Journalism at CC (must read) for Block 1
Events, opportunities, internships, practicums, scholarships, and more
Welcome back, everyone.
If you’re getting this email it’s because you’re a journalism minor, you write for a campus publication, identify as journalism-adjacent, have taken a journalism class, or are enrolled in one this fall. (Or maybe you recently graduated and we just haven’t gotten around to kicking you off yet. We do miss you, though!)
Anyway…
This is the CC Journalism Institute’s newsletter to keep you informed about what’s on tap each block. If you’d rather us use a better email address for you, feel free to email Corey at chutchins@coloradocollege.edu. Also, feel free to forward this to any of your friends.
🗓 First, some upcoming events on campus and in the community
Mark your calendar for these in-person events from our program and beyond:
📖 Professor Steve Hayward is bringing fiction writer R. F. Kuang to campus to talk about her novel “Yellowface.” That’s Friday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. in Celeste Theatre in Cornerstone. “A blistering satire of publishing, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the alienation of social media,” an announcement reads.
🛠 On Sunday, Sept. 8 at 4:30 p.m. at Concrete Coyote at 1100 South Royer, come help forge guns into spades (literally) with the organization RawTools. There, you’ll hear a reading by Mary Margaret Alvarado from her nonfiction book about gun violence called “American Weather,” experience art by former CC library staffer Corie Cole, and learn about book art from Aaron Cohick, the former printer of the press at Colorado College. Details here.
🎥 On Sept. 10, Film and Media is hosting a lighting workshop for the department’s “Tech Tuesday” series. “In this workshop, we will cover 3 and 4-point lighting techniques, effective ways to use natural light, color gels to affect the mood or tone of your shot, and much more,” Technical Director Madi Powell said. Time/Location: Studio B at 3:30 p.m.
🇨🇦 Alexandre Couture Gagnon, president of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, will deliver a presentation titled “Changing goals: Canada’s and Québec’s cultural diplomacy in the United States.” (Thursday, Sept. 12 at 5 p.m. in the Southern Colorado Public Media Center, 720 N. Tejon.)
🌮 Journalism lunch. We’re thinking Block 2 for this, so keep an eye out. It will be a catered lunch at our headquarters where you can meet with journalism students and instructors, talk about journalism, and learn about opportunities.
🎬 Journalism Institute co-director Corey Hutchins will moderate a panel discussion with the filmmaker and subjects of the new documentary Trusted Sources following a screening. Location: Denver Press Club. Date: Sept. 26.
👀 In Block 3 (I’d say Oct. 29 or Oct. 30), one of the most important journalistic voices of his generation is slated to speak at CC’s Presidential Symposium. Not sure it’s public yet, so keep an eye out. We’ll also set up a lunch with him that day for anyone interested to come and connect.
➡️ Journalism classes we’re offering this year
Here’s what we have on our course grid for this semester and the next:
Block 2: “Reporting on Politics,” taught by Vince Bzdek, who is executive editor of the Gazette in Colorado Springs and Denver, and Colorado Politics. He’s a CC grad who served as a politics editor of the Washington Post.
Block 3: In “Inbox Journalism: Writing for Newsletters,” taught by Corey Hutchins, students will learn about entrepreneurial journalism, developing a beat you’re passionate about, and becoming an authority on it while cultivating an audience for your work. Newsletters are a growing market in journalism, and you’ll hear from plenty of newsletter writers while creating one yourself.
Block 4: “Introduction to Journalism,” taught by Tina Griego, is your gateway to becoming a journalism junkie. Learn from one of the best in the business. Intro is the only required course for journalism minors.
Block 5: In “Radio Journalism” with Steven Hayward and Peter Breslow, the former senior producer for NPR, you’ll learn your way around audio broadcast journalism.
Block 5: “Introduction to Journalism,” taught by Corey Hutchins, will teach you what sets journalism apart from other forms of communication, why it’s important to society, and, most importantly, how to do it. By the end of the class you’ll wind up with stories you can publish in the campus newspaper and beyond.
Block 6: “Financial and business reporting,” is led by Heather Perlberg, a senior reporter for Bloomberg who covers wealth and the 1%, and is a CC grad. In it you’ll learn about the world of reporting on business and industry.
Block 6: “Secrecy, Surveillance, and Democracy,” taught by Diane Alters and Juan D. Lindau, teaches at the intersection of those three themes.
Block 7: In “Reporting on Wildfires,” taught by Corey Hutchins, students will learn how to better cover wildfires, which are getting bigger, hotter, and more frequent out here in the West. This is a field trip class and you’ll publish your reporting at Burning Questions.
All of these classes count toward the journalism minor. If you have any questions about them get in touch with Corey.
🦅 🗞 INTERNSHIP: The Crestone Eagle
Want to learn how a newspaper that serves the town near our Baca campus operates from top to bottom?
Get in touch if you want to stay at our Baca campus for a block while interning at the monthly Eagle. This counts for the minor.
Send Corey an email with “Crestone Eagle internship” in the subject line.
#ProTip: It’s best if you can get a group of journalism minors who can all agree on a block. At least two. Age requirement: 21.
🆕 Practicum project idea: Help water a news desert
Corey here. This summer, three rural newspapers on Colorado’s Eastern Plains announced they are going out of business. Then, a week later, two more said the same.
I recently wrote about these troubling developments and identified the county of Cheyenne, about two hours East of Colorado Springs, as being what is potentially Colorado’s first real news desert.
If you’ve taken our class “The Future and Sustainability of Local News,” where work by students helped power the Colorado News Mapping Project, you know what happens when communities lose a source of local news. (Spoiler: bad things happen.)
So, if you’d like to help, I’m thinking of creating a project.
We’d map the ecology of public entities that meet to do public business in Cheyenne County — County Commission, town council, the sheriff, the police, who knows what else? — and put in public records-requests for meetings notes or audio/video of their recent gatherings. When we get the responses, we’ll mine them for newsworthy nuggets and data, and either pitch brief items about them to nearby papers or elsewhere, or publish them on our own.
Because, frankly, I’m just not sure anyone else is doing it.
If we can find a handful of students who are interested in building remote-reporting skills while developing expertise in how to use our state’s open-records laws, get in touch with me about it.
If it works out, this could be something that counts for your journalism practicum. And, if done well, I think it could get some attention.
🤑 Submit for this SPJ scholarship award. No, really, do it!
As a board member of the Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Corey will let you in on a little secret: Your chances of winning this are strong.
That’s not because he has any influence as a judge, but because he happens to know how many applications the chapter gets each year. If you believe in your work, he strongly recommends you apply.
Details here:
Sheldon Peterson Award
Broadcast journalism scholarships of up to $5,000 sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists
This scholarship is open to high school seniors and college and university students attending any accredited U.S. college or university. To be considered, applicants must plan on entering a career in broadcast journalism and be from or living in Colorado.
A concise cover letter that may include a statement of financial need and that explains how the applicant intends to use the scholarship. An essay (no more than 500 words) that illustrates the applicant’s writing abilities and plans for a career in broadcast journalism.
The names and contact information for three references.
A current resume.
Three work samples.
Applications must be postmarked or received at the email address below by Feb. 14, 2025. Scholarship recipients will be notified in the spring and will be invited to attend an awards banquet in the Denver area. The scholarship money will be paid to the student’s institution. All award amounts will be decided by the SPJ Scholarship Committee.
Email completed applications to Doug Bell at dgoal@aol.com.
Scholarship recipients will be notified in the spring and will be invited to an awards banquet in the Denver area. The scholarship money will be paid to the student’s institution. All award amounts will be decided by the SPJ scholarship committee.
And this one…
Helen Verba Award
Print/convergent scholarships of up to $5,000 sponsored by the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists
This scholarship is open to high school seniors and college and university students attending any accredited U.S. college or university. To be considered, applicants must plan on entering a career in print or digital journalism and be from or living in Colorado.
A concise cover letter that may include a statement of financial need and that explains how the applicant intends to use the scholarship. An essay (no more than 500 words) illustrating the applicant’s writing abilities and plans for a career in journalism.
The names and contact information for three references.
A current resume.
Three published stories.
Applications must be postmarked or received at the email address below by Feb. 14, 2025. Scholarship recipients will be notified in the spring and will be invited to attend an awards banquet in the Denver area. The scholarship money will be paid to the student’s institution. All award amounts will be decided by the SPJ Scholarship Committee.
Email completed applications to Doug Bell at dgoal@aol.com.
Also, if you are practicing journalism, you should seriously consider joining the state chapter of SPJ. Learn more about our state’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter here, and find out how to join here. We have student rates.
Membership gets you a press card you can use as a credential for events you plan to cover or to more easily identify you as a journalist when you’re reporting in the field. If you have any questions about SPJ membership, Corey is happy to help.
He’s also happy to answer any questions about this scholarship opportunity should you be thinking about applying.
More journalism opportunities and other odds & ends
💸 Take advantage: As a CC student you get free access to the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the Economist magazine, and more, which can save you a lot of money on subscriptions. You can sign up through Tutt Library. Find more information about how to access these publications and others here.
🤫 Speaking of Tutt, the library has reserved time there on Friday mornings during Blocks 1 and 2 for a student co-working space. "Research Swarms” are open for students working on projects. “Students may work independently alongside other students, and a librarian will be available for consultation as desired,” we’re told. Light refreshments are also available. You don’t need to an appointment, and can simply drop in on Friday mornings in Tutt Library room 327 from 9 a.m. to noon if you aren’t in class.
🔎 If you took “Investigative Reporting and Public Service Journalism” (or didn’t but still want to learn more about that kind of work), consider applying for this AccessFest24 Fellowship for free registration for the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference, AccessFest. That’s the annual conference for the group IRE taking place virtually Oct. 17-19. You also get a one-year membership to the group. Apply here. Deadline Sept. 9.
➡️ The Mental Health & Journalism Summit is free and online, and will take place Oct. 8-12. More information here.
🔥 In 2021, CC journalism minor Miriam Brown wrote a sociology thesis paper titled “Experiences of Burnout Among Student-Journalists at a Private Liberal Arts College,” which you can read here. “This study attempts to examine not only how burnout
manifests in student-journalists, but also why it occurs in the first place,” she wrote.
📍 Bookmark these journalism resources
Make sure you’re keeping up with the latest trends in journalism (including student journalism) by bookmarking some of these outlets and keeping up to speed:
Inside The Newsroom — The Newsletter For Journalists (featuring journalism jobs, internships, and opportunities)
The Nugraf, a weekly newsletter by Chatman Monkol about student journalism, featuring “original reporting on the state of student journalism and dedicated sections for showcasing stories by student journalists and highlighting industry opportunities.” (Warning: students who took Inbox Journalism might be envious of Mongkol’s slam-dunk idea for a national newsletter.)
Don’t fall prey to the “News Finds Me” phenomenon, and make sure you’re always actively seeking out news and information.
📝 Have you officially registered for the journalism minor?
Do you identify as a journalism minor but might not actually be registered as one on paper?
Here are the requirements for a journalism minor at CC:
“Introduction to Journalism” and three other topics in journalism classes or others that qualify from English or film and media.
Complete an internship.
Complete a practicum: a long-form piece of journalism in the medium of your choice published outside of a campus publication (what’s your dream outlet? Let’s try!)
If you want to register for the minor, fill out this online form. Put Corey or Steve down as your advisor, and we’ll sign off on it. Then let’s meet to talk about what you might want to consider for an internship or practicum.
🙌 Congrats on so many internships this summer
This summer, Colorado College students fanned out across the country in the newsrooms and workplaces of National Public Radio, KRCC, Sentinel Colorado, the Alliance for Citizen Engagement, Willamette Week, Rocky Mountain PBS, Alaska Public Radio, Di Novi Pictures, Ellucian, El Paso Matters, Colorado Children’s Campaign, and more.
Get in touch
As always, feel free to get in touch any time, or let us know if you want us to take you off this list. — Corey Hutchins & Steven Hayward