Tribal Election Results Are In - Seminole Tribe of Florida

The Seminole Tribune 25 May 20, 2005American Indian Journalism InstituteAccepting ApplicationsSubmitted by the American Indian JournalismInstituteVERMILLION, SD — The AmericanIndian Journalism Institute (AIJI), a training programfor Native American college students that has producedseveral professional journalists now working atdaily newspapers, is accepting applications for itsnew class in June. The application deadline is March31 and it can be found online at www.freedomforum.org/diversity.The Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundationpromoting employment diversity in America’snewsrooms, will fully fund and run the annual academicjournalism program for about 25 NativeAmerican college students. It will take place June5–24, at the Al Neuharth Media Center at theUniversity of South Dakota.Graduates of the program will receive fourhours of college credit awarded by the university anda $500 stipend/scholarship from the Freedom Forum,paid when the students return to college full time inthe fall.Top graduates of the program will receivepaid internships as reporters and photographers atdaily newspapers for the remainder of the summer.Graduates also will have the opportunity to join thestaff of reznetnews.org, the online Native Americancollege newspaper, as paid reporters or photographerswhen they return to school. With only a few exceptions,all reznetnews.org staff members are graduatesof AIJI, as the institute is called.Now in its fifth year, American IndianReview (AIR) magazine has produced professionalreporters recently hired by the Argus Leader newspaperin Sioux Falls, S.D., the Muskogee (Okla.) DailyPhoenix and the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson. AIRgraduates also have received paid internships for thissummer at The Washington Post, The AssociatedPress and several other newspapers around the country.Past AIR students have reflected the diversitythat the Freedom Forum is trying to encourage innewsrooms. They have belonged to dozens of tribesin states all over the country. They have come fromsmall tribal colleges such as Haskell Indian NationsUniversity in Kansas, Oglala Lakota College in SouthDakota and Salish Kootenai College in Montana, aswell as from large universities with prominent journalismprograms such as Syracuse University in NewYork, the University of Kansas and the University ofOklahoma.To be eligible, students must be enrolled in acollege and have completed their freshman year. Theyalso must be enrolled Tribal members or be able toprove lineage if asked. While tuition, fees, books,room and board are provided free, students must beable to provide their own transportation to and fromVermillion, S.D. They must attend the full programbeginning Sunday afternoon, June 5, and endingFriday afternoon, June 24. The program forbids theuse of alcohol, other intoxicants and illegal drugs atany time from June 5–24. Violators will be dismissed.Here’s the application process: Jack Marsh,the director of AIR, said he prefers that students benominated for the institute. Nominations can comefrom educators, mentors, elders or other interestedparties. Nominations should be made in the form of aletter addressed to: Jack Marsh, executive director, AlNeuharth Media Center, 555 Dakota St., Vermillion,SD 57069. Marsh also accepts nominations by e-mailat jmarsh@freedomforum.org. For further informationcall (605) 677-6315.The nominated student then will receive anapplication form and other materials. Students alsomay nominate themselves. If they do, however, it isrecommended that one or more letters from a teacher,counselor or elder accompany their completed applications.American Indians are by far the most underrepresentedpeople of color in the news media, andstereotypical and erroneous newspaper coverage ofIndian issues and Indian people shows it, Marsh said.The AIJI is part of the Freedom Forum’s commitmentto increase employment diversity at daily newspapers.“Improving diversity–having even oneNative American working in a newsroom–makes anewspaper more aware of Indians in its community,and more sensitive and intelligent in reporting storiesabout them,” Marsh said.An annual census of newsrooms shows thatonly about 300 Native Americans work at daily newspapers–outof about 54,000 journalists nationwide.AIR students will take a concentrated academicprogram on the basics of journalism in a university-approvedcourse titled “Journalism Theoryand Practice.” The college-level course is sanctionedthrough the University of South Dakota’s Departmentof contemporary media and journalism students mayapply to transfer the credits to other schools wherethey are enrolled.Students will concentrate on reporting fortwo weeks and most of them will spend one weeklearning photography. Weekly field trips will introducestudents to other aspects of journalism, includingsports writing. At previous sessions of AIR, thereporting and photography instructors have been professionaljournalists-many of them Native-working atsuch news organizations as Gannett, The WashingtonPost, The Miami Herald, The Oregonian in Portland,the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star and The AssociatedPress.Reznetnews.org becomes the AIR newspaperduring the institute, publishing stories and photos produceddaily by the students. Past guest presenters-andsubjects of AIJI student stories-have included prominentNative journalists Mark Trahant and GeorgeBenge. Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today and theFreedom Forum, Wilma Mankiller, former principalchief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and SouthDakota Governor Mike Rounds also have addressedand been interviewed by AIJI students.Each student will have a single room in adormitory. Meals will be provided on campus. TheFreedom Forum, based in Arlington, Va., is a nonpartisanfoundation dedicated to free press, free speechand free spirit for all people. The foundation focuseson three priorities: the Newseum, First Amendmentand newsroom diversity. The Al Neuharth MediaCenter at the University of South Dakota honorsNeuharth, a 1950 graduate of the University of SouthDakota.In addition to journalism education programsat the University of South Dakota, the FreedomForum funds and co-directs the Native AmericanNewspaper Career Conference at Crazy HorseMemorial in South Dakota’s Black Hills. The workshop,April 19–21, introduces Native high school andTribal college students to the possibilities of a journalismcareer.