Category Archives: Awards

Knight Center graduate student lands tech fellowship

Amelia Havanec

Michigan State University Knight Center graduate student Amelia Havanec recently snagged a summer fellowship with a Seattle independent electronic journal.
Crosscut is a non-profit publication founded in 2007 and that serves residents of the Pacific Northwest with facts and analysis of local news. Seattle is the home of such tech giants as Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia and Zillow. Amelia will report on the region’s growing science, environmental and tech space.
She will also help implement Crosscut’s third “Community Ideas Lab,” an ideas contest that organizes people of the Pacific Northwest around local issues that need collective attention. The contest helps put Crosscut’s news stories into perspective.
Amelia has a bachelor of sciences degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester. She has immersed herself in the pursuit of a scientific journalism career and has written for Scientific American MIND, LiveScience.com and The Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, in La Jolla, California.
She enrolled in MSU this past January and is the recipient of The Len Barnes AAA Scholarship and The Don Caldwell Memorial Scholarship in Environmental Journalism.
Amelia is also a producer and host of The Food Fix, a student-led podcast that explores food systems innovations around the world.

Knight Center awards grants for documentary film-making

The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism has awarded four $3,500 grants to support documentary film-making projects by MSU faculty-student teams.
The winning proposals:

“Creative Demolition/Reuse” will look at the nontraditional side of recycling through the concept of creative reuse in the Midwest. Faculty: Geri Alumit Zeldes, School of Journalism; Bob Albers, Department of Media & Information; Troy Hale, School of Journalism. Students: Elise Conklin, Department of Media & Information; William Bridgforth, Department of Media & Information; Nik Siddall, Department of Media & Information; Tyler Clifford, School of Journalism; Kabine Diane: Departments of Finance and Media & Information.
“Tsunami: Relief and Rehabilitation” will focus on the impact 10 years later of the 2004 tsunami on the southern India town of Nagapattinam. Faculty: Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai, Departments of Media & Information and English. Student: Dakshaini Ravinder, Department of Advertising & Public Relations. Alum: Ryan Frederick. Staff: Peter Johnston, specialist, Department of English.
“Flint Brewers: Water in the Works” will explore the importance of clean, safe drinking water through the eyes of local brewery owners in Flint. Faculty: Jennifer Ware, School of Journalism. Students: Daniel Hamburg, School of Journalism; Katherine Kuhne, School of Journalism and Department of Political Science.
“The Environment of Extreme Sports” will explore the connection that extreme athletes feel with nature and the environment. Faculty: Troy Hale, School of Journalism; Bob Albers, Department of Media & Information; Geri Alumit Zeldes, School of Journalism. Students: Elise Conklin, Department of Media & Information; William Bridgforth, Department of Media & Information; Nik Siddall, Department of Media & Information; Alex Scharg: School of Journalism; Tyler Clifford, School of Journalism; Kabine Diane: Departments of Finance and Media & Information.

The proposals were selected after a university-wide open competition.

MSU journalism students eligible for scholarships; many are environment-related

The application deadline for scholarships from the MSU School of Journalism is Jan. 30.
Many of the scholarships target students interested in environmental reporting. You can find a list of the scholarships and how to apply online here.
The scholarships are awarded spring semester for use the following summer or fall. Undergraduate and graduate students who will not graduate in the spring are eligible.

Green versus green and energy dilemmas

Eric Freedman

About twice a year I drive roundtrip between Michigan and Colorado, about 1,200 miles each way. Each time I marvel at the array of wind turbines – hundreds of them – on the high ridges along both sides of Interstate 80 in western Iowa. This in a state with mega-acres of corn grown to make ethanol.
In fact, Iowa ranked first in the nation in ethanol production last year, with Michigan in 11^th place. And it gets the highest percentage of its electricity – about 25% — from wind, contrasted with Michigan’s 1%, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration figures for 2012.
Closer to home, I drove by Michigan’s largest wind turbine array in Gratiot County on my way from Lansing to Midland last fall.
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