CEJ celebrates 10th year of Scripps fellows

Photo by Kasia Broussalian Cindy Scripps, left, accepts from CEJ staffer Dona Olivier a scrapbook of photos and notes of gratitude in which many of the 50 fellows detailed how the experience enriched their lives and benefited their reporting, allowing them to inform untold numbers of readers and listeners about the environmental issues affecting Earth. Scripps created the fellowships to honor her father.

The 10th anniversary of the prestigious Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism was celebrated last May with a two-day program and reunion of 34 former fellows.

The nine-month fellowship established at the School's Center for Environmental Journalism in 1996 has brought 50 mid-career journalists to CU.

Associate Professors Len Ackland, founding director of the CEJ, and Tom Yulsman are co-directors of the program, which thrives with additional funding from Jean and Ernie Martin ('59).

Former fellows have won awards, written books and launched new careers.

"The fellowship blew my horizons wide open from the standpoint of grasping the enormity of what environmental journalism means in this era of climate change," said Anne Raup, assistant photo editor of the Anchorage Daily News and a 2006-2007 fellow.

In a 105-page book of photographs and thank-you notes to Cindy Scripps, who funded the program to honor her father, former fellows called the experience "a magical year," "an absolute gift" and "an opportunity to rewrite my life." In the book created for Scripps by CEJ administrative assistant Dona Olivier and master's student Felicia Russell (MA '07), Bebe Crouse, class of 2005-2006, thanked Scripps and the program for giving her "the greatest gift that could be bestowed on daily journalists – the gift of time."

"Thanks so much for believing in the necessity of giving journalists an academic year to catch their breath, hone their skills and strive for the future," wrote Rebecca Huntington, a 2001-2002 fellow.

Photo by Beth Gaeddert Todd Hartman, a 1998-99 Ted Scripps Fellow, attends the opening reception of the 10th Anniversary of the fellowships in May at the ATLAS (Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society) building.

Five Ted Scripps Fellows are studying at CU for 2007-2008 academic year. They are Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock a reporter for the Alaska Public Radio Network who covers issues affecting Interior Alaska and files stories for national outlets such as "The Health Show" and National Public Radio; Sean Markey, a freelance journalist and photographer based on the South Island of New Zealand and a former senior writer and editor for National Geographic News and Web producer at National Geographic.com; Todd Neff, science and environment reporter at the Boulder Daily Camera who has supervised many interns from the School; Joseph Sorrentino, managing editor of The Orange County Reporter, San Diego Commerce and Riverside Business Journal in his hometown of Los Angeles and who is also a contributing writer for the California Real Estate Journal; and Florence Williams, a freelance writer and a contributing editor for Outside Magazine whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Mother Jones, The New Republic and the Los Angeles Times.

March 1 is the deadline for applying for Ted Scripps Fellowships for 2008-2009. www.colorado.edu/journalism/cej/