Carmel Delshad

Created by Jigar Mehta and Yasmin Elayat, the project aims to to discover the stories that have yet to be told through traditional media. There are thousands of Egyptians walking around with cell phone pictures, videos, and memories from the revolution and beyond — and the 18 Days of Egypt team seeks to find those stories.

Carmel began working with 18 Days in Egypt in mid-January as a reporting fellow, uploading stories from her previous summer interning in Egypt. Shortly after she arrived in Cairo, the team of six fellows (five reporters, one social media expert) fanned out of Tahrir Square on Jan. 25 and collected stories from average Egyptians on the one year anniversary of the uprising.

Stories ranged from a man who was attacked while praying in Alexandria on Jan. 28, 2011, the “Friday of Anger”, to V (of V for Vendetta fame) heading to Tahrir Square.

Powered by GroupStream, a new platform, the website marries virtually every kind of medium in one cohesive site: users can upload pictures and video, connect their Facebook statuses and Tweets, and add videos from YouTube or pictures from Flickr. It’s a one-stop media shop that enriches the tale of the Egyptian revolution.

Carmel says her time at the CUNY J-School prepared her for her role as a reporter at 18 Days in Egypt. Framing video interviews, live Tweeting events, collaborating with a larger team — everything she practiced in her 18 months at CUNY were put to good use in Cairo. Now in her new role as a community manager, overseeing the fellows in Egypt and working on partnerships with local groups, she has built upon the networking and organizational skills taught at CUNY to help this project reach a wider audience.

The group is currently looking to expand its fellowship program for an additional six months, to a total of 20 fellows reporting from all over Egypt. You can find out more on its Kickstarter page.

The money will be used to establish the Benjamin and Mildred Greenwald Journalism Internship Fund, named for the group’s beloved mentor and his wife. Greenwald, who had degrees in English, medieval literature, and comparative linguistics from NYU and Columbia, spent 36 years at the NYSP before retiring in 1976. He was credited with launching the nation’s first high school program with a major in journalism.

The Greenwald fund will pay a stipend of at least $3,000 a year to a CUNY J-School student who graduated from a New York City public high school or a City University of New York college.

As part of the J-School’s curriculum, all students are required to work in a full-time journalism internship during the summer between their second and third semesters. The gift from the NYSP alumni will help the School meet its guarantee that every student intern will receive a minimum of $3,000. Unique to the CUNY J-School, the paid internship program helps students support themselves while getting valuable professional experience.

Osipova wants eventually to produce multimedia international stories and to own an international media company. “I would like to stand against biases and deliver the audience the objective view on world events, and resist the influence of government and sponsor control of content,” she said.

In her native Russia, journalism can be a life-endangering pursuit. In her application to the Foreign Press Association, Osipova wrote about the power of social networking in both protest and journalism there.

She said she would use the scholarship money to help fund her studies. She quit her job working for a television station in Moscow to attend the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

“I feel grateful that the money will help me to continue my professional development, and, hopefully, to come up with ways journalists all over the world could protect themselves and their readers against biases,” Osipova said.

The Foreign Press Association, founded in 1918, is an organization of journalists from other countries who cover the United States. It has more than 400 members from 50 countries. The awards go to students from other countries attending U.S. graduate schools of journalism.

Previous CUNY Journalism School winners have been Adeola Oladele from Nigeria in 2008, Damiano Beltrami from Italy in 2009, and Jennifer Hamblett from Great Britain last year.

Osipova is the School’s first winner of the FPA’s top prize. Osipova will receive the scholarship at the FPA’s May 8 dinner.

Here are some great stories to help kickoff the new semester. (Note: Work from Class of 2011 members who have completed their studies soon will be moving to our increasingly crowded Alumni Corner.)

•Elbert Chu wrote about a principal in trouble for The New York Times’ SchoolBook blog. Hannah Miet’s follow-up story on the death of a bicyclist killed by a truck in Brooklyn found a home in the City Room blog.

•Speaking of The Times, the latest on The Local includes posts by, among others, Minty Grover, Mary Shell, Joe Stepansky, Christine Streich and Jane Teeling. A special shoutout is due Mitch Trinka, who recently capped his year as our post-graduate Local fellow. Join us in congratulating Mitch on a job well done and in welcoming Kyle McGovern of the Class of ’11 to the key slot.

•If you missed the broadcasts of any of the last three installments of 219 News Magazine, they’re now online. Contributors include: Tamy Cozier, Christina Diaz, Rachel Dzanashvili, Elis Estrada, Alva French, Brenda Gonzalez, Jennifer Hamblett, Kahliah Laney, Judy Le, Debra Pangestu, Bianca Seidman, Samantha Stewart and Malgorzata Wojtunik.

•A documentary about climate change in Africa that Megan Izen worked on was screened at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban last month. You can find the film here.

•Eli Chen’s story about an effort to protect old ferry stations found a home in the Mott Haven Herald. Alex Robinson reported on the participatory budgeting process.

•Justin Mitchell’s video about birdwatchers in Prospect Park landed on the News Service.

•Lindsay Armstrong’s feature about a photographer who specializes in positive images of the Bronx got nice play in the Daily News. Check out the pdf here.

•Ashley Welch’s story about a band of kayakers testing the Hudson River for toxins made DNAinfo.com.

•Sherrina Navani’s video-and-text package about a youth literacy program that enlists the aid of pediatricians found a home on the Staten Island Advance’s site.

•Daniel Prendergast’s look at the impact of a housing subsidy program’s impending end got nice play on The Brooklyn Bureau, a new site from the folks at City Limits.

Some news from our Alumni Corner:

•Jenni Avins’ profile of a New Jersey muskrat trapper made New York magazine.

•You’ll find Jessica Firger’s piece about “The Dr. Oz Show” in the February issue of ELLE.

•Mike Reicher’s story about a wave-powered turbine proposal for Newport Beach made the Los Angeles Times.

•Jordan Shakeshaft, representing Greatist.com, appeared on Channel 4 to discuss foods that aren’t as healthful as some might think.

• Sophia Tewa’s documentary, “The People The Rain Forgot,” which tells the story of victims of climate change in Africa, took top honors at the Hollywood Cinema Film Festival.

•Almudena Toral’s video about a teenage girl from Afghanistan working toward a better future made Time’s website.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming!

Cheers,

Jere

Leonard Tow

Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism while Leonard Tow, a pioneer in the cable television industry, will be the first recipient of the Distinguished Service to New York Award. The event will also honor three alumni from the recently graduated Class of 2011.

Dean Stephen B. Shepard praised Winkler for bringing “traditional journalism into the digital age,” and he called Tow “one of the great unsung philanthropists in New York history.”

Winkler has built Bloomberg News from scratch into one of the world’s biggest news organizations. He joined Bloomberg L.P., the financial information company founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in 1990. Prior to that, he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and news services of Dow Jones & Co. in New York and London. Early in his career, he was a New York-based reporter and assistant editor at The Bond Buyer and a reporter for the Ohio-based Mount Vernon News.

Matthew Winkler

Winkler is the author of The Bloomberg Way: A Guide for Reporters and Editors, published in September 2009 by Bloomberg Press. He is a graduate of Kenyon College with an A.B. in history and an honorary doctorate of laws. He serves on the CUNY J-School’s Board of Advisers.

Tow has spent more than two decades contributing to worthy causes in the fields of education, medicine, the performing arts, and youth and family services in New York and Connecticut through the family foundation he runs with his daughter Emily Tow Jackson.

At the CUNY J-School, he issued a $3 million challenge grant that led to the establishment of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism in the fall of 2010. The Center, which was initially funded by The Tow Foundation’s $3 million and a matching amount from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is dedicated to finding new business models for sustaining quality journalism.

His philanthropy has also helped create the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, the Leonard & Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, the Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center, the Claire Tow Pediatric Pavilion at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Claire Tow Professorship in Motor Neuron Disorders at the Columbia University Medical Center. His foundation has supported medical research, public service internships, and juvenile justice programs in Connecticut.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he is a graduate of CUNY’s Brooklyn College and has a PhD in economics from Columbia University.

Matt Draper

The prize is one of five awarded annually to undergraduate or grad students who have demonstrated an interest in and aptitude for copy editing. It includes free registration and travel expenses to the ACES conference in New Orleans in April.

Matt was a Dow Jones sports copy editing intern last summer at the New York Post. Since graduating from the CUNY J-School in December, he has been freelancing full time as a reporter/producer for DNAinfo.com and copy editor for Bloomberg BusinessWeek‘s education resource center.

Titled Judith Clark’s Radical Transformation, the story chronicles Clark’s life in prison and her evolution from an unrepentant young revolutionary to a model inmate. Robbins reported the story during a series of prison visits with Clark starting in 2006. He first knew her as the former high-school sweetheart of a good friend.

Clark was 31 when she was one of four people, including Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin, arrested for armed robbery and murder in the Brinks heist.

Filmmaker Sophia Tewa

Tewa, a native of France, is a 2009 alumna of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and a graduate of CUNY’s Lehman College. She has worked with CNN and CBS and teaches multimedia production at the Meridian, Lehman’s student news site.

The People the Rain Forgot is the first documentary she directed and produced. She said she became interested in covering the drought in Kenya and the efforts of people to fight global warming by scouring obscure international and U.S. news outlets for ideas. “I want to paint intimate portraits of regular people in extraordinary circumstances, but whose stories are overlooked or under-told,” she said. She added that she hopes by telling these stories, she gives people in the power the impetus to make change.

Here is her synopsis of the film:

The People the Rain Forgot is the story of how climate change and drought has ravaged the livelihoods of millions in Kenya, home to one of Africa’s most vibrant economies.The documentary follows the country’s farmers and nomadic pastoralists as they grapple with land that will no longer sustain their livestock or feed their families. In this journey, we encountered men and women who never lost hope in the face of a changing world. It’s been four years since many of the country’s Northeastern areas haven’t had sufficient rain to feed their livestock and water their crops. Malnutrition rates there have drastically risen since the drought started, with 2.4 million people in need of food assistance, according to the World Food Program.

Kenya’s economy is largely dependent on agriculture and some of its citizens wonder whether God is punishing them for their failure to properly steward the land. Others contend that the phenomenon of global warming is man-made and that they can help combat the sustained dry seasons they’ve endured. This film will take you from the border of Ethiopia to the margins of Somalia where more and more Africans are experiencing this new climate.

Global warming is often presented as a hypothesis, the effects of which only our grandchildren will have to face. The People That the Rain Forgot shows that its results are manifest in the world right now and that its consequences are dire. Scientists have shown that the warming of the oceans, caused by the increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere’s ozone layer, is linked to the irregular rainfall patterns that have inundated the Horn of Africa with sustained droughts.

The film records the despair and desperation of a people in thrall to massive, life-changing alterations to their natural environments. But it’s also the tale of people who have chosen to not give up and fight back against a force they did not create. From the village people who build a water dam with their own hands, to the farmers who create a microclimate in their valley by planting thousands of tree seedlings, this film is the story of people who find the courage and determination to try and make the rain fall again.

Break? What break? Our reporters are hard at work. Check out some of our latest stories:

•For those who missed the broadcast, 219 West’s second installment of the season is now online. Contributors include Tamy Cozier, Brenda Gonzalez, Kahliah Laney, Judy Le and Erica Robinson.

•For those who missed the broadcast, check out the second-to-last AudioFiles of the semester on our News Service. Contributors include Michelle Bangert, Ian Chant, Rachel Dzanashvili, Rebecca Lee Douglas, Elizabeth Hagen, Frans Koster and Rasmus Raun Westh.

•Speaking of our News Service… Evan Buxbaum offered a video report on a controversy over a planned mini-park across from the old St. Vincent’s Hospital. Sarah Pizon’s video report detailed the TV industry’s impact on tourism in the city. Jackie Snow offered a feature about a Brooklyn store that’s trying to revive playing board games as a social event.

• Amy Kraft’s story about a proposal to use dog waste to fuel lampposts in some Greenwich Village dog runs made DNAinfo.com.

•Jenny Marc put together a print-and-video package about “Peace Week” for Dominion of New York.

•Terry Chao’s feature on a program that offers discarded material to artists found a home on the Queens West Villager site.

• Jacob Hodes dug into the numbers and found that parks in Canarsie and Flatlands consistently get the lowest cleanliness grades in the city. His story made the Daily News.

• Patrick Hickey Jr’s piece about a couple who make video games set in their East Village neighborhood was featured on The Lo-Down.

•Dan Rosenblum’s story about a hairdresser hanging up her sissors after a half century made The Jersey Journal.

•Lily Rothman profiled big-time baker Ron Ben-Israel for The Villager.

•The latest on The Local includes posts, by among others, Martin Burch, Minty Grover, Chester Soria, Jorteh Senah, Christine Streich, Jane Teeling, Mitch Trinka and Amanda Woods.

•Speaking of The Local, a special shoutout is due to Annaliese Griffin (of our inaugural Class of ’07), who stepped down this week as the site’s Collaborative Editor following two years on the job. Annaliese, who guided the blog after the J-School took over day-to-day operations from The New York Times, is leaving to become the full-time editor-in-chief of Brooklyn Based, a site she helped build. Check out Annaliese’s good-bye post, and join us in thanking her and wishing her all the best.

Speaking of our alumni – and The Times – here are some samplings from our Alumni Corner:

•Anastasia Economides’ story about a Brooklyn widow raising her great-grandson was featured in The Times’ Neediest Cases series. Samantha Stark produced this Times video about the Long Island RoughRiders sled hockey team. Almudena Toral contributed a video and photo to a Times package about people who suffer from face blindness. Joe Walker wrote about a change in the rules policing parolees.

•Rima Abdelkader got the dirt on Iowa land dealings in this web video she produced for “Rock Center with Brian Williams.”

•Jonathan Balthaser helped produce this “20/20” report on a family’s legal nightmare.

•Jordan Shakeshaft put together some inspiring health and fitness images from 2011 for Greatist.com.

•Teresa Tomassoni’s piece about a transgender immigrant’s new life got nice play in The Washington Post.

Congrats to all – and keep ‘em coming!

Cheers,

Jere

Please remember, while we encourage you to complete as much of the application process as possible, we realize it may not be possible to have every item in place by that date. As long as you have begun the online application by January 4th and submitted as much of the required documentation as possible, we will work with you to complete the process and to ensure your application is fully considered by the Committee. Please try to keep us posted on your progress in filing the application. Feel free to contact us anytime with questions or concerns.

CUNY J-SCHOOL WINS APPROVAL FOR NATION’S FIRST M.A. IN ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNALISM

The New York State Education Department has given the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism permission to offer the first Master of Arts in Entrepreneurial Journalism beginning in the fall of 2012.

The new four-semester degree program will be offered in conjunction with the School’s Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism that was established a year ago with the help of $3 million from The Tow Foundation and $3 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“It is the first such degree in the country,” said Stephen B. Shepard, dean of the CUNY J-School. “We’re very proud to break new ground in fusing journalism, technology, and business.”

The foundation of the new degree is a one-semester academic program the School ran on a trial basis this past spring. The curriculum includes a business fundamentals course, a technology immersion module, a survey of practices in journalism revenue generation, an entrepreneurial incubator, and a new-media apprenticeship. Students and mid-career journalists who participated in the pilot program developed their own media businesses and were awarded an Advanced Certificate in Entrepreneurial Journalism.

Candidates for the new master’s will spend their first three semesters taking most of the same courses required for the School’s traditional M.A. in Journalism degree. In their fourth semester, as they work towards their M.A. in Entrepreneurial Journalism, they’ll be sharing classes with mid-career professionals and students who will earn the advanced certificate.

The first entrepreneurial journalism master’s class will be selected next spring from a pool of applicants from all over the U.S. and the world.

WANT HELP WITH YOUR J-SCHOOL APPLICATION?

IN PERSON

Saturday, January 7, 2012: 2-4 p.m.

Dean Steve Dougherty will walk you through the online application, answer your questions about the program and the application process.

RSVP to Steve if you’d like to attend.

ON SKYPE

Sundays through Thursdays, now thru January 19, 2012.

Schedule a SKYPE videoconference or teleconference appointment with Dean Steve Dougherty to discuss your CUNY J-School application. Contact Steve to arrange a convenient evening appointment.

SCHEDULE YOUR PERSONAL INTERVIEW AND J-SCHOOL ENTRANCE EXAM DATES NOW

The application process requires a Personal Interview with a CUNY J-School admissions officer or J-School Alum. The interview may be accomplished in person during a campus visit, a SKYPE video conference, or by telephone.

Each applicant must also take the CUNY Journalism Entrance Exam. The exam is designed to give us an idea of your interest in current affairs, your analytical and editing skills, and your ability to write clearly and concisely in a timed environment. Please check out our Sample Exams from a previous year.

For your convenience, registration for the Admissions Interview and for the J-School Entrance Exam is now available online. Please select a date and sign up as soon as possible. There is no reason to wait to schedule your interview and exam. Sooner the better.

*** Please note: Online exam and interview registration are for in-person appointments ONLY. ***

If you are unable to do an in-person interview, please contact Colleen Marshall via email or at 646.758.7852 to schedule a phone or skype video interview.

If you are unable to do an in-person exam, please find a proctor to administer the exam, such as a professor, supervisor, colleague, or librarian. Have your proctor contact Colleen Marshall via email or at 646.758.7852 with their name, applicant’s name, and date and time of the exam. Colleen will then give them instructions on how to administer the online admissions exam.

TO REGISTER FOR THE EXAM:

Step 1: Go to: http://cunyjschooladmissionsexam.eventbrite.com

Step 2: TYPE IN PASSWORD: jschool

Step 3: Choose a date, then under QUANTITY, choose 1 and click “REGISTER” on the bottom

Step 4: Fill out your First and Last Name, Email address, and create a password (optional). Click COMPLETE REGISTRATION
(You will have 15 minutes to register. After that, you will be logged off and you will have to start the process again).

Step 5: An email confirmation will be sent to you. Print out for your records.

TO REGISTER FOR AN INTERVIEW:

Step 1:

To register for WEEKDAY interviews:

http://jschoolweekdayinterviews.eventbrite.com/

To register for WEEKEND interviews:

http://jschoolweekendinterviews.eventbrite.com/

Step 2: TYPE IN PASSWORD: jschool

Step 3: Click on the date you prefer

Step 4: Choose a time, then under QUANTITY, choose 1 and click REGISTER at the bottom

Step 5: Fill out your First and Last Name, Email address, and create a password (optional). Click COMPLETE REGISTRATION
(You will have 15 minutes to register. After that you will be logged off and will have to start the process over again).

Step 6: An email confirmation will be sent to you. Print out for your records.

DAILY NEWS QUIZZES

To help prepare for the admissions exam, you may be interested in taking daily news quizzes. Please check out news quizzes from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ Newshound quiz requires a Facebook account).

SOMETHING NEW THIS YEAR!

Fall 2012 applicants are invited to produce and upload a one-minute video to provide additional insight into you, as a person and as a candidate, for the J-School Admissions Committee. The content of the video is entirely up to you. It must be available on an easily accessible website, such as YouTube, and must be provided only in the form of a URL link and access code. The supplemental video is completely optional. Deadline for submission of the video is Friday, January 20, 2012.

REGISTER FOR A JANUARY ACADEMY CLASS

The January Academy is an annual program offering more than two-dozen, free, enrichment courses available exclusively to current students, alumni of the CUNY J-School, and applicants for admission to the Class of 2012. This January, we will once again be offering an exciting lineup of special January Academy workshops in such subjects as:

• News Photography
• Social Media for Journalists
• Freelancing
• Copy Editing
• Travel Writing
• Food Writing
• Art of the Personal Essay
• Flash

Classes are short in duration – from one to two days, carry no credit, and are taught by experts from the CUNY J-School faculty. Here is the 2012 January Academy schedule.

Please review the course offerings. You may select up to three courses. Email your selections, listed in order of preference, to the admissions office starting December 14, 2011. This is the opening date for candidate registration for January Academy.

PLEASE NOTE:

In order to ATTEND any of the January Academy courses, your entire application – including all supporting documents – must be submitted by January 3, 2012, the start of January Academy.

WATCH THE CLASS OF 2011 COMMENCEMENT ONLINE

Please tune in to watch the recent Class of 2011 Commencement. This year’s commencement speaker was David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker.

The 2011 commencement took place at TheTimesCenter in The New York Times building.