Category Archives: Alumni

       
 

MSU J-School alum credits CNS for launching career

Derek Wallbank chats with a student in the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. Image: Barb Miller

Derek Wallbank chats with a student in the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. Image: Barb Miller


By Colleen Otte
It was spring 2006 and journalism student Derek Wallbank’s final semester at Michigan State University.
He was set to graduate and didn’t have a single published clip.
“I bet that going to CNS would get me the clips that I needed to get a job, and if I was wrong, I was screwed,” Wallbank said. “But CNS is awesome, and I wasn’t wrong.”
CNS – Capital News Service – is an MSU class where students cover state government for news organizations across Michigan.
Wallbank is now team leader of the First Word breaking news desk for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Government in Washington, DC. Continue reading →

Knight Center director, J-School alums mark Pulitzer Centennial

Jim Mitzelfeld, M.L. Elrick and Eric Freedman at Pulitzer Prize Centennial in Washington.

Jim Mitzelfeld, M.L. Elrick and Eric Freedman at Pulitzer Prize Centennial in Washington.


Knight Center Director Eric Freedman and two J-School alumni took part in recent events in Washington, D.C., commemorating the centennial of the prestigious awards in journalism, literature and music.
M.L. Elrick, ‘90, won a 2009 Pulitzer for Detroit Free Press coverage of then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s corruption scandal.
The Pulitzer judges cited Elrick and Free Press colleague James Schaefer for “their uncovering of a pattern of lies by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that included denial of a sexual relationship with his female chief of staff, prompting an investigation of perjury that eventually led to jail terms for the two officials.”
Elrick is now a reporter at Fox 2 News (WJBK TV) in Detroit and a member of the of the MSU College of Communication Arts & Sciences alumni board.
As reporters in the Detroit News Lansing Bureau, Freedman and James Mitzelfeld, ‘84, won their 1994 Pulitzer for coverage of a corruption scandal in the Michigan legislature.
Continue reading →

MSU alum credits CNS, Echo for success at Chicago Tribune

Celeste Bott

Celeste Bott


By Colleen Otte
Michigan State University alumna Celeste Bott said the favorite story she reported for the Knight Center’s Great Lakes Echo is one about the salvaging of an enormous, historic grain storage elevator.
The primary advocate and source was a former reporter for the Chicago Tribune, the publication where she is now working.
“Believe it or not,” laughed Bott, who is a statehouse reporting intern for the Chicago Tribune, a position that is part of her pursuit of a masters degree from the University of Illinois’ public affairs reporting program. Continue reading →