News and information for EIU students in the Department of Journalism

November 2014Vol. 2, No. 1

T h e J o u r n a l i s t

T h e W a v e l e n g t h

T h e R e l a y

By Lexi StickelHoliday Helpers is allowing The Agency give

back this year during the holiday season. The Agency is trying to get more involved in the community and help the less fortunate during the season of giving.

Holiday Helpers is a program that provides Christmas packages to the less fortunate.

The Agency staff believes it is time to give back to the community and plan on doing so by adopt-ing a less fortunate family. The family that they are helping is an 18-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter.

The Agency is trying to raise $100 to purchase gifts for this family and is seeking donations. Some of the items that The Agency might be purchasing are a winter coat, a blender, diapers, snow shoes and children’s books.

The Agency is setting up donation boxes in the journalism office, the student publications news-room and WEIU newsroom.

Many people donate their time and money to help the less fortunate during the holiday season. Katelyn Ifft, director of The Agency, said the holiday season is a time for giving, and some people forget that and tend to think it is a time for receiving.

“Giving back reminds us of what’s really import-

JWR

Department mourns lossof Samantha Middendorf

By Sally RenaudWe always talk about how we are so close to

our students in the journalism department.That closeness was never seen more clear-

ly than this weekend, when two of our students were involved in an automobile accident that claimed the life of one and injured the other.

When we said, “Samantha and Jarad …,” ev-eryone knew about whom we were talking.

We know these two young people from our classes, from The Daily Eastern News, from our front office, from trips with them. Their bylines were prominent in the paper. And so were their energy and enthusiasm in the newsroom and in the department.

Samantha Middendorf died Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014, from injuries suffered in the accident. Her loss is felt, and the numbness we feel has not worn off. We are going about our work, but we are seeing Samantha’s image everywhere. It’s heartbreaking.

The staff of The Daily Eastern News had the difficult task of covering the accident, remember-ing Samantha and supporting Jarad. With the helps of their advisers and editors, they worked and grieved, and then worked and grieved some more. The process, of course, is not over.

The staff of News Watch also faces these challenges. Jarad’s roommate, Braden Harp, a senior geography major studying meteorology

who is a weather forecaster, and other members of News Watch, have been touched by this trage-dy. They, too, covered the accident and prepared a tribute piece for Samantha. They continue to mourn, while they help their friend through his recovery at home.

The kindness of our alumni and of the cam-pus community has helped our students and the department as well. Flowers sent to the DEN newsroom. Posts on Facebook. Notes of sympa-thy and support. Virtual hugs. We appreciated them all.

More aboutSamantha:

Photo: Jason HowellSamantha Middendorf

Agency sponsorsfamily of two

Visitation: Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, 2014, and from 8 to 10:15 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014, at Moll Funeral Home in Mascoutah, Illinois.

Funeral: The funeral will be held 11 a.m. Sat-urday, Nov. 22, 2014, at St. Pancratius Catho-lic Church in Fayetteville, Illinois.

Services

NewsWatch VideoDEN news articleDEN column

“The kindness of our alumni and of the campus community

has helped...”Sally Renaud

Group seeksdonations

for holiday gifts

See DONATIONS, pg. 4

2 JWR

JWR T h e J o u r n a l i s t

T h e W a v e l e n g t h

T h e R e l a y

JWR is a publication of the EIU Department

of Journalism.2521 Buzzard Hall,600 Lincoln Ave.,

Charleston, IL 61920 217-581-6003

www.eiu.edu/~journal

JWR: is organized, edited and designed by The Agency, the student-run publicrelations firm at EIU.

The Agency meets:Every Thursday in 2434 Buzzard Hall5 p.m.

Editor: Lexi Stickel

The AgencyDirector:

Katelyn Ifft

The Agency AssociateDirector:Jazmin Smiley

the Chili Bash

The Agency produces JWR and writes news for the department’s blog

Blog: www.eiujournalism.wordpress.com

Twitter: @EIU_Journalism

Facebook Page:search for Eastern Illinois University Journalism

Staff:

Photo: Liz Viall Journalism majors Liz Grubart and Katelyn Ifft met alum Katrina Zaret, right, at the Chili Bash during Homecoming Oct. 25. Grubart is social media editor for The Agency, Ifft is The Agency director. Zaret served as The Agency director and vice president of PRSSA while at Eastern. Marco Santana, a 2008 journalism graduate and now a reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, was honored as Alumnus of the Year by the journalism department at a luncheon Friday and at the Chili Bash.

Website: www.eiu.edu/~agency

Contributors:Brian PoulterSally RenaudJason Howell

The Agency Adviser:

Liz Viall,ekviall@eiu.edu

Writers: Ashley Jordan

Lexi Stickel Jazmin Smiley

Liz GrubartKatelyn Ifft

Rachel Pender

By Jazmin SmileyFor many of the jour-

nalism instructors at East-ern Illinois University, find-ing time to indulge in a hobby is a very rare oppor-tunity. However when the occasion arises they like to indulge in fun and char-acter building activities. Sally Renaud, professor and interim chair of jour-nalism, is quite busy these days and finds it hard to find free time. When she does find time, she enjoys reading mysteries.

“Nothing is better to me than being in an arm chair in my pajamas on the week-end reading a good book,” she said. Renaud likes to read authors who write se-ries.

“The books progress and you get to know the time pe-riods very well, you eventu-ally feel like you know these characters,” Renaud said. Her favorite authors in-clude Walter Mosley and Robert B. Parker. Another part that she finds interest-ing about reading mysteries is that the main characters are usually on the right side of the law and that the main character in each book has a different code of ethics, she said.

Renaud said she’s excit-ed when a new book of a se-ries comes out and she gets to discuss it with her col-leagues.

When communication law instructor John Ryan has spare time he enjoys

playing golf. Ryan said that he is really into sports and use to play basketball and jog. When he became a can-didate for knee replace-ment he had to find anoth-er hobby. Ryan said he got into golf because with golf he can still play a sport that was competitive and can be played at any age.

“It’s challenging as heck, it takes a lot of prac-ticing and playing to be ad-equate,” Ryan said.

Photojournalism in-structor Brian Poulter en-joys the road less trav-elled when he has spare time to indulge in his hob-by. Poulter is an avid long distance motorcyclist, also called adventure riding. He packs a bag of clothes, a few gallons of gas, some grano-la and hops into his motor-cycle and side car and ven-tures out on scenic routes throughout the U.S.

In 2010 he travelled 13,000 miles to Alaska and the Yukon Territory, “A lot of adventure riders travel down to Alaska in the sum-mer because it’s so pretty then,” Poulter said.

In the summer of 2012 he traveled on Old Nation-al Road, the first major im-proved highway in the U.S with a rich history. “I al-ways liked exploring. I don’t want to go to an amusement park, I want to explore and meet people,” Poulter said.

Poulter’s next goal is to travel from Alaska to Ar-gentina in 2017.

Photo: Liz ViallInterm chair Sally Renaud reading a mystery novel by Miami Herald reporter Carl Hiaasen.

Hobbies includemotorcycles, mysteries

J-professors

3 JWR

The Warbler won the first place Pinnacle award for its Holi spread. It was also awarded Best in Show at the CMA conven-tion for yearbooks under 300 pages.

J-students attend ACP/CMA conventionBy Rachel Pender

Ten journalism students and five faculty attended the Associat-ed Collegiate Press/College Media Adviser’s fall convention Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in Philadelphia at the Phila-delphia Marriot Downtown.

Students were able to attend seminars presenting them with ed-ucation, research and resources lead by professionals. Olivia Diggs, manager and photo editor of the Warbler, said she attended semi-nars on food writing, how to get ca-reers outside of journalism, how to get a job at the New York Times and sessions on yearbook.

“The one that was most useful to me as a person is the food writ-ing session because there are so many food writers out there and I learned that I should make a blog and have it focus on one thing,” Diggs said. “They told us about one

woman who had a blog all about jarred food, and now she published a book on it!”

She said she plans on using the things she learned for the Warbler. “They talked to us about using so-cial media to help make the year-book something people talk about year round rather than just when they have it in their hands,” Diggs said.

Cayla Maurer, the social me-dia manager for the Warbler, said the staff now plans on using social media to help recruit incoming stu-dents for yearbook staff. “We want to start interacting with local mid-dle school and high school’s year-book and newspaper staff,” Maurer said. “We want to let them know we are interested in seeing their work and invite them to work for us.”

Maurer also attended the semi-nars “Get the Job,” and “Chase the

Vision: Taking a Chance on Jour-nalism Startup,” where she learned about promoting her best self to employers.

Megan Ivey, the design editor for the Warbler and an entertain-ment writer for The Verge, attend-ed the session “Life after Esquire “ lead by Darhil Crooks, creative di-rector for The Atlantic and Mi-chael Wilson who is the design di-rector for Philadelphia Magazine. Both Crooks and Wilson previous-ly worked for Esquire.

“It was my favorite session,” Ivey said. “They talked about how their career paths after college to Esquire and also how they built their careers.” Ivey said she learned just how many ways she could build her career.

Ivey also attended a session called “Chicken Salad.” “It actual-ly had nothing to do about chicken

salad,” she said “They gave us ex-amples of design techniques that I scribbled down to use for The War-bler and The Verge.”

The Warbler was awarded Best in Show and the first place Pinnacle Award for its entertainment spread on Holi. The Daily Eastern News received nineth place Best in Show in the four-year daily category.

In addition to Diggs, Maurer, Ivey, and Volk, journalism students Roberto Hodge, Jarad Jarmon, Stephanie Markham, Samantha Middendorf, Bob Reynolds, Ka-tie Smith and Amanda Wilkson at-tended the event. Journalism fac-ulty John Ryan, Brian Poulter, Sally Renaud, Lola Burnham and Joe Gisondi accompanied the stu-dents.

By Jessi WellandThe Society of Colle-

giate Journalists has a rich history at Eastern Illinois University. To understand that history it is important not only to look at what SCJ is today, but also the events that shaped the society.

The society was original-ly two separate Greek-let-ter journalism societies, Pi Delta Epsilon and Alpha Phi Gamma. The efforts to combine these two societies into a strong central group started in the 1960s, how-ever, there was not a strong push to merge until Daniel E. Thornburgh of Eastern Illinois University in 1973.

Thornburgh was the vice president of Pi Delta Epsilon and although the merge was voted down in

1973 he held onto his be-lief that these two societ-ies should merge. His next move was to invite the na-tional presidents of Alpha Phi Gamma to the Pi Delta Epsilon National Conven-tion to participate in their merger discussions in 1975.

The adviser and coor-dinator who would be han-dling these merger questions and discussions was John David Reed of Eastern Illi-nois University. Through his efforts a merger agreement was brought to Alpha Phi Gamma and was approved through a mail ballot.

Part of the merg-er agreement stated that a former Phi Delta Epsi-lon member would become president.Thornburgh, who was president during 1975,

became the immediate past president.

Thornburgh and Reed helped create what is now known as the Society for Collegiate Journalists and made EIU an important part of its history.

The conference of these two merged societies is held every two years and was last held Oct. 2-4 at Betha-ny College in West Virginia.

During the conference journalism students from across the country discuss and amend bylaws and con-tests that SCJ holds with the help of past members and professors. They also attend sessions that focus on different parts of jour-nalism, such as ethics and photography.

Sally Renaud, the inter-

im chair of the journalism department at EIU, attend-ed the event with two EIU sophomore journalism ma-jors, Megan Ivey and Lau-ren McQueen.

Having the students participate is a great oppor-tunity, Renaud said. The students are taking owner-ship and making decisions for the society. Renaud said they did a great job and it was an empowering oppor-tunity.

“It made me so proud to see Lauren leading the dis-cussions during the confer-ence,” Renaud said.

The students were cho-sen not only because of their hard work in the jour-nalism department at EIU but also in hopes that they will continue their involve-

ment in SCJ throughout their time at EIU.

Last summer, Eastern Illinois University was also chosen to be the national headquarters for SCJ.

“It is an honor to have it back here,” Renaud said. “With EIU having an import-ant role in shaping the cur-rent SCJ, we are very proud to be the new headquarters.” Katelyn Ifft and Beth Kastl are coordinating the office.

Being the headquarters of SCJ includes responsibil-ities such as keeping chap-ter paperwork and distrib-uting SCJ pins, certificates and honor cords to univer-sity chapters.

SCJ members are very proud of their work and they take it very seriously, Renaud said.

SCJ at EasternSociety history entwined with EIU journalism,students participate in West Virginia conference

The Agency is looking for you!

The student-run public relations firm at EIU will be hiring editors for paid positions in spring 2015. If you’re interesting in writing, design, public relations and campaigns, join us spring

semester. Contact Katelyn Ifft, director, at krifft@eiu.edu

4 JWR

Talent show slated for springBy Ashley Jordan

The Agency will have its third annual Salvation Army Talent Show in the spring semester of 2015.

By hosting this talent show, the Agency brings people together for a good cause, the Salvation Army. “The Agency hosts an an-nual talent show to raise funds, canned goods and awareness for the Salvation Army,” said Jazmin Smi-ley, associate director of The Agency. In order to enter the show, students must bring a canned good or donate $1 to the Salvation Army.

The talent show show-cases what the performers have to offer and allows per-formers to share their tal-ent. “Putting on this event is imperative because giving

back is so essential to our community,” Smiley said. “This event is a great forum to spread awareness, raise funds and food while also providing a fun interactive evening for EIU students, faculty and the community.”

Daniel Trevor, a com-munications studies ma-jor, is a beat-boxer and has won the talent show two years in a row. “I felt like I was actually doing some-thing productive and help-ful to the community, which definitely helped me feel good about myself,” he said. Trevor definitely under-stands the essence of the tal-ent show and appreciates being part of something big-ger than just performing.

“If I had to give advice to future talent show partici-

pants, it would be to not treat this as a competition,” Trev-or said. “If you begin to lose focus on the real cause, you know helping out people with the Salvation Army, then it really won’t be much fun.”

The Agency members gain valuable public rela-tions experience from put-ting on such an organized production. The members work diligently for the suc-cess of the show, the support for the Salvation Army, and to show off some of EIU’s talent.

This is the Agency’s big-gest production of the year. In the past, the show has featured Irish dancers, sing-ers, and comedians. The Agency welcomes new acts and there will be a first, sec-ond and third prize.

Photo: Liz ViallEIU students, from left, Katelyn Ifft, Gina Volk, Aaliyah Stephen, Brad Kupiec and Bobby Galuski talked about student publications during Media Fest 2014 on Oct. 1. The students answered ques-tions about The Agency, The Warbler, The DEN, PRSSA, WEIU-TV and radio. Brian Poulter was the panel moderator. The Agency sponsored Media Fest this year as a new way to get students in-volved in student publications and groups such as SCJ.

Fall 2014 speakers

Photo: Brian PoulterJournalism alum Evan Hill is employed at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He returned to EIU to discuss design-ing pages for the paper during the Ferguson demon-strations.

Photo: Brian Poulter Journalism alum John Ferak spoke about investiga-tive journalism and about his book “Bloody Lies: A CSI Scandal in the Heartland.”

Photo: Sally RenaudJournalism alum Kevin McDermott spoke with stu-dents about his work at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering the Ferguson demonstrations.

DEN to celebrate 100 yearsBy Liz Grubart

Starting at the begin-ning of next semester, fac-ulty in the journalism de-partment will begin the process of reaching out to alumni who had previously worked for the Daily East-ern News to prepare for its 100th anniversary celebra-tion Nov. 7, 2015.

Professor John Ryan is planning the celebration. He said he would like to

have any previous editors for the DEN to participate in sharing thoughts about each experience for a book-let he wants to put together in order to gather memories from past years.

“I think it would be great to have a collection of the staff’s individual experi-ences from throughout the years,” Ryan said. “Some schools have a ways to go before getting to their hun-

dredth year, which means Eastern has something meaningful here.”

At the start of spring semester, Ryan and other faculty members as well as some students will begin to contact alumni and get in-formation for the celebra-tion. Past DEN members will be invited. For more in-formation, go to The Daily Eastern News 100th Birth-day page on FaceBook.

ant. Some people are less fortunate than others, and we need to remember them during the holidays,” Ifft said.

The Agency wants to give back to the communi-ty during the holiday season and make the lives of other much easier. Giving back to the community makes oth-

er realize how great life is. “If more people gave back and starting putting other before themselves, society would be better for it,” Ifft said.

Agency member Ash-ley Jordan said giving back during the holiday season gives her a much better feel-ing than receiving during

this time of year. “I am ex-tremely glad The Agency is helping this family during this season. It makes me feel like I am part of a great and giving organization,” Jordan said.

Ifft said “Giving back is a humbling experience and reminds us of what’s really important in life.”

DONATIONS, continued from pg. 1