New Officers Announced

I am excited to announce that Andrew Vazzano and Andrew Fletcher have been chosen to lead The Chronicle for the 2009-2010 school year.

Andrew Vazzano has been appointed to the position of Publisher and General Manager. He is a senior print journalism major with a minor in sports studies. He is also the creator and owner of TheRopolitans.com, a Mets blog, as well as the content editor for Mets baseball at baseballdigest.com. You can follow him on Twitter @TheRopolitans.

Andrew Fletcher has been appointed to the postion of Editor in Chief. He, too, is a print journalism major with a minor in sports studies. He is the creator and owner of ScottProctorsArm.com, a Yankees blog. You can follow him on Twitter @ProctorsArm.

We expect great things from both Andrews, and we know that they will live up to all of our high expectations.

The Chronicle Receives Award

To add to our growing list of achievements this past year, The Chronicle has received the Judith Jones Frank Outstanding Student Organization Award at Quinnipiac, “celebrating the best of Quinnipiac University student organizations.” The award was presented on April 18, 2009 at the QU Undergraduate Student Awards ceremony.

In addition to The Chronicle’s award, we are extremely proud of several of our executive board and staff who also received recognition at the awards ceremony. Tara McMahon, Matt Busekroos and Andrew McDermott and Lindsay Roberts all received Outstanding Freshmen Awards. Joe Pelletier received the Outstanding Junior Award.

Two of members were also honored at the Senior Awards ceremony on April 19th. Stacey Kinnier, Editor in Chief, received the Outstanding Senior Award. Griffin McGrath, Publisher and General Manager, received Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges, and the Entrepreneurship Student Acheivement Award.

Once again, congratulations to all of our members on their tremendous accomplishments this past year.

QU Student Visits NYC’s First Snowboarding Contest

Quinnipiac student Michael Feldstein recounts his visit to New York City’s first ever snowboarding contest, RedBull’s Snowscrapers event.

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It was a night of chills and big thrills in the Big Apple, as the first ever Red Bull Snowscrapers took East River Park in NYC by storm on February 4th. Sixteen of the worlds best snowboarders, including Red Bulls’ own Travis Rice, Pat Moore, and Shaun White, competed in a freestyle event eyeing $100,000 in prize money, with the winner taking home a cool $50,000. With so much action in store for the thousands who attended the event, many wondered while going in, exactly where do you find any slopes in Manhattan?
New York is known for its high peaks, but in the form of sky scrapers, not mountains; one would have to be made from the ground up. A 90 foot tall in-run was built that launched riders off a ramp towards a massive and challenging 80 foot long 45 degree spine with landings on both sides, giving the boarders a large canvas to get truly creative with their best tricks. The ramp was an impressive structure, whose scaffolding was made up of old cargo bins that were retro-fitted so they could be stacked upon each other. It was a really innovative idea and the slope will remain in the park for the rest of the month where it will be cut down to 45 feet so people can ski and enjoy the park in the winter months. On that Wednesday night, seeing it illuminated from across the FDR drive was really a sight to see, especially with a beautiful moon and seaboard as the backdrop for what would be a night of pure fun.
Throughout the afternoon, the crowd filed in and continuously grew larger as anticipation built up (the same couldn’t be said for the temperature, which bottomed out somewhere around -7 with the wind chill!) and it was remarkable to see just how popular this sport has become. I interacted with some diehard fans; some from California, New Jersey, and to no surprise, Colorado. They have a passion for this sport as those do with hockey, football, and baseball, and they were willing to teach me everything they knew. It was intriguing and humbling to be a newcomer to the sport and seeing the enthusiasm and knowledge that some of these people had. Although I did do a little reading on some of the moves and tricks, that didn’t prepare me for the aerial show I was about to see.
The 16 snowboarders in the first round of the competition participated in a one-hour jam session where they had to consistently land difficult, distinctive, and stylish tricks in order to advance to the next round. There was no limit to how many times they could go, for they were being judged on quality, not quantity. Only half of the original sixteen would advance to round two, where riders would be paired off and compete for the highest score they could obtain after two runs. The final eight pairings were Norway’s Torstein Horgmo vs. Shaun White, Bjorn Leines vs. Travis Rice, Daniel Ek vs. Scotty Lago, and finally Terje Haakonsen vs. New Jersey native Shayne Pospisil.
The round would see notables such as White fail to advance, while crowd favorite Pospisil was gaining momentum into the final four, which paired off boarders and the one with the highest scored after three runs would advance. Horgmo went up against Rice and Pospisil took on the Scotty Lago. The round was highlighted by an array of 900 frontail and backtail tricks with Horgmo and Pospisil pulling off the highest scores and going head to head in the finals. Lago would oust Rice in the consolation bracket good for third place with Rice finishing fourth. All attention was now on the finals as Horgmo and Pospisil were ready to give it their all. In the end it was the up and coming Pospisil who stole the show and won $50,000.
It was a historic night in snowboarding as the urban backdrop of the world’s most famous city helped introduce the sport to the masses in a way never seen before. Kudos to Red Bull for putting together a fantastic event that was fun and exciting and, even in the frigid temperatures, was able to keep the adrenaline running! In case you missed this amazing event, you can catch a full re-airing on Feb. 15th at 5pm on NBC down at Playwright in New Haven.

Facebook Fan Page

We are pleased to announce that The Chronicle’s Facebook fan page has officially launched! Show your support by becoming a fan and you will have access to more news, events, feeds, downloads, pictures and videos from The Chronicle. You can check it out here or on the right-hand side of this page under “Subscribe.” We look forward to your continued support on Facebook!

What Skills do J-School Grads Need?

I found a great post on the MediaShift blog about the types of skills journalism students will need upon graduation. It includes a few short video interviews with industry professionals answering the question, “What skills do you look for in graduates from journalism programs?” I found the interviews pretty interesting and I think that it is worth a glance. Check it out here.

Student Journalists reluctant to change; New Media is on the backburner

Members of the Chronicle staff spent the past week in Kansas City, MO attending the ACP/CMA Convention, a collegiate media conference. As the publisher of The Quinnipiac Chronicle and a new media junkie, I was excited to learn about the new and exciting things that college journalists were coming up with. I took it upon myself to attend as many New Media sessions as possible. I could not have been more disappointed.

On a lighter note, the two best things to come out of this conference were the keynotes by Rich Beckman, a professor at the University of Miami School of Communication and Mark Glaser, Executive Editor of PBS’ MediaShift blog. I got a short clip from Mark Glaser as he was talking about consumers taking control of their media that you can see below.

So back to journalists and their thoughts on new media. Once again, I have to stress my disappointment in the sessions and presenters that were brought in to speak to the attendees of this conference. In an age where new media is becoming mainstream, one would think that experts would be brought in to teach the future leaders of the journalistic world how to use these new and emerging technologies. Instead, the presenters were college students with little experience or advisors who have not used these technologies much before this point in time.

One of the major themes of the conference was the idea that traditional media and journalism are obsolete. After talking to many students and advisers, as well as my own staff members who attended, it seems to me that people are very afraid that their jobs may be in jeopardy because of this shift in technology. I have asked many student journalists why they are so afraid to adopt these new ideas, and one person recently responded, “I went to school for four years to learn how to be a writer, not so I can learn to edit video and make slide shows.” This is a pretty powerful statement in two ways. First, it shows the reluctance to change due to fear of the unknown. Second, it shows that students are not yet receiving the proper training and education that is needed to become a successful journalist. A journalism student who is not being taught how to write, edit video and create multimedia stories is like an orthopedic surgeon going to school and never learning how to operate on a knee.

Another trend that was talked about extensively over the week was media convergence. If the state of the industry dictates that journalists must be well versed in multimedia, then journalists should be working with the video staffs and audio staffs at their schools. There is no resource that is more valuable than your peers that often work in the same building, if not only on the same campus. These students know how to operate cameras, they know how to edit video and audio. Take advantage of their knowledge and skills, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. You can even assign stories to a “multimedia” staff that is comprised of writers, videographers and sound technicians and then let all departments involved use the piece for their own organization.

Basically, I am trying to say that the times are changing, and students need to recognize this and adapt to these changes. I realize that change is not always easy, but it is almost always necessary. So don’t be afraid to try something different. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. As the entrepreneur in me would say, fail fast and fail often, because the faster you can make these changes in your organization, the faster you can gain an advantage over other college media organizations and be recognized as one of the leaders in your field.

Please, let me know what you think. Do you think that journalism as we know it is changing? If so, Have you adapted?

Promotions and New Staff

Due to his dedication, hard work and knowledge, Joe Pelletier has been promoted to Co-Managing Editor of The Chronicle. Joe previously served as the Campus News editor.

The Campus News Editor position has been filled by Matt Ciepielowski, formerly a staff writer. We are excited to have Matt serving on our editorial board, and we are sure that he will be a great contributor to the continued success of The Chronicle.

QU Student Works for Real Change

It is always great to hear about fellow students trying to make a difference in the world. Caitlin Dowley, a junior International Business student, took an eight week trip to South Africa with the Student Movement for Real Change. Please read on to find out more about her trip!

Quinnipac Student Helps Educate and Develop South African Community

Washington, DC—This summer, Quinnipac student Caitlin Dowley joined 28 college students in traveling to a South Africa rural community with the flagship Global Development Internship program. Student Movement for Real Change (SMRC), a non-profit organization that supports youth initiated change in developing communities worldwide, sent students from across the United States to Mpumalanga, South Africa in an effort to improve the community through literacy, HIV education, recreational activities, and development projects. The eight-week trip began June 16th in Cape Town, South Africa.

Dowley, an International Business student graduating in 2010, has been heavily involved with the Student Government Association and active in Community Action Project, and has dedicated a significant portion of high school and college years to service. However, the environment of a rural South African community was an entirely new cultural experience.

The interns, Dowley among them, were selectively chosen based on leadership experience, recommendations, and community service involvement. The interns represent sixteen universities from across the country.

“This initiative allows students to become part of the Mpumalanga community and create positive change where it is desperately needed,” said Vanessa Carter, South Africa project director.  “By being immersed in the culture, American students and African community members can better understand one another and work together to improve the community. It is not easy living without luxuries to which we are accustomed, but these interns are motivated and prepared to become part of a foreign society.”

Students spent their first two weeks in Cape Town and Johannesburg for discussion sections to learn about the unique cultures of Mpumalanga. They also underwent training on how to create effective school curriculums. Throughout their stay, students and community members worked together to select development initiatives to benefit the community. The students lived in homestays where many did not have access to running water or electricity.

Prior to the beginning of the African school year, the students held a two-week camp for African children with art projects, theater, and sports training. The students also implemented sessions focusing on health education and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

“We,  young people, underestimate our power to change the world,” said Saul Garlick, the executive director of Student Movement for Real Change. “The Global Development Internship Program provides a vehicle for students to make the substantial change we are capable of.”

After a successful pilot last year, Carter and Garlick have been confident about the positive effects the interns have on the community, as well of the positive effect that the community has on the interns. One 2007 Global Development Intern reflected that by the end of the program, the American students and the African community members were all one community working toward a common goal: a better life.
“Youth helping youth is a powerful and innovative message,” said Garlick. “Everyone can make a change and we are here to show that.”

Student Movement for Real Change (SMRC) provides training and support programs for young leaders to develop health and education solutions in developing communities worldwide. SMRC is working in multiple countries including Kenya, South Africa, Sierra Leone, and the Unites States and has partnered with over 50 organizations worldwide. They develop schools, libraries, sports fields, and water sanitation solutions in developing communities internationally. SMRC is located in Washington DC.

More information about applying for this year’s Global Development Internship Program can be found at http://www.studentmovementusa.org .

First Issue of the Chronicle on News Stands!

We are extremely proud to announce that our first issue has finally been released! It has taken a lot of time, energy, hard work and dedication, but it has certainly paid off.

You can see the issue online at www.quchronicle.com, or you can pick it up on news stands throughout campus.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the continuing success of the Chronicle. We look forward to putting out many more great issues!

The Chronicle Uses Dropbox for File Sharing

Today I introduced the editorial staff to Dropbox, a new file sharing program that allows an organization to simultaneously edit and update files from remote locations. I was lucky enough to test out the application when it was in private beta and I was amazed with how helpful it was. The service finally went public yesterday … you can read their post about their long journey to launch on their blog when you go to sign up.

This is a great idea for any person or organization that needs to simultaneously edit or share files. I realized that we needed to find a different method of editing articles when my editors’ inboxes started overflowing with several versions of the same articles. Dropbox seemed like the perfect solution. It allows a person to upload a file, edit it and have the new file appear on everyone’s machine in real time. No need for refreshing, no need for email attachments.

After a quick technology session with the editors, I gave them a quick run down of how it worked and then gave them a quick presentation so they could see it in action. We were up and running within 15 minutes. Now there is no need for email between our editors at all.

Thanks to the people at Dropbox for providing us with this awesome service, and we look forward to continuing working with them from now on.