestigious internships.

We also said good-bye to our Visiting Editor-in-residence, Sue Burzynski Bullard. She’s done a tremendous job for us this past year teaching media management, editing and news reporting II. Sue is heading off to Cornhusker territory as an associate professor of journalism at the University of Nebraska. She made the transition from the newsroom to the classroom and made it seem effortless.

Also leaving us (thought she missed the awards program since she was down in Florida at her niece’s graduation) is Sandra (Sam) Combs. Sam has been the coordinator of the Reporting I and II courses since her arrival on campus in Fall 2003. She’s done a terrific job, and we will miss her. She is heading to a tenure track appointment at Arkansas State University in the fall.

We also had a terrific time after the ceremony at the 23d Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame banquet and induction ceremony.

Sunday was truly a day for journalism to shine!

I head off early tomorrow morning to the ACEJMC meeting in Arlington, Virginia for the final step on the J-School’s reaccreditation. I will be missing commencement—the first time in the five years I’ve been here. L But, faculty like Geri Zeldes, Lori Anne Dickerson, Bob Gould, Sue Burzynski Bullard and Folu Ogundimu will be there cheering our students on!