A Return to the Root

On May 31, 2005, we started writing this blog to share our experiences with each other and the world. Our notes drew our eyes and others', and maybe they cast a bit of light on the oft-forbidding shadows of numbers among words.

As this blog passed its birthday, a new crop of interns took our places in newspapers across the country. Meanwhile, we took promising posts in more promising places.

I feel a particular nostalgia for our time together: Monday, I finished my first hours as a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund copy editing intern on the business desk of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Hoping to mirror the success of our 98 posts to date, I have invited a new set of DJNF colleagues to blog their experiences editing news, albeit not strictly business. The site is called Texas Chocolate Pie, named in part after the editing workshop's location, and you can find it at http://djnftexas.blogspot.com/.

It may not be as active as our blog was and could still be — appropriately, as editors mostly edit and writers mostly write — but please visit it now and then as an act of Fund camaraderie.

Meanwhile, I will continue to check this address for updates on your lives and careers, which have been more duly noted than mine. Rereading old posts, I'm so proud of all of you: so proud to be associated with such a bright, driven group and so proud to know how successful each of you will be.

You Want Update, You Get Update

Hello Dearhearts:

I was going to write an update before I saw Millie's request, but since she beat me to the punch I'll dedicate this whole post to me, lol.

This semester has been far different than last semester. Last semester flew by. I honestly didn't feel a part of any school, I was just taking classes. This semseter I feel more like a University of Houston (Hi Tony!!!) student. Whatever that means, lol. But, besides classes and just being busy with other stuff it's been a decent semester. I just hope to make out ok at the end (currently, I should be working on the third of five final papers, but you see what I'm doing, lol).

As far as the summer is concerned, well...it goes a little something like this. May 14-26 I will be attending the New York Times Summer Journalism Institute in New Orleans. It's a two-week intensive training program where basically we do what what we (the DJNF kids) did in New York, except at the end we'll put out a newspaper. We'll probably be focusing on covering Katrina. Not probably, we most definitely will be focusing on Katrina, but it's all good. I'm happy just to be going back to the city. It's hosted by the New York Times (duh), and we'll be taught by Times Regional staffers and some people from the Globe, etc. I'm pretty excited about it.

I leave early from that (it ends on the 27) and head home for my little sister's graduation. I can't believe she's graduating from high school. I'm feelin extra old right now, lol. And then that night I leave for Colorado Springs to go to the Air Force Academy graduation. So I get to see all of my friends graduating and becoming officers. It'll be bittersweet because I could have made the choice to stay and finish with those great people, but I'm so happy about my decision to leave. I'd much rather be a civilian, late nite runs to Taco Cabana after a night of debauchery....who can top that? lol. Plus, this is what I feel I'm supposed to be doing with my life. Write. Write. Right?, lol

I'll leave from there and head to Nashville where I'll be at a training institute for my internship program. I'll be interning at the Houston Defender, a small local paper located in Houston (double duh, lol), through the Black College Wire program. I've been freelancing for them for this past academic year. Some of my stuff should still be up: www.BlackCollegeWire.org.

So after Nashville, I'll be home writing for the Defender and going to summer school so that I make sure I graduate in December. In August, I'll be going to the NABJ convention in Indianapolis. Marcus, Torrye and Andrea will be there (yeah Dre, you have no choice, lol). If you're in the area hit us up. It's going to be fun.

Millie asked for plans after school. Well, I will be applying for the Hearst fellowship and MetPro, if I don't get either of those then I will be going to grad school. I will be applying to a couple of schools on the East Coast, a few in the South (namely Texas), UC Berkley and some in the midwest. One of them WILL take me, lol. However, I'm trying to be as flexible as possible (Katrina showed me that...plans change sometimes, whether you like it or not, ya know?) I may wind up working right after school, we'll see, but the plan is to go to grad school or prayerfully, do one of those two fellowships.

Hmm, what else can I tell you? I decided to get grown and sexy and bought an ibook (it's a beast, I love it). I finally caught up with the rest of modern civilization and bought an ipod (how did I live without this thing for so long??). That seems to be about it for now. Sad to say, I haven't done much business news since last summer, but I hope to soon. Have any of you heard from this wave of interns? I haven't, but I'm not sure if Reno will be getting an intern this summer (long story).

Like Milie said, I would love to hear what everyone is doing. I hope we keep this going well past our interning/college days. I wish you all the best. Stay in touch and if you're ever in the H or wherever I happen to be, give me a holler.

Be easy Kiddos!!!

Love,

Ash

updates, please

Does everyone know what they're going to be doing this summer (or for longer)? I'd love to know! Especially if you're going to be near me! I'll be in D.C.

Vincent strikes again

The Daily Illini is in quite the pickle over something they recently did.

Editorial staff breaks ranks

Better yet, Vincent is in the thick it. Have a read of what Vincent said.

What our columnists think

Well done, Vincent.

Editor's Note: This post was modified to fit your screen.

Full circle

I was looking back over my blog and I stumbled onto May 2005.

It made me a little sad that it wasn't going to happen again this year. To say that last summer was the best summer of my life would be to engage in understatement, and the best week of that summer was the week in NYC. So I guess you could say that was the best week of my life.

I'm not at all sad to hear what some of us are up to. Some really awesome internships are being had and I can't believe that I worked alongside you guys, simply because of how great you all are at this job or simply how awesome you are throughout the whole spectrum.

I don't know what I myself will be doing this summer. So far, it's looking like I'll be at the Louisville Courier-Journal. Either there or at a small-town Kentucky paper west of Louisville. I'm just not sure yet.

Either way, I'm proud that I had a chance to work with each and every one of you. I'd like to say a little bit of each and every one of you rubbed off on me, but I question that I'd be that lucky. I'll just leave it at the fact that we had some good memories and I will always smile when I think about that week.

I should stop being melancholy now. Everyone, take care.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I'm jumping back into the now well-established blogging (or "online magazine") scene.
My friend Kiyoshi and I have launched The Next Frontier, basically a grab-bag site in which we put up daily content -- which includes a weekly commentary and a daily post of the top five stories.
You can check out the posting schedule here.
Essentially, it's a project that we're running to keep ourselves occupied, but we do want it to take off and get some hits - at least from the local bloggers in the Urbana-Champaign area.
One more site for y'all to waste time on instead of writing your articles/papers, reading or doing other things that enrich your lives or keep you from failing out of school.

Season's Greetings

Happy holidays, friends. I miss you all.