Student Highlights

September 2009:

Jason Kelly, a junior at UCF, majoring in Psychology and Journalism is this fall’s winner of the India Program Fellowship. Kelly has served on the executive boards of the Caribbean Students Association and the Dutch Caribbean Student Association at UCF, and he remains active in the leadership of Central Florida’s growing Caribbean-American community. Upon graduation, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in psychology. He intends to focus his research on the psychology behind European colonialism and imperialism. Established in connection with The India Program at UCF, the India Program Fellowship is sponsored by The Anil and Chitra Deshpande India Program Endowed Fund, the UCF Global Perspectives Office and the Global Connections Foundation.

July 2009:

Gustavo Marrero an Ad/PR major, was awarded a $5,000 scholarship by the Hispanic Heritage Fund of Metro Orlando. Marrero, a junior, submitted an essay and was selected from a pool of more than 100 applicants.

May 2009:

Twenty UCF students and PR instructor Ryan Sheehy will depart for the second annual Communication, Culture and Connection in Ireland.  Class commences in Dublin on Monday, May 18.  Participants will be based at the Marino Institute (www.mie.ie) - both to live for four weeks and for class sessions.

May 2009:

Kelly Allen a Magazine Journalism minor has been awarded a Poynter Institute College Fellowship.  The fellowship, at the Poynter Institute Media Studies in St. Petersburg, is a two-week, intensive multimedia boot camp for college seniors and recent graduates held May 17-29, 2009.

April 2009:

UCF Journalism students invited the best and brightest in local and national media to join students and faculty for our annual J-Day workshop on Saturday, April 18th.  Poynter Fellow Sara Quinn will headline J-Day with a keynote address concerning career preparation in the transforming digital age of print media. Joining Quinn on the J-Day faculty are other insightful and top-notch members of the media.  J-Day will also feature a UCF JOU alumni panel, with Woody Wommack, Ryan Pelham, Mary Tindall, and others. UCF JOU student and Central Florida Future online editor Jeff Riley will be the master of ceremonies at the student-run event.

April 2009:

Outstanding Student Award winners for the 2008-2009 year: Nicole Blake, Outstanding Journalism Graduate;  Laura Bragg, Student of the Year Radio/Television; Melissa Emmett, Outstanding Graduate Teaching Associate; Melissa Emmett, Outstanding Master's Thesis; Elizabeth Minei, Meeske Oustanding Graduate Student; Ashley Settle Student of the Year Advertising/Public Relations; Jennifer Spear, Outstanding Student of the Year Interpersonal/ Organizational.

April 2009:

Senior Journalism major Brian Murphy has won an astonishing three 2009 Mark of Excellence Awards in Region 3 competition of the Society of Professional Journalists for his work in the Central Florida Future. Murphy is a top-three finalist in Feature Writing for “Yotio’s Journey Made of Finest Ivory” and in Sports Writing and in Online Sports Reporting for “Family Love Digs Deep for UCF’s Serna.” The actual place awarded will be announced during the Mark of Excellence Luncheon at the Spring Conference on April 3-4 in Hollywood, Fla. Murphy, who has interned at the LongBeach (Calif.) Press-Telegram and who has been a staff writer, sports columnist and sports editor for the Future, won a regional first prize for Sports Writing in the 2008 MOE competition.

March 2009:

On March 30, 2009 a delegation from the Nicholson School's Journalism program met with 11 visiting Iraqi reporters and editors for a roundtable discussion about the news media and press freedom in the war-torn Middle Eastern country.  The meeting was arranged by the U.S. State Department's International Visitor Program and UCF's Global Perspectives Office.  The discussion, moderated by an inter-preter, ranged from comparisons to journalism education in Iraq and the U.S. to the daily dangers of reporting the news in a country where 275 journalists have been killed since 2003.

March 2009:

A group of 16 Advertising/Public Relations students spent half their spring break in the Big Apple making professional and alumni connections and discovering opportunities for their careers. The trip was organized by Ad Club, a student group in the Nicholson School of Communication.  The group toured some of the biggest agencies in NYC: Ogilvy, McCann Erikson, JWT, as well as Digitas, and Mr. Youth.

March 2009:

Andy Jacobsohn a student in the Visual Journalism track, won second
place in feature photography at the National Press Photography Association quarterly competition. Jacobsohn will be spending his summer in a photo internship in Jacksonville, with the daily Florida Times - Union.

March 2009:

The University of Central Florida offers the Provost’s Graduate Fellowship to superior graduate students who are newly enrolling at UCF in one of its graduate programs. Our own Maya Forrester who is in the masters in communication program, was the recipient this year of the Provost Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship provides $10,000 toward tuition for fall, spring and summer courses. In addition it provides medical insurance for the year.

March 2009:

Samantha Gil, a graduating senior in the Advertising/Public Relations program, with a minor in dance, has been accepted into the Order of Pegasus. This award recognizes exemplary performance by University of Central Florida undergraduate students in the areas of academic achievement, outstanding university involvement, leadership, and community service. Due to the breadth of accomplishments required for this award, the Order of Pegasus is the most prestigious and significant student award that can be attained at the university. She will be attending a reception to honor the inductees on April
22.

March 2009:

About 15 students from the School of Communication, mostly members of the National Association of Black Journalists chapter, met with Golf Channel anchors Iain Page and Kelly Tilghman at their studio in Orlando to watch a live broadcast of Golf Central and tour the facility. Students learned about job and internship opportunities with the network and tips for landing a journalism job after graduation. The office of Multicultural Academic Support Services sponsored the event.

February 2009:

The DJNF interns for Summer 2009 announced:
- Elizabeth Herrera, a senior magazine journalism minor who will be trained at Penn State for a copy-editing internship at the Sun Sentinel of South Florida;
- Jennifer Larino, a graduating senior journalism major who will be trained by Dow Jones Co. for a business reporting internship at the Naples (Fla.) Daily News;
- Hedy Phillips, a 2008 journalism graduate who will be trained at the University of Texas for a copy-editing internship at the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times;

Nicole Blake, a graduating senior journalism major who was a DJNF business reporting intern at the Orlando Sentinel last summer, will be a Pulliam intern at the Indianapolis Star.

Kristin Harris, an Ad/PR major, has been accepted for an internship this summer at Teen Vogue in New York City.

Jessica White, a junior in the Ad/PR program, will be interning this summer with Carolyn Petagno, Marketing and Communications Manager, at UCF's College of Nursing.

February 2009:

The UCF Chapter of the Radio- Television News Directors Association held its annual Spring Seminar on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 in the COM Building. Electronic journalism professionals were on hand with professional training, panel discussions, and critiques of student work.

February 2009:

Alyssa Marder a senior in the Ad/PR program, was selected to be a Teach for America 2009 Corps Member.  To participate in this program college graduates must commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools in high poverty areas.  According to its web site, "last year alone over 25,000 people applied for Teach For America and only 3,100 were selected."

January 2009:

Nicole Blake, journalism major received the Tim O'Keefe award and a $250 prize for the best portfolio.

January 2009:

Jennifer (Jen) Rosen, a senior majoring in Radio-Television Production, has been selected to receive the Mike Meeske RTV Scholarship.  She will receive a $1,000 stipend to apply toward her educational expenses.

January 2009:

Nicole Blake, a Journalism major was selected as the 2008-2009 recipient of the $1,000 Fred Fedler Scholarship.

January 2009:

Jayne Alagano, a senior in the Broadcast Journalism program, is doing an internship this semester at Orlando's WFTV Channel 9.

January 2009:

Ileana Llorens, a December 2008 journalism graduate, participated in the New York Times Student Journalism Institute at Florida International University in Miami on January 2 - 12, 2009.  Llorens was one of 20 Hispanic student journalists chosen from across the country to report, edit, or shoot photos under the supervision of Times editors.

September 2008:

Jourdan Crumpler Hathaway (2002, Ad/PR) was recently promoted from senior account manager to director of client services at Evok Advertising, Inc.

September 2008:

Lisa Velardi (above), a senior in the journalism program, was named a winner of the 2008 Robert Walker Scholarship in Christian Journalism. The scholarships are $2,000 each and are awarded to five outstanding college journalism students in the United States who are pursuing careers in religious publishing.

September 2008:

For the first time in the UCF Nicholson School of Communication history, 31 students studied in Dublin, Ireland, for four weeks this summer.  Lead by communication faculty members Dr. Kristin Davis and Ms. Ryan Sheehy, the Communication, Culture and Connection excursion, which occurred May 17 June 13, 2008, immersed students in the sights, sounds and culture of the Emerald Isle.  The international program was created for students interested in either interpersonal or mass communications and featured two distinctively different tracks - intercultural communication and international public relations case studies.

click here for the article (.pdf)

September 2008:

In early August, more than 10 Quotes members and Club Advisor, Ms. Ryan Sheehy, attended the 70th Annual Florida Public Relations Association conference at the Gaylord Palms Resort Hotel and Conference Center in Kissimmee.

September 2008:

Members of the UCF Chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists traveled to Chicago for six days in late July to attend the UNITY Convention, the largest gathering of journalists of color.  Eleven students represented UCF at the convention. Sophomore Journalism major Shahdai Richardson was selected to participate in the prestigious Student Campus project, a program intended to cultivate young journalists.  The students rubbed elbows with prominent broadcast and print journalists, including ESPN personality Stuart Scott, ABC correspondent Lisa Salters and Newsweek columnist Les Payne. The students also saw presidential candidate Barack Obama, who visited the convention to field questions from the crowd at an event broadcast live on CNN.

September 2008:

Two UCF journalism alumni and longtime Orlando Sentinel veterans recently moved on and moved up.

Mike Griffin, deputy editorial page editor, left the paper after 23 years to become vice president of communications at Walt Disney World. Griffin will oversee Disney World's media relations and internal communications. During his long career at the Sentinel, Griffin served as city editor, political editor and reporter. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Mike Lafferty, who like Griffin graduated from UCF in the early 1980s, has been named editorial-page editor of the Orlando Sentinel. He is responsible for the newspaper's editorial and op-ed pages and the Sunday analysis-opinion section. Before his promotion, Mike was education editor at the paper. He joined the Sentinel in 1986 and has been a reporter, columnist, editor and bureau chief.

September 2008:

Cameron Smith graduated this May with a degree in radio/ television and a minor in creative writing.  Shortly after graduation he moved to California to pursue his dream of working in television.  After just two months, he has been hired as a Production Assistant on the Fox sitcom 'Til Death.

July 2008: Ryan Pelham, a summer 2008 graduate of the Journalism program, has accepted a job as a photojournalist at the New Britain, Conn., Herald, a community tabloid-format daily paper owned by the Journal Register Company. Pelham won first prize in the SPJ Mark of Excellence Region 3 competition for Breaking News Photography. He also won several awards for photojournalism in J-Day and Knight Image Awards competitions.

July 2008: Jessica Malavé (2005, Ad/PR) has joined Access Advertising/PR as a Design and Public Relations Account Executive. Prior to joining the Roanoke, Virginia, based advertising and public relations firm, she served as an Account Executive for the South Florida based advertising firm, Engelhardt & Partners.

July 2008:

The Orlando Sentinel on Thursday expanded its partnership with the Journalism Division of UCF's Nicholson School of Communication.

Starting this fall, the news company's Web site, OrlandoSentinel.com, will offer expanded coverage of UCF by publishing news produced by UCF journalism students, with supervision from their professors.

The "U-News" page and its content will be produced and managed by students in the Journalism Division's advanced reporting and editing classes. Students will report about the people, events, issues and trends shaping and affecting Florida's second-largest university and its surrounding community. The UCF student population is expected to top 50,000 this fall.

The move represents a significant change for the Sentinel and UCF's Journalism Division. For the past two years, the Sentinel has published a half-page of student-produced UCF news in the regional sections of the newspaper. The move to the Web site will greatly increase both the number of stories and the ability to tell those stories with all of the tools of the digital age: text, photos, video and audio. It also means UCF journalism students will have a much larger audience for their news stories. The Orlando Sentinel reaches 1.2 million people each week in print and online.

"Journalism is changing," said Roger Simmons, the Sentinel's Associate Managing Editor for Online and a UCF alumnus (Liberal Studies, 1997). "The Web has become such a vital part of how people receive their news and information. We hope this partnership with UCF will not only help prepare a new generation of journalists but also help our community gain greater insight and understanding of the issues and events at one of our nation's top universities."

The partnership with the Sentinel adds to the growing vitality of UCF's journalism program, which is already a designated training center for the prestigious  Dow Jones Newspaper Fund copy-editing internship program.

"This is an enormous opportunity for UCF," said Rick Brunson, Journalism Division area coordinator, who will teach the U-News classes with Dr. Steve Collins. "It comes just as we are beginning to aggressively introduce multimedia storytelling skills across our curriculum. This partnership will help us better equip our students for the future and give them a digital platform on which to showcase their talents and serve their community as ethical and responsible journalists."

July 2008:

Matt McKinley, a senior in the journalism program recently received a Florida Press Association award in the 2007 Better Weekly Contest for an article he wrote while interning at the Orlando Business Journal last summer.  The awards are given for the previous year's publications. The article, "County growth threatens triathlon business," came in second place for the "Sports Feature Story" category in Division B, (circulation size 7,000-15,000).

July 2008:

Melissa Patterson, a May 08 Journalism graduate, is a reporting intern this summer at the Chicago Tribune.  Within a couple of days on the job as a metro reporter, Patterson made the front page for her story Hey, get out of the street.

July 2008:

Steve Mullis, class of spring 2008, has accepted a job as Associate Editor for Online News for Minnesota Public Radio. MPR is the nation's second-largest producer and distributor of national public radio programs. In this role Steve will edit radio stories for online, shoot and edit photos and video, and create new and creative ways to distribute MPRs news content online. His first major assignment will be helping MPR cover the Republican National Convention being held in Minneapolis this September.

June 2008:

Kerri Alexanderwas selected as a recipient of a $2,000 LeRoy Collins Memorial Scholarship.  The award will be presented June 26 at the Florida Association of Broadcasters Luncheon 2008 in West Palm.

April 2008:

The following students were inducted in to the honor society, Sigma Eta Chapter of Lambda Pi Eta on April 14, 2008:

Gwendolyn A. Brunner
Daniel Byerley
Hillary Kotler
Angela Massey
Sharon Merkel
Alicia O'Connor
Elizabeth Pangborn
Brittany Rodriguez
Ashley Settl
Tara Young

April 2008:

The following NSOC students were honored for their commitment to excellence in academics, leadership and community service at the annual Founders Day Awards Ceremony on April 2, 2008:
Lauri A. Gagnon (Ad/PR)
Melissa Patterson (Jou)

April 2008:

The Journalism Division has been awarded a $3,000 Information Fluency Grant for 2008-09 from the UCF Quality Enhancement Plan Initiative Office to help teach students in reporting classes how to search for and publish information found in public records. The grant proposal, co-written by Profs. Rick Kenney and Rick Brunson, included a request to fund a workshop to be conducted by public-records expert Joe Adams for fall Journalism classes. Adams, who is an editorial writer for The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, received the national 2007 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award sponsored by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation. Brunson, the incoming area coordinator for Journalism and an alumnus of the school, will oversee implementation of the information fluency project.

April 2008:

Journalism Majors Clean Up In Society of Professional Journalists  Regional Mark Of Excellence  Competition at the March 29, 2008 luncheon.

Melissa Patterson, first place,
Breaking News

Adam Manzor, first place,
Editorial Writing

Brian Murphy, first place,
Sports Writing

Ryan Pelham, first place,
Breaking News Photography

Abe Aboraya, second place,
Breaking News

Melissa Heyboer, second place,
General Column Writing

Bart Zino, second place,
Feature Writing

Tara Young, third place,
Feature Writing

Amanda Moore, third place,
General News Photography

The staff of the Central Florida Future, under the consecutive editorships of Aboraya and Heyboer in 2007, won third prize for Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper.

UCF student Grant Lowther won the first place prize for General Column Writing.

April 2008:

UCF senior Journalism major Melissa Patterson was named Top Scholar among four students selected in April for 2008 membership in Kappa Tau Alpha, the nations third-oldest academic honors society and the most exclusive in Communication.  Joining her were Journalism majors Brandon Bielich, Stephanie de Sousa and Jessica Tuggle.

Students are selected for KTA from among print and broadcast journalism majors with exceptional academic records. Only the top 10 percent of students who have met certain criteria for credit hours and GPA are eligible each year.

April 2008:

Matt Epstein received the Best of Show Award at the March 29th ceremony. To view all other categories and their associated winners, please click here.

April 2008:

Amanda Moore, a journalism major, placed as a finalist in the 28th Annual Student Photography Contest, sponsored by Nikon, USA.  Over 4,000 students from the United States, Canada and around the world participated in the contest.  Her photograph will be published in the Best of College Photography Annual 2008.

April 2008:

Matt Morrison, a senior Journalism major, has been selected for a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund summer copy editing internship at the Naples Daily News. Morrison, who has held several key positions at the Central Florida Future, becomes the 10th UCF Journalism student to receive one of the 103 DJNF internships this year. UCF ranks second, to Missouri, in the number of DJNF interns for 2008.

April 2008:

Frank Muniz, a junior in the R/TV program, was offered an internship with Comedy Central at The Colbert Report in New York City for the summer semester.  Muniz was one of the 20 interns selected out of nearly 1000 applicants.  Last summer he completed an internship at Nickelodeon in NYC.

April 2008:

Students each receive a $1,000 award from this merit scholarship program and a plaque.   The spring 2008 scholarships winners below received their awards at the meeting of the Orlando Area Chapter of the FPRA on March 26:

Leon Finkler  (Ad/PR)
Catie Fry (Jou)
Jennilee Hwang (Ad/PR)
Christyn Lanza (Ad/PR)
Rex Riepe (Ad/PR
Amy Shanks (Ad/PR)

April 2008:

The Nicholson School of Communication's UCF Knightly News was recently named "Best College TV Newscast for 2007," by the Florida Associated Press. This was awarded from a show in Spring 2007. Additionally, one of Nicholson's Broadcast Journalist student, Diana Bosch, won 2nd place "Best Long Light Radio News Feature." Two big accomplishments for the Radio/Television Division in the Nicholson School of Communication.

March 2008:

Wendy Allen Brunner is a candidate for August graduation from the mass communication track and has been accepted into the doctoral program in Mass Communication Law at the University of Florida.

March 2008:

Melissa Emmett, a student in the master's program, plans to graduate in May from the interpersonal track. At the end of February she was accepted to Arizona State University's doctoral program. Emmett also received a telephone call from the director of the program offering her a teaching assistantship, and a recruitment grant from the university. "I am grateful that my experiences conducting research and teaching at UCF have cultivated my potential to succeed in the future" said Emmett. She plans to visit Tempe, Arizona, to meet with faculty and current Ph.D. students to discuss the potential of continuing her education at ASU.

March 2008:

Jenny Lister is a graduating senior in the Interpersonal/ Organizational Communication program. Recently she was notified that would be the volunteer services coordinator for the entertainment department of Give Kids The World in Kissimmee.

February 2008:

Aisha Roberts, an RTV-Broadcast Journalism junior, is the second runner up in Miss UCF competition and also the recipient of a scholarship.

February 2008:

Abeer Abdalla, presented Martin Luther King Jr.s speech The Drum Major Instinct at the 11th Annual Joseph C. Andrews Mentoring Breakfast on February 4, 2008. Nontombi Naomi Tutu (race and gender activist, South Africa) was the keynote speaker.

February 2008:

Kerri Alexander, an RTV-Broadcast Journalism senior, led the celebration of Lift Evry Voice and Sing at the 11th Annual Joseph C. Andrews Mentoring Breakfast on February 4, 2008. The UCF Black Faculty and Staff Association and the Student Government Association sponsored the event.

February 2008:

Audra Martin, an RTV-Broadcast Journalism senior, recently was crowned Miss UCF and awarded a scholarship. She is sponsored by Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority and will go on to compete for the Miss Florida title in July.

January 2008:

Cristina Delgado is a second semester student in the masters program. Her manuscript, Plans Require Participation: Disaster Recovery Plans are Ineffective Without People was peer reviewed and published in a national journal, The Journal of Emergency Management.

January 2008:

Brittany Jo Miller graduated with a 4.0, Summa Cum Laude from the AD/PR program and was named Top Honor Graduate for the College of Sciences at the December commencement ceremony.

January 2008:

Penny Jackson, an RTV major, received "Honors in the Major" for her thesis: The Effects of the 2003 Revision of the 1996 Telecommunications Act on Media Ownership Groups and Diversity.

January 2008:

Cristina Delgado recently published a manuscript in The Journal of Emergency Management, a national, peer-reviewed journal,titled "Plans require participation: Disaster recovery plans are ineffective without people."

January 2008:

Nicole Blake, a junior journalism major, was selected in late December for a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internship for summer 2008. She will be a full-time and fully paid business reporting intern for the Orlando Sentinel after undergoing a week of intensive training by writers and editors from the Wall Street Journal and educators from DJNF at New York University in late spring.

December 2007:

Journalism Professor, Rick Brunson's Metro Reporting class created a multimedia storytelling project. The project, which includes multiple forms of media, can be viewed here.

December 2007:

A record eight UCF journalism majors have earned Dow Jones Newspaper Fund editing internships and will be headed for paid work on newspapers from Fort Lauderdale to Mankato, Minnesota, in summer 2008. The students, their news organization and their specialization: Padrick Brewer, Palm Beach Post, sports editing; Jessica Croy, Columbus, Ga., Ledger-Enquirer, news editing; Mary Knowles, The Wall Street Journal, news editing; Matthew Kuka, The Cullman, Ala., Times, online editing; Catie Fry, Florida Times-Union, news editing; Ileana Llorens, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, news editing; Zaileen Roach, The Mankato, Minn., Free Press, news editing; Megan Speer, The Buffalo News, news editing.

December 2007:

Two NSOC students have been awarded the inaugural Irene Farrell Pynn Endowed Scholarship. Seniors Jason Holic and Brittany Jo Miller, both Ad/PR majors, were selected based on their original essay on "My Role in Building UCF as an alumna or alumnae." Service to UCF and the community was also a criterion. Jason and Brittany will each receive $1,000.

December 2007:

Congratulations to the Fall 2007 Roast and Toast winners: Melissa Patterson, Jason Holic, Matthew Harper, Juliann Whitebread, Tabitha Bernabe, and Alexandra Schwartz. Melissa is a Journalism major and the other students are Ad/PR majors. Each student receives $1,000, a plaque and is added to the permanent plaques kept in the Nicholson School of Communication. There will be a call for entries in spring semester and six more awards will be given. To apply, students must be accepted into one of the four majors in the Nicholson School of Communication (Communication, Journalism, Radio/TV, Ad/PR), be a senior (90 hours), complete an application form, write a two-page essay as directed. Winners are selected by senior professionals in FPRA, the organization that raised the funds for these scholarships.

November 2007:

Melissa Patterson a senior in the Journalism program, has been awarded a $1,000 grant from the Burnett Honors College Student-Mentor Academic Research Teams (SMART) research program. Her proposed textual analysis of newspapers construction of capital punishment since the Angel Diaz execution was deemed worthy in a year when, according to BHC, the quality of submissions was high and very competitive. Patterson will conduct her research as an independent study under the supervision of Dr. Rick Kenney. Patterson will write a research report and participate in UCFs Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence (SURE) in the spring semester. The Showcase will take place April 4.

November 2007:

Adriana Meneses a junior, in the R/TV Broadcast Journalism track - was informed recently that she won the $2,500 Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Orlando Scholarship.

October 2007:

Journalism major Melissa Patterson,on Oct. 16, was the recipient of the first Fedler Scholarship, a $1,000 honor bestowed by the award's namesake, veteran professor and journalism division head Fred Fedler. In Washington D.C., Patterson was elected to the national board of the Society of Professional Journalists as its campus representative during SPJ's annual convention. She was selected over candidates from larger journalism schools, including the University of Florida., Melissa learned that she was the recipient of Mary A. Gardner Scholarship, a $1,000 award that goes to outstanding journalism students recognized by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She also spent last summer on a Pulliam Fellowship, reporting at the Indianapolis Star where her stories regularly landed on the front page. She also has interned at USA Today and is currently interning at the Orlando Sentinel. She has also served as news editor of the Central Florida Future.

October 2007:

Melissa Patterson, recipient of the Mary A. Gardner $1,000 scholarship. Awarded to outstanding Journalism students, recognized by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

October 2007:

Jennifer Giusti is a graduating senior in the Interpersonal/Organizational Communication major. Recently she got a job working for a local internet marketing company called Localtising Inc. Giusti said "I am looking forward to using my skills in my new position as a marketing assistant."

October 2007: Melissa Patterson was elected to the national board of Society of Professional Journalists (as campus representative at national convention).

September 2007: Diana Bosch, On Saturday, September 22nd, an R/TV major, was interviewed by Julie Banderas on The Big Story Weekend on Fox News. The segment was a live question- and-answer, discussing the recent deaths of three Central Florida boys linked to amoebas.

September 2007: Penny "Star" Jackson, a broadcast journalism senior and McNair Scholar, is traveling to Baltimore, Maryland on September 21-22, 2007 to present her research on "The Effects of the FCC's 2003 Revision of the Telecom Act on Media Ownership Groups & Diversity of Voice in the Media".

September 2007:

Amy Bunn, 2007-2008 Chair Alumni Chapter (September 2007) Amy graduated in 2002 with a degree in advertising/public relations and currently works as marketing/public relations manager for Turnstile Publishing Company. In addition to serving on the NSOC executive committee, Amy is actively involved with the Florida Public Relations Association and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

September 2007: Cynthia Lambert is the recipient of this year's Bob Davis Award from the Orlando Area Chapter of FPRA. She is an Ad/PR alumna from UCF and a public relations specialist with Metroplan Orlando

July 2007:

Katie McCain works at Chapman Studios as a dolly technician. (http://www.chapman-leonard.com).

June 2007: ED201 (The Magazine Club) was named the Best New Chapter of the Year by the National Organization (although the chapter is in its second year, it still qualifies as a "new chapter."

June 2007: Holly Trusiak, a journalism student, was hired as a copy editor at the North County Times, a daily news-paper that covers San Diego County, Calif. Holly was hired, according to her editor, because of her experience editing copy for the U-News page -- a joint project between the UCF Journalism Division and the Orlando Sentinel .

June 2007: Melissa Patterson earned a prestigious Pulliam Fellowship.

May 2007: Dr. Joe Hall's "Advanced Video Post-Production" class produced public service announcements for the Orange County Victim Services Center as its final project assignment for Spring. Six of the 30 second PSA's have been selected to air on local broadcast stations in the coming months. Students selected were: Jared Clemons, Randy Coole, Shanna DiNobile, Lawnette Munday, Mike Ossola, and Lisa Wax.

May 2007: Frank Stansberry/ PRSA Scholarship was awarded to Alessandra Vaughan.

May 2007: Rodrigo Campos' film "Insane Delict" and Oren Schiff's "Three Dead Mimes" were both regional finalists in the Campus Moviefest competition. "Insane Delict won the UCF viewer's choice award and was nominated for the Golden Tripod Award for "Best Soundtrack".

May 2007: Danielle Lillig - Copywriter for YPB&R.

May 2007: Lauren Marie Caspanello is a recipient of Who's Who Among Students Award.

May 2007: Tracey Juergens ( Organization Comm.) Weddings and Special Events at the Mission Inn Resort.

May 2007: Jacey Brown graduated this past May with a master's degree in Mass Communication and has accepted the job of Education Manager with Junior Achievement of Central Florida. (June 2007)

May 2007: Corrine Schuler earned the Top Scholar Award for Kappa Tau Alpha Honor Society.

April 2007: Founders Day Scholars (students must complete 75 hours and be in the top one percent of students in the College of Sciences). The following Ad/PR students received recognition: Julie Zimmerman, Lauren Caspanello, Robert Foglia, Pamela Mackenzie, Brittany Miller and top undergraduate scholar to Ana Suarez in the School of Business but a double major in Ad/PR.

April 2007: Marquis Duncan - Massey Fellowship Winner (2006) completed 1 year term and was hired full-time by MPB Communications.

March 2007: Husseim Jebailey, (class 2000) now University Director for Knight Newspapers.

March 2007:

The following students from the University of Central Florida have been selected to receive Region 3 Mark of Excellence Awards at regional conference in Gainsville, FL at the Paramount Resort and Conference Center.

Troy Hillier, General Column Writing, Column Collection : 3rd place
Melissa Patterson, Breaking News Reporting, SAE pledges found 'sobbing,' in costume: 1ST place
Matt Pollitt, General News Photography, Violence Hits : 1st place
Nada Taha, General News Reporting, Coping with grief, disbelief, 3rd place
Staff, Best All-Around Non-Daily Newspaper, Central Florida Future : 2nd place

February 2007: U-News debut - NSOC and the "Orlando Sentinel" debut a new page in the local & state section on Feb. 7th called U-News. The page features articles and photos produced and edited by journalism students at the NSOC. Steve Collins' Advanced Reporting class writes the stories and Rick Brunson's Editing 2 class edits them for publication. Appears weekly (started on Weds. was moved to Thurs. when the Sentinel added county sections.)

February 2007: Lordins Geffard, a Radio/TV Production senior was awarded the Dr. Tee Collins Scholarship. The award was presented by the Black Faculty and Staff Association at the 12th annual Joseph C. Andrews mentoring breakfast.

February 2007: Julie Zimmerman has been inducted into the Order of Pegasus. This is the most prestigious and significant student award that can be attained at the university. (Also Ana Suarez in the School of business, double major in Ad/PR.

February 2007: Gong Liu, won "Best of Show" at this year's (2007) Addy Awards sponsored by the Orlando Advertising Federation.

February 2007: Fall 2007 Roast and Toast scholarship winners: Sara Lofty, Lauren Caspanello, Drenita Shelton, Katrina Mustakas, Jessica Porta & Cara Mielke.

February 2007: Danyelle L Sutherland was selected as a ($2,000) recipient of the LeRoy Collins Memorial Scholarship by the Florida Independent College Fund.

November 2006: Suzette Farquharson-Morgan (completed Communication MA Fall 2001) recently published released a self-published book titled "Living Testimonies."

May 2006:

Christine Dellert and Kim Calhoun were hired by the Orlando Sentinel immediately upon graduation. Within 90 days of Christine's hiring, she was named Sentinel employee of the Month for her front page coverage of the tragic Trenton Duckett case.

April 2006:

Order of Pegasus Inductees (Ad/PR majors):
Noel Blanchet
Melissa Lanzone
Amy Schwartz

April 2006:

Quotes won an Image Award in the 2006 OAC/FPRA Image competition. This was the highest award given in Category D - student entries. The award was for the best student PR campaign. It was presented at the Image Award banquet on April, 27, 2006 at the Orange County History Center. Students were: Lauren Kern, Brittany Durcho, Courtney Austin, Kennedy Segler

February 2006:

Four students from Knightly News had news stories air on WESH-TV as part of the station's coverage of Campaign 2006. One of those students, Heather Ford, introduced her story live on WESH during a newscast, the first time in that station's history that a college student aired a live report on its prime newscast.

March 2005:

Susan Kaplan (completed Communication MA in Spring 2004) was selected for the College of Arts and Sciences 2005 Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching.

January 2004:

The Nicholson School of Communication established a student chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. [ CFABJ Website ]

October 2003:

Radio-Television Division Broadcast journalism senior Anne Deason has received a Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communication. The national award was presented in Tulsa, Oklahoma on October 2nd. Deason's television news feature, UCF Daycare won the only Clarion awarded in the student category. The report featured a UCF student's struggle as a single mother and the long waiting list for children's entry into the Creative School. The report aired on a fall 2002 edition of the WNSC Knightly News. The Clarion Awards is a renowned competition recognizing the best works from all communications fields. Entries are judged against the work of their peers in size and budget to ensure that everyone from the largest ad agency to the smallest newspaper are fairly considered. "This is just another example of why students should get involved in student chapters of professional organizations as soon as they can," said Deason. UCF's student chapter of AWC is advised by Carol Bledsoe in the Nicholson School of Communication.