The first all-media holiday party is being held on Dec. 17 at Nectar Lounge in Fremont! Reconnect with your friends working in print, television, radio and web journalism. All Puget Sound-based newsrooms staffers and former staffers invited.
All the proceeds benefit the Northwest Journalists of Color scholarship administered by our AAJA Seattle chapter. Since 1985, the NJC scholarship has awarded grants to more than 100 outstanding young journalists. Alumni have gone on to work for The Seattle Times, Seattle magazine, The Los Angeles Times, CBS News, and Sony Pictures, among other places.
The party is hosted by David Boardman, executive editor of The Seattle Times; Sharon Chan, technology reporter at The Times; and Candace Heckman, senior editor for Nyhus Communications.
KING5′s Lori Matsukawa and KIRO Radio’s Bill Radke will emcee. There will be a live DJ and heavy appetizers. Cocktail attire recommended.
(Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Mai Hoang, NJC scholarship winner Peter Sessum and Founder’s Scholarship winners Katelin Chow and Mary Pauline Diaz.)
“Back to the Future” was the motto of this year’s AAJA National Convention in Los Angeles.
Aside from being the title of one of my favorite movies as a kid, “Back to the Future” succinctly captures this year’s milieu: We put the awfulness of 2009 behind us and looked ahead to the opportunities of tomorrow. We gave ourselves the space to dream once again — in Hollywood, a place where humans fail hard and often. But we all know that a few of the persistent ones eventually get a lucky break and make their dreams come true!
AAJA today is a dream realized for the journalists who founded it in 1981. You can’t help but feel moved by this awesome promo video marking the occasion of our organization’s 30th anniversary.
Courage. Pride. Passion.
These are words that come to mind when I think of the people who represented our Seattle chapter.
We can all be proud of our AAJA National President Sharon Chan and AAJA National Treasurer Candace Heckman for steering the organization through one of the most difficult years in its history. They made tough decisions, but today the organization has survived a fiscal crisis and is on steadier ground with a new executive director.
Who else was there from our chapter? KING5 anchor Lori Matuskawa; VOICES project director Marian Liu; and several of your chapter board members (Athima Chansanchai, Venice Buhain, Caroline Li and yours truly).
But there were a lot of other faces too! They include:
Seattle Times Executive Editor David Boardman
KING-TV reporter Owen Lei
Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Mai Hoang
AOL FanHouse producer Sunny Wu
KBCS news director Joaquin Uy (also recipient of an AAJA National award)
KNDO-TV (Yakima) reporter Shawn Chitnis
Public relations executive Christine Chen
Freelance writer Judy Hsu
Founder’s Scholarship recipients Katelin Chow and Mary Pauline Diaz
Northwest Journalists of Color scholarship winner Peter Sessum
Special appearances by Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen and former Executive Editor Mike Fancher
For those of you who didn’t come to the LA convention, I ask you, will we see you in Detroit next year? Should AAJA change the way it holds national conventions?
With only four months left in 2010, our chapter continues to offer great programs and events!
Sept. 11, afternoon: AAJA Seattle annual summer picnic. Golden Gardens. FREE. Bring your spouse, kids and anyone else who’s special.
Sept. 21, 11 am-4:30 pm: AAJA members get the SPJ discount to their Freelancer’s Survival Guide conference at REI. $30 members, $40 non-members.
Oct. 16, all day: Northwest Video Workshop at KING TV. $35 registration. First 10 AAJA members to register get in for $20. (You must send an email to me at sbhatt@seattletimes.com after you register to confirm the stipend is still available.)
Late October: Elections for chapter board. Stay tuned for details.
Early November: Our second Innovation Salon: Monetize Your Digital Content.
Couldn’t make it to Los Angeles to attend the AAJA Convention? Or didn’t have a chance to attend all the sessions (or all the ones you wanted to attend were at the same time)?
No problem. Thanks to the wonders of technology, you can get a taste of the convention experience long after it’s over.
Web tools and Social media — One of the convention highlights were several presentations from Robert Hernandez, a professor at the University of Southern California (and former senior news producer and director of development at The Seattle Times). Check out his handy site for interesting web tools as well as his Intermediate Social Media presentation (done with Justin Osofsky of the Facebook Development Network) . And here’s a great takeaway made by Hernandez during his presentations: “You are a lazy journalist if you only use social media. You are a lazy journalist if you don’t use social media.”
Presentation bits and pieces. Sacramento-based multimedia journalist Cody Kitaura has a great post that includes a variety of audio, quotes and links from several convention presentations.
Finally, it’s never too early to think about next year. The next AAJA National Convention will be in Detroit on Aug. 10-13, 2011. Check out the video below.
[AAJA Seattle members at the 2010 Northwest Journalists of Color reception, June 8 2010. From left to right AAJA Seattle president Sanjay Bhatt, NJC co-chair and AAJA Seattle secretary Venice Buhain, Rachel Solomon, Mary Pauline Diaz, Katelin Chow, Peter Sessum, NJC co-chair Mai Hoang, AAJA Seattle treasurer and past NJC chair Nicole Tsong. Photo by Naomi Ishisaka.]
Katelin Chow
Katelin is a sophomore at the University of Washington where she studies Journalism and political science. She’s interested in all types of journalism, including television, print and radio—Katelin would eventually like to produce broadcast stories, whether for a local TV station or an online publication. This past February, Katelin interned with NBC Universal at the Vancouver Olympics, where she worked as a runner for operations and production logistics, as well as a logger for curling production. Katelin has also worked with The Daily since she started at the UW, and has written stories, copy-edited, produced
video stories and has also helped start the paper’s new TV-show, The Daily’s Double Shot. Earlier this month, one of Katelin’s stories for The Daily was recognized as one of the top three in SPJ’s Region X for General Television reporting. She is a student in the University Honors program.
Mary Pauline H. Diaz
Mary Pauline is finishing her sophomore year at Seattle University, studying Theology and Religious Studies. Her name roughly translates to “humble overthrow,” reflecting what she hopes to offer the world and how she views the media’s impact potential. Originally from Aurora, Colorado, Diaz was Entertainment Editor for Seattle U’s student weekly The Spectator and has written for Ignite Your Faith Magazine, myUsearch.com and her own music website, TheOvercast.net. Diaz is a Filipina-American—her parents and siblings immigrated in the 1980s, and she is the only member of her immediate family born in the United States. She is grateful for their models of commitment to justice and empathy, and she hopes to bring that to a career in print or online journalism. In all things, Diaz seeks to explore and honor true human experience.
Peter Sessum
Peter fell into journalism almost by accident. It was the only humanities course open when he signed up for his first quarter of classes.
At the time, Peter was making his return back to school after spending a year and a half working counter narcotics for the State Department in Afghanistan. He thought he could do more good with a degree since the department supervisors didn’t listen to the contractors without college degrees. But he quickly decided that he could do more good reporting overseas and bringing back the stores that aren’t being told than he could working for the State Department.
Despite the recent change in the face of journalism, Peter remains optimistic. He doesn’t feel like he has to compete with 500 other graduating journalism students next year. Instead, Peter, who is currently a student at the University of Washington, believes that he only needs to find one editors that is looking for someone like him. With a lot of experience overseas, knowledge of the way military works and plans to take Arabic classes starting in the fall, Peter feels he will be competitive to report overseas.
Peter won two awards in the 2009 Region 10 Mark of Excellence Awards — first place for in-depth reporting and second place for general news reporting.
Rachel Solomon
Rachel is a junior studying journalism at the University of Washington. She grew up in Redmond, Wash., and started working at The Daily, the UW’s student newspaper, as a copy editor the day before she started her first quarter of college. She has since worked as a beat reporter, features editor and news editor, and has interned at Seattle Metropolitan magazine and the Ballard News-Tribune. Rachel is interested in pursuing a career in radio journalism after she graduates. She loves the intimacy of the medium and how no matter how many people are listening, it always feels like the host or reporter is having a conversation with only you. Her dream job would be to follow in the footsteps of her idol, Ira Glass, and work for This American Life.
With May 1 quickly approaching, here’s another reminder to apply for one of three scholarships from AAJA Seattle.
Scholarships include the Northwest Journalists of Color, which offers college scholarships of up to $2,500; the Founders Scholarship, which provides registration for the upcoming AAJA National Convention and the AAJA Seattle/911 Media Arts Student Scholarship, which provides funds toward rental equipment or classes at the 911 Media Arts Center in Seattle’s University District.
More details and a easy-to-use application form can be found here.
Hurry! All applications must be postmarked by the deadline.
