Category Archives: Alumni

       
 

Knight Center alums earn new positions at Traverse City paper

Danielle Woodward

Danielle Woodward


Knight Center alum Danielle Woodward is a new business reporter at the Traverse City (Michigan)  Record Eagle.
Woodward, a 2015 graduate of Michigan State University’s School of Journalism, is a former reporter for the center’s Great Lakes Echo. She received the Knight Center’s 2015 Service Award and also a National Pulliam Journalism Fellowship.
She served an internship as copy editor at the Arizona Republic during the past summer.
She will be covering businesses in Traverse City and surrounding counties.
Carol Thompson

Carol Thompson


Among the staff that she joins is Carol Thompson, another Knight Center alum who worked at Great Lakes Echo. Thompson, a 2012 MSU graduate, recently picked up environmental reporting responsibilities at the paper.
During her stint with the Knight Center she was awarded the Edward J. Meeman award for outstanding undergraduate student in 2012.  She joined the Record Eagle in 2014 after reporting for two years at the Peninsula Pulse newspaper in Door County, Wis.
The Traverse City Record Eagle is a daily morning newspaper that serves 5 counties in northwest lower Michigan: Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Antrim, Kalkaska.  It is owned by Community Newspaper Holding, Inc. along with more than 200 community newspapers throughout the United States.

Knight Center alum named engagement editor of Lansing State Journal

Matt Hund

Matt Hund


Matt Hund, a 2008 graduate of the Knight Center’s masters program, is the new engagement editor of the Lansing (Michigan) State Journal.
Graduating from MSU—as well as several years working on campus—was a huge benefit to Hund while working toward and developing this opportunity. Time spent at the Knight Center created an editorial voice on important issues and a desire to engage the community in meaningful ways.
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Tipping toward better science communication

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UROOe4RrU&feature=youtu.be
By David Poulson
Michigan State University alum Sunshine Menezes speaks here about the tipping points of turning scientists into great communicators and journalists into skillful science interpreters.
She is the executive director of the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.
This video integrates her talk and power point presentation at the 2015  “Fate of the Earth” conference put on by MSU’s Environmental Science and Policy Program in East Lansing, Michigan.

Dawn of the wolf patrol: How I got the story

Holly Drankhan

Holly Drankhan hiking in the Swiss alps.


Editor’s note: Michigan State University student Holly Drankhan recently landed an interview  with a convicted arsonist and bombmaker for the Knight Center’s Great Lakes Echo.
Rod Coronado in 1992 burned down an MSU laboratory, destroying 32 years of animal research.
Subsequently the animal rights activist spent two years on the lam before serving a 57-month prison sentence. He told Drankhan that he now is a law-abiding advocate for Great Lakes wolves.
Drankhan, 22, of Clarkston, Michigan, took an environmental reporting class at the Knight Center before graduating with a degree in zoology last June. She continued to freelance for Great Lakes Echo through the summer and will enter the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine this fall.
The Knight Center asked her how she developed the story about the controversial activist. Here’s the scoop: Continue reading →