From Our Archive
Sept. 24, 1998
Scripps Howard Foundation will launch a
special
studies
program in January
for college-level journalism students.
CINCINNATI -- Scripps Howard
Foundation will launch a special studies program in January
that will give college-level journalism students practical,
on-the-job experience working in a Washington, D.C., news
bureau.
The
Foundation also announced today that Charlotte Grimes, a
visiting assistant professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of
Public Communications at Syracuse University, has been named
director of the "Semester in Washington" program.
Grimes, 49, has been a
national correspondent and columnist on leave from the
Washington bureau of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She resigned
from the newspaper this month to join the Foundation’s
Washington program.
"This is an extraordinary
opportunity for journalism students to gain first hand
experience in the most important news center in the country
and perhaps the world," said Judith G. Clabes, president and
CEO of the Foundation. "We’re extremely fortunate that
Charlotte Grimes will be heading up the program. Her
unparalleled depth of knowledge, talent and experience will be
invaluable to the college journalists who are selected to
participate."
"Semester in Washington"
will be offered in three sessions — fall, winter/spring and
summer - to 15 students per year, five students per session.
The first session will be Jan. 18-April 23. Dates for the
other 1999 sessions will be announced.
Students will come from
selected colleges and universities.
Ohio University’s E.W.
Scripps School of Journalism and the Indiana University School
of Journalism — Scripps Howard Foundation’s major partners —
have first option to send one student each per session. Other
schools will have the option of sending students on a rotating
basis.
The University of
Tennessee, the University of Florida and Hampton University
will join O.U. and I.U. in sending students to the first
session.
"This new initiative
demonstrates how important our partnership is in ensuring that
young journalists gain superb professional training," said
Daniel Riffe, interim director of O.U.’s E.W. Scripps School
of Journalism. "We are excited about the opportunity to make
the innovative ‘Semester in Washington’ program a valuable
experience for our students."
As director of "Semester
in Washington," Ms. Grimes will be working directly with the
students, giving them story assignments, working with them on
story development and finding outlets for their work. She also
will present a weekly "Press and Politics" seminar.
Students will work out of
an office adjacent to the Scripps Howard News Service
Washington bureau. Housing will be provided by the Foundation.
Students will each receive a $1,000 scholarship provided
through their universities.
"The program will enrich
students with real-world skills in their craft, with
opportunities to learn from some of the country’s best
journalists, and with in-depth experience in Washington’s
living laboratory of the press and politics," Grimes said.
"Our goal is to help the next generation of journalists
inherit the best traditions and practices of a free press in a
democratic society."
Besides her position at
Syracuse, Grimes was a Fellow at Harvard University’s
Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy in
the spring of 1998. She also was Ferris Professor of
Journalism at Princeton University from September 1996 to
February 1997.
Her
assignments as correspondent and columnist for the
Post-Dispatch included covering Congress, presidential
campaigns, national politics, international trade and health
care policy. She has received several state, local and
national awards for investigative reporting and feature
writing and has been nominated several times for the Pulitzer
Prize in feature writing. She joined the Post-Dispatch in 1978
as a general assignment reporter and was assigned to the
Washington bureau in 1985.
Grimes is a
graduate of East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C.,
where she received a bachelor’s degree in sociology, with a
minor in journalism.
Dedicated to excellence in
journalism, the Scripps Howard Foundation is a leader in
industry efforts in journalism education, scholarship,
internships, literacy, minority recruitment/development
and First Amendment
causes.
Contact: Judy Clabes, Scripps Howard Foundation, 513-977-3048, clabes@scripps.com