Chris Rhatigan and Melanie Reichwald, SUNY Purchase Journalism Alums, married and teaching in India
I almost choked on my chicken noodle soup the other day as I was skimming Facebook on my phone in The Hub and saw that Chris Rhatigan and Melanie Reichwald – two of the most memorable graduates of the Purchase journalism program – were married. TO EACH OTHER! And living a wonderfully adventurous life as school teachers in the foothills of the Himalayas in India.
Filed under In the News
SUNY Purchase Journalism Prof. Ross Daly, faking it for a smartphone presser (Photo by Kim Whitehead)
Students used their smartphones to cover a “press conference” for my Multimedia Tools class yesterday putting them in the forefront of a new trend in journalism.
The fake presser starred Pleasantville Police Chief Cliff Huxtable (ably played by SUNY Purchase Journalism Professor Ross Daly) who was announcing the arrest of a liquor store bandit. When the questions were done, he produced a mug shot, which students also had to copy with their phones.
Filed under In the News
You may have seen Khalil Edney’s astounding 55-foot buzzer-beating shot in Sunday’s Mt. Vernon v New Rochelle Section 1 Class AA championship game.
But what you may not know is that SUNY Purchase journalism major Jordan Griffith was part of the MSG Varsity team that took the video of that amazing moment and helped it go viral.
SUNY Purchase’s Jordan Griffith on camera for MSG Varsity
Filed under Student Journalism
Kyle McKenzie at the Democratic National Convention for NBC
Purchase Journalism senior, Kyle McKenzie, hasn’t even graduated yet and he’s already covered a national political convention. Kyle was down in Charlotte, North Carolina for the Democratic National Convention with NBC as a runner.
If you’ve ever met Kyle, you only have to be in his company for a moment and hear his deep booming voice to know that he’s destined for TV. (He entered Purchase as a student in the prestigious Design/Technology program for Stage Management in the Conservatory of Theater Arts, but, as he says, his heart was in journalism, and made the rare move of switching programs.)
He very kindly took a moment to answer a few journoprof questions in an email exchange:
1) Tell me about your gig at NBC: How you got it, how long you’ve been there, what you do?
I started with NBC last January as an intern on the msnbc show ‘NewsNation w Tamron Hall’. There I learned about every facet of the television news industry from anchor-producing to editorial meetings. From there I heard about an opportunity to serve as a runner for the upcoming political conventions. I talked to the people in charge of coordinating the runners, applied and was selected to work the Democratic National Convention.
2) Describe how you found out that you were going to the DNC.
I was eating out with friends in July of this past summer and decided to check my email real quick on my iPhone. I had an email in my inbox so I checked it thinking it was going to be some piece of spam mail, when it was from NBC informing me I was chosen to work the upcoming convention. As you can imagine, I didn’t end up eating much of my lunch as I was just too excited. I kept checking my email to make sure that I read the email correctly…which I did 🙂
Filed under In the News
Elyse Mickalonis, photo courtesy of YNN
The thing I remember first about Elyse Mickalonis was the great story idea she pitched for her senior project while in my Journalism Junior Seminar. It was a look, through video, at drive-in movie theaters in upstate New York. Under the guidance of SUNY Journalism Prof. Mary Alice Williams, it turned into a memorable senior project.
Now, Mickalonis has taken her talents as a video journalist to the Binghamton newsroom of Your News Now, a network of local cable news channels owned by Time Warner Cable. She started her job there earlier this year. She’s added social media to her repertoire and Tweeting up a storm. But some things haven’t changed: according to her profile, she’s still into drive-ins. We’re proud of you, Elyse! Stay in touch.
Filed under In the News, Purchase Journalism Alums
Christopher Vaughan, a Purchase journalism student, got his foot in the door at The Journal News and they liked him so much they gave him a job. He now has the lofty title of Social Media Coordinator – a job he maintains part-time while still taking classes. He monitors their Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare pages as well as doing some video.
Here’s how Chris tells it:
I currently work part-time as a Social Media Coordinator for the Lower Hudson Valley paper, The Journal News. The publication covers local events in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties and over the last decade, has cultivated a significant online presence with their LoHud brand.
I began interning for the paper in the summer of 2010 where I was a general reporter, meaning I wrote everything from a profile piece on a 90-year-old librarian to a towering blaze in White Plains. I gained experience-interviewing dozens of locals and accumulated numerous clips.
I planned to do the same the following summer but LoHud editors had something else in mind for me.
Filed under In the News
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