College Internship Program Seeks to Increase Diversity in the Newsroom

This summer 47 college students from across the United States will be interning in newsrooms at 36 daily papers under a scholarship program established by the Freedom Forum. The organization, founded by Allen H. Neuharth, former CEO of Gannett, is dedicated to the maintenance of a free press. Former senators Tom Daschle and Howard Baker sit on the organization’s board of trustees.

The Chips Quinn scholarship program was established to honor the former managing editor of the Poughkeepsie Journal who died in an automobile accident in 1990 at the age of 34. The scholarships, which are reserved for “students of color,” were established by Quinn’s parents who were active in the Freedom Forum.

Students selected as Chips Quinn scholars recently participated in a four-day orientation program with veteran journalists in Nashville, Tennessee. They will spend the summer months working at local newspapers before returning to college in the fall.

Fifteen of the Chips Quinn scholars are black. Three are enrolled at historically black colleges and universities. Here is a list of the Chips Quinn scholars who are black, the colleges where they are enrolled, and the newspapers at which they will be working this summer:

• Renita Burns, Temple University, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (New York)
• TaLeiza Calloway, Kent State University, St. Cloud Times (Minnesota)
• Leah Caudle, Western Kentucky University, Lexington Herald-Leader (Kentucky)
• Ronald Clark, Hampton University, Tallahassee Democrat (Florida)
• Daniel Davis, University of Montana, Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
• Ivy Farguheson, University of New Mexico, Appleton Post-Crescent (Wisconsin)
• Natalie Gilmore, Austin Peay State University, Springfield News-Leader (Missouri)
• Sha’Day Jackson, Tuskegee University, Lexington Dispatch (North Carolina)
• Jamaal Johnson, San Francisco State University, Oakland Tribune (California)
• Aerial McCall, Southern Illinois University, Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wisconsin)
• MaSovaida Morgan, Savannah State University, Poughkeepsie Journal (New York)
• Tierra Palmer, Ohio University, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette (Ohio)
• Natasha Robinson, Wayne State University, Associated Press (Virginia)
• Vannah Shaw, University of Missouri, Montgomery Advertiser (Alabama)
• Bowdeya Tweh, Wayne State University, Detroit Free Press (Michigan)

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.