By Jim Detjen
Fall 2008
As the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2009, there is much to celebrate, while tough challenges lie ahead.
In 1998 when I submitted a grant proposal to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for an additional $500,000 in endowment funds to establish a center at Michigan State University, I hoped to expand the environmental journalism program in a variety of ways.
But I had no idea we’d grow as much as we have.
We are now educating thousands of students and journalists each year through our classes, workshops, magazine, television productions and multi-media efforts. We are also experimenting with new forms of digital media and expanding our international efforts.
Let me highlight a few of our center’s recent accomplishments:
* This issue of EJ Magazine marks the 14th issue since the magazine was launched in 2002. Two of our center’s graduate students, Kristen Tuinstra and Randy Yeip, developed the magazine’s concept and helped launch it. Today, this magazine has won more than 25 state and national journalism awards and in September was named one of the top three student-produced magazines in the nation by the Society of Professional Journalists.
* Last June our second environmental documentary produced by Lou D’Aria and his students was broadcast on WKAR-TV. Two more documentaries are in the works and last summer our center’s first program, Dying to Be Heard, won a Michigan Emmy.
In September this documentary, which has been broadcast on public television stations throughout Michigan, was named one of the nation’s top three student-produced documentaries by the Society of Professional Journalists.
* This fall we launched another ambitious venture with a four-day Environmental Film Festival and Environmental Fair from Nov. 13 to 16. More than 30 documentaries, feature films, children’s movies and shorts were shown during this event. (See: http://www.cas.msu.edu/filmfest ) Thanks go to Susan Woods, Kirsten Khire, Barb Miller, Chris Kennedy, Rebecca Pagels, Dave Poulson, Matt Cimitile and others for making this festival a reality.
* The Knight Center continues to receive a variety of awards for its outreach and training efforts. This fall we were honored with the Cougar Award, given by the
Michigan Chapter of the Sierra Club, in recognition of “outstanding contributions to protecting Michigan’s environment by training students and professional journalists to cover the environment.”
* Our efforts to train journalists and students about important issues such as climate change continue to grow. Last May we co-sponsored a workshop on covering climate change at the University of Maryland with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism.
In August we worked with the Union of Concerned Scientists to run a program on reporting about climate change in Alaska. And this fall I am teaching a new course, “Reporting about Climate Change,” at MSU. It is one of the first courses of its kind in the nation.
* We remain committed to solving some of the most important, but challenging problems, in the field. In July we organized a workshop at the Unity conference in Chicago on increasing diversity in the field of environmental journalism. One of the places we visited was Altgeld Gardens, the South Chicago housing project where President-elect Barack Obama worked as a community organizer in the 1980s. Last spring the Knight Center was honored by MSU for its efforts to increase diversity. A special thanks goes to Emilia Askari for her assistance in these efforts.
* We continue to build an endowment to support scholarships for environmental journalism students and to support our programs. Two of our most recent endowments include a $30,000 pledge from Donald and Katherine Dahlstrom to support student scholarships and a $30,000 pledge from Tim Whaley of EnviroGLAS to support student internships. Thank you!
As we embark on our second decade, we are faced with many opportunities and some significant challenges.
We have attracted dedicated faculty members, including Dave Poulson, Amol Pavangadkar and Lou D’Aria, and talented staff members, including Barb Miller and Chris Kennedy. We also have attracted many talented students from around the world.
In order to build for the future, we need to continue to build our endowment and obtain grants to continue many of our signature programs, such as the Great Lakes Environmental Journalism Training Institute and the workshops we organize for journalism students in Detroit high schools.
We are now in the final six months of a challenge grant from the Knight Foundation to build an endowment. You can find out more about this effort at http://ej.msu.edu/endowment.php or by contacting me at Detjen@msu.edu or Rebecca Pagels at pagels@msu.edu. For each three dollars we raise, the Knight Foundation will give us an additional dollar.
You will be hearing more about our plans to celebrate our 10th anniversary in the spring 2009 issue of EJ, which will commemorate our first decade. Thank you for your
continued support!
