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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Leading the entrepreneurial initiative are Tow-Knight Center Director Jeff Jarvis, and Jeremy Caplan, the Center’s education director.

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.

Yudith Ho, who won $10,000 for her entrepreneurial project

“Pitch Day never gets old,” said Jarvis, who started the innovative third-semester course five years ago. “You can feel the enthusiasm and energy in the room. And there’s always such a unpredictable mix of ideas.”

On this year’s Pitch Day, the projects included a new approach to connecting small businesses to each other and their local customers, an interactive platform for weekend athletes to exchange advice about sports injuries and share training tips, and an online magazine aimed at the holistic health and wellness audience. Following the presentations, the jury convened and after an hour of sometimes heated deliberations, announced this year’s prizes:

• Yudith Ho: $10,000 to launch Abaka, a personal finance site aimed at Indonesia’s emerging middle class.

• Michael Mccutcheon: $5,000 to refine Newsfly, a platform for disaggregating and reorganizing news articles.

• Brianne Garcia: $5,000 to develop WTF Would I Wear With This? – a fashion platform that allows brands to compete for customers.

• Amy Stretten: $5,000 to develop Achimó, a platform for indigenous youth in the U.S. and Canada who are interested in arts and culture.

• Tim Verheyden: $5,000 to launch Crosstalk.be, which aims to become the hub of political discussion and opinion for Flemish-speaking Belgians.

The awards are funded under the School’s Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, which is committed to helping create a sustainable future for quality journalism. “Jeremy Caplan and I are teaching students to become disrupters and innovators,” said Jarvis.

“For the most part, the awards help finance the students as they move their projects from ideation to prototype,” he continued. “At that point they can approach angel investors for further funding of their business plans. And for some students, the awards actually help them create their own jobs – to become independent, self-supporting journalists. That’s a good thing.”

* * * * *

View the Pitch Day photo gallery.

David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, told members of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s Class of 2011 that their most important responsibility as journalists is to exert pressure on power. “If you are not involved with that along the way,” he said, “something is deeply wrong at the core.”

Remnick said reporters today must constantly assess their moral purpose. “Ask yourself,” he urged the 82 graduates during graduation ceremonies Dec. 14 at The TimesCenter in midtown Manhattan, “What kind of journalist do I want to be? What purpose do I serve? Whom do I serve? What should I do, and what should I not do? What are my limits? What are my moral and material goals in what I am about to do now?”

Remnick compared American journalism with its counterpart in Russia, a country he has covered extensively throughout his career, including in his 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire.” Despite widespread corruption and government oppression, he said, some Russian journalists remain determined to tell the truth.

Journalists everywhere need to measure their success differently than other people, Remnick said. Even though the American press is relatively unhindered, he added, its journalists must constantly question the moral purpose and integrity of their work.

Alva French, chosen by her classmates to speak on behalf of the Class of 2011, promised that a new generation of journalists will speak truth to power. “Many of us come from underrepresented groups, a status hardly reflected in the mainstream news decision-making world,” she said. “We are the voices of many and a force to reckoned with.”

Dean Stephen B. Shepard encouraged French and her classmates to continue the tradition of excellence that they have helped to cultivate since the School opened in 2006 as the first publicly-funded graduate journalism program in the Northeast.

The new graduates should seek their individual advantages in journalism, he said, and discover what they are good at and what they love to do. Citing the need to develop new models for journalism, Dean Shepard advised the graduates to pay close mind to the business of media, a duty he said many of their predecessors failed to fulfill.

“It is a mistake for journalists to abdicate responsibility for the strategic direction of the media companies they work for, or to steer clear of product development,” he said. “Now more than ever, we need to be a part of the solution to sustain quality journalism for the generation ahead.”

The J-School’s fifth commencement also included remarks by CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, “the prime mover in the establishment of the graduate school of journalism at CUNY,” according to Shepard; CUNY Trustee Freida Foster, and Class of 2008 alumna Annie Shreffler. Associate Dean Judith Watson once again served as mistress of ceremonies.

Have a look at the results: NYCity Snapshot: Spending Takes a Holiday

Indrani Sen

Sen has extensive experience as a reporter, editor, and journalism teacher. Early in her career, she worked for a Boston paper that covered the city’s black and Latino communities. She has reported on crime, education, and politics for several metro papers, including Newsday. As a freelancer, she has written for The New York Times, Saveur magazine, Ms., thenation.com, and many other publications. She also served as the co-editor of the hyperlocal news blog The Local, a collaboration between the CUNY J-School and The New York Times. In addition to teaching Craft of Journalism and Hyperlocal Reporting at the J-School, she has taught at a public high school in the South Bronx.

“I’m just beside myself with excitement about this job,” said Sen. “Voices’ mission is close to my heart.” Sen immigrated to the United States when she was 12; she is half Indian and half Italian.

The CUNY J-School acquired what was then the Voices that Must Be Heard website from the New York Community Media Alliance last spring. Under the temporary editorship of Prof. Bernard Stein, it was relaunched as Voices of NY on Sept. 8.

The new Voices editor was selected from a highly competitive pool of more than 100 applicants that included CUNY J-School alumni, Voices contributors, and Ippies award winners. The Ippies awards honor journalistic excellence in the city’s community and ethnic press. The CUNY J-School acquired the awards program in the same transaction as Voices of NY.

“It was very gratifying to see the interest in Voices from so many highly-qualified candidates,” said Garry Pierre-Pierre, project director of the CUNY J-School’s community and ethnic media initiative. “We are thrilled to have Ms. Sen on board and look forward to seeing her take Voices to the next level.”

Sen has a B.A. in English literature and language from Oxford University and a M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.