Meet the J-School Deans: Dean Graciela Mochkofsky, Associate Dean Andrew Mendelson

All Staff

Associate Dean Andrew Mendelson will present an overview of the school’s curricula and degree requirements. There will be significant time for questions.

Jeremy Caplan, director of teaching and learning, will help you set yourself up for a great start to your J-School journey. We’ll explore systems for organizing your work, and you’ll outline a toolkit to help you stay on top of multiple classes and reporting projects.

Discussion on CUNY policies on equal opportunity, and non-discrimination and sexual misconduct.

Our Career Services staff will help you set yourself up for career success and tell you all about the required summer internship program.

Dr. Inez Strama, supervising clinical psychologist and certified group psychotherapist at the Student Counseling Service of The Graduate Center’s Wellness Center, will provide a brief overview of the services offered by the Wellness Center, how to request those services, what to expect when you do, and some common barriers that get in the way of asking for help. She will also answer your questions about the process.

Dr. Inez Strama (she/they) works exclusively with master’s and doctoral Graduate Center and Journalism School students, providing a variety of mental health services. She also teaches and provides supervision to the Wellness Center’s clinical fellows in training. She is a contributing author of the recently published book, “Thriving in Graduate School: The Expert’s Guide to Success and Wellness.”

Learn more about the J-School’s student clubs/associations and how you can join this fall.

This session will be led by Kelsey Woodford from the CUNY Financial Aid Team.

Professor Jeff Jarvis will discuss the history of media to understand that journalism is not a forever thing: It is an invention, which means it can be reinvented. We will explore the need for journalism, and what forms it has taken to address the fundamental question: What is journalism? Later in the week, we will ask what it should be.

Learning Outcomes

• Reporting safely
• Identifying potentially dangerous situations
• Gaining an understanding of the importance of situational awareness
• Understanding how to avoid unsafe circumstances for themselves and the people with whom they interact
• Employing basic safety maneuvers when escape is not possible
• Knowing what to do when confronted aggressively by police and other officials
• Understanding basic rights as journalists and citizens

John Smock, director of photojournalism, will lead photo sessions in which you will learn the following:

• Critical thinking skills as they relate to understanding visual journalism
• Cultural sensitivity in creating and interpreting imagery
• Emphasis on “professionalizing” the use of mobile for photo
• Understanding the principles of good photo (and video) composition
• Use of the built-in post-production tools in the photo album app
• Prep for shooting Craft I assignments — environmental portraits, storefronts/small businesses, events (pressers, board meetings, etc.) to accompany written pieces
• Introduction to the changing culture and history of photojournalism
• Introduction to the contemporary ethical landscape of photojournalism
• Introduction to (a more professional use of) photo in a social media context
• Introduction to photo programming at the school and reassurance that there is plenty more photo to come with dSLRs
• Excitement about the power of photo and visual storytelling as a tool for personal and professional growth

Associate Professor for Research and Chief Librarian Barbara Gray will highlight the unmatched training and support you get for researching your reporting at Newmark J-School. She’ll share a few key resources and techniques to jump-start your work in the Craft of Journalism class.

Learning Outcomes

• Know what research tools, training, and one-on-one research support is available to students
• Get some tools and tips to jump-start your reporting in the Craft of Journalism class

Meet Gennesis Sierra and learn more about how to secure low-cost health insurance through the J-School partnership with NADAP (https://www.nadap.org).

Professor Jeff Jarvis will help you see why it’s necessary to follow the money to understand why the news is what it is and how it got that way. We will discuss the roots of journalism as a business to explore how we got here and look at how we will survive. It is also important to discuss the conflicts of interest that come with all sources of support for the news.

John Mancini, director of the Reporting and Writing Program and NYCity News Service editor, will provide instructions for the “Hit the Streets” exercise. You will be assigned to produce a 300-word, person-on-the-street text story with photos on deadline. This will allow your Craft of Journalism professors to get to know your work and give you experience with tightly focused interviewing, quick-turn writing, and street photography in New York City. (The assignment will not be graded.)

You will have three hours to report, write, and file your text story with its accompanying photos, based on the instructions distributed at the 11:30 a.m. session.

Professor Jeff Jarvis will discuss questions about objectivity and journalism and the value of lived experience and perspective.

John Smock, director of photojournalism, will lead photo sessions in which you will learn the following:

• Critical thinking skills as they relate to understanding visual journalism
• Cultural sensitivity in creating and interpreting imagery
• Emphasis on “professionalizing” the use of mobile for photo
• Understanding the principles of good photo (and video) composition
• Use of the built-in post-production tools in the photo album app.
• Prep for shooting Craft I assignments — environmental portraits, storefronts/small businesses, events (pressers, board meetings, etc.) to accompany written pieces
• Introduction to the changing culture and history of photojournalism
• Introduction to the contemporary ethical landscape of photojournalism
• Introduction to (a more professional use of) photo in a social media context.
• Introduction to photo programming at the school and reassurance that there is plenty more photo to come with dSLRs
• Excitement about the power of photo and visual storytelling as a tool for personal and professional growth

Community listening: A key skill in journalism — and especially engagment journalism — is listening. Here is an opportunity to do that with a panel of community leaders from the Bronx, in the neighborhoods where the school publishes its newspapers: Hunts Point and Mott Haven. The incoming class will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear what matters to them and their communities. They will also speak about their relationship with journalism, good and bad. You will use what you hear — what inspires you — in the design-thinking exercise that follows.

Facilitator: stacy-marie ishmael, Chair, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism CUNY Foundation, Inc.

In this session, which will build upon topics covered in the History of Journalism and both Photo sessions, stacy-marie ishmael will survey the biggest and most contentious issues at the intersection of journalism and diversity. Students should expect to encounter both challenging  historical context and highly topical conversations that affect and inform the practices and policies of a wide variety of US newsrooms (and journalism schools). These discussions will incorporate lessons from the readings and podcasts provided in advance.

stacy-marie ishmael is the managing editor for crypto at Bloomberg News in New York. She was previously the editorial director at The Texas Tribune in Austin. She is the chair of the board of the Foundation for the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

This in-person training session is the final element of the mandatory ProTools training course (full instructions and links on Blackboard). Senior Audio Engineer Chad Bernhard  will lead incoming students through an editing exercise using ProTools. During the live class, students will receive detailed instructions and demonstrations of how to complete the ProTools Editing Challenge. They will also have the opportunity to ask questions of Chad.

Please note: In advance of these live sessions, students must have completed the ProTools self-directed video course on EdPuzzle (link on Blackboard) by no later than 11:00 pm on Sunday, Aug. 21. Please bring your laptops with ProTools installed and wired (not Bluetooth) headphones.

Professor Sandeep Junnarkar, who heads our Data Journalism Program and serves as a data journalism trainer at Bloomberg News, will explore ways journalists can secure their digital files and communications.  Journalists are increasingly vulnerable to digital surveillance as government agencies, corporations, and other powerful entities target them with the intent of silencing them or exposing their sources. The process of fortifying your web and communications defenses is not simple. If a source asks you to take extra measures to protect their identity and you don’t already know how, it would take you far too long to figure it out on the spot. 

Facilitator: stacy-marie ishmael, Chair, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism CUNY Foundation, Inc.

In this session, which will build upon topics covered in the History of Journalism and both Photo sessions, stacy-marie ishmael will survey the biggest and most contentious issues at the intersection of journalism and diversity. Students should expect to encounter both challenging  historical context and highly topical conversations that affect and inform the practices and policies of a wide variety of US newsrooms (and journalism schools). These discussions will incorporate lessons from the readings and podcasts provided in advance.

stacy-marie ishmael is the managing editor for crypto at Bloomberg News in New York. She was previously the editorial director at The Texas Tribune in Austin. She is the chair of the board of the Foundation for the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

This in-person training session is the final element of the mandatory ProTools training course (full instructions and links on Blackboard). Senior Audio Engineer Chad Bernhard  will lead incoming students through an editing exercise using ProTools. During the live class, students will receive detailed instructions and demonstrations of how to complete the ProTools Editing Challenge. They will also have the opportunity to ask questions of Chad.

Please note: In advance of these live sessions, students must have completed the ProTools self-directed video course on EdPuzzle (link on Blackboard) by no later than 11:00 pm on Sunday, Aug. 21. Please bring your laptops with ProTools installed and wired (not Bluetooth) headphones.