Columbia Journalism sChool Winter 2010 - Berkeley Graduate ...

helPing
JournaliSTS
Tell
reTurning
veTeranS’
STorieS
—
JournaliSTS, FaCing eConomiC ConSTrainTS,
struggle to adequately report on
the psychological cost of war borne
by the men and women who serve
in it — many of whom have served
multiple tours of duty in Iraq and
Afghanistan and are finding it difficult
to reintegrate into the families and
communities they left behind. To help
local and regional news organizations
improve their coverage of veterans’
issues, the Journalism School’s
Continuing Education Program,
the Dart Center for Journalism and
Trauma, and the Carter Center’s
Mental Health Program organized
a three-day event: “When Veterans
Come Home: A Workshop for
Working Journalists.”
The workshop, held in January at
the Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga.,
featured a wide range of leading
mental health and policy experts,
award-winning journalists and veterans’
advocates, and a keynote address by
former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
It included background briefings as
well as specialized reporting-skills
workshops aimed at enhancing the
practical ability of local journalists to
report on veterans knowledgeably,
ethically and effectively. All selected
participants received a full scholarship
to attend the workshop in Atlanta,
with preference given to journalists
working at news organization based
in military communities or other
locations with high concentrations
of veterans and veterans’ services.
The workshop was sponsored by
generous grants from the McCormick
Foundation and the Carter Center’s
Mental Health Program.
Isabelle Shafer ’10
War veTeranS TranSiTion To JournaliSm
—
naTe raWlingS ’10
I grew up in Tennessee and studied history at Princeton University, where I
completed Army ROTC. The day I graduated I was commissioned an Army officer,
Nate Rawlings with Captain Nate Wilson
and I served two yearlong tours in Iraq with
the 4th Infantry Division, the first from 2005
to 2006 as a platoon leader and the second
from 2008 to 2009 as an embedded combat
adviser to the Iraqi Army. During my second
combat tour, I contributed dispatches to
NPR about our combat operations. I am a
magazine concentrator at the Journalism
School, and I am interested in writing about
government, public policy and politics.
After graduation, I plan to stay in school
and complete a master’s in public policy, and I would like to write about
government and politics.
Jehangir irani ’10
Jehangir Irani was born in Bombay, India, in 1975 and immigrated to Queens, N.Y.,
in 1981. In 1997, he received his B.S. in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle
the art of storytelling with his love of flying.
Daniel WoolFolk ’10
Aeronautical University and was commissioned a
second lieutenant in the United States Air Force. For
the past decade, “Jay” Irani flew the C-130, a small, yet
extremely versatile, transport aircraft, and saw three
tours of combat over Iraq and Afghanistan. As a pilot
engaged in the conflict, he saw a side of the war unlike
anything reported in the media. To counter that, Irani
began blogging for Newsday, giving a more nuanced
perspective of what deployed life was really like. Irani
looks forward to future assignments that will combine
My first experience with journalism was as a seventh grader in the audio video
club in Nogales, Ariz. I didn’t plan on becoming a journalist
as a teenager, but I learned to love writing and photography.
I spent four years in the Army and went on to study German at
Arizona State University. My camera was never far from me.
After graduating, I took journalism classes at Pima Community
College in Tucson, Ariz., and interned as a writer with the Tucson
Citizen. At Columbia, I am now able to use my past experiences
to tell multimedia stories. You can see some of them at danielwoolfolk.com.
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