Deadline to declare change of major
Monday, March 29 is the deadline to declare/change a major ahead of advising season. Contact SJMC dean’s assistant Mallory Quinn with any questions.
Respond to the Drake Student Survey
The Drake Student Survey provides valuable feedback to the University and to Drake SJMC about the student experience. It drives changes and also provides information for the Drake SJMC accreditation report. We do pay attention to the responses and read every one! So when you receive an email about the survey, please complete it. It should take only a few minutes.
Enter Drake Broadcasting System’s 48 Hour Film Fest
Write, shoot, and edit a two-to-five-minute short film individually or with a team on March 19th – 21st. Each team will be given a genre and a line of dialogue at 5 pm, March 19th via Zoom. You will then have 48 hours before the submission deadline of 5 pm, March 21st. Register here tinyurl.com/48HFF-21. Any questions can be emailed to Lucius.pham@drake.edu. Have fun and be creative!
Pathways for Civic Action and Social Change
The Community Engaged Learning Office has partnered with Stanford University’s working group, Pathways for Civic Action and Social Change. This is a great way for Drake students to find their path toward creating social change, discover community organizations, and learn about community engagement. Drake organizations or professors hosting academic courses can request a virtual or in-person Pathways training session at servicelearning@drake.edu.
Or students can participate individually and earn Drake swag through the following steps:
1) Take the Pathways survey here. Save your results!
2) Reach out to a Community Engagement Peer to book a one-on-one Pathways session here.
Additionally, Drake is celebrating Civic Action Week from April 5-10. There will be several events in-person and virtual to participate in. Find out more here.
Reach out to kiley.kahler@drake.edu with questions or accommodations.
Alumni news
Beth Kurylo, JO’84, is a former journalist who is currently a global health communications expert based in Atlanta and who has worked as a health communication specialist on the COVID-19 response for the Centers for Disease Control. The global health crisis hit home when her father died of Covid in Iowa. Read her blog post about her experience here.
Alumni: Honor a professor or organization
The SJMC is in the final months of our fundraising campaign to renovate our home, Meredith Hall, to prepare it for our next 100 years! https://drakesjmc100.com/places-and-spaces/ Over the past year we’ve received many humbling and generous gifts, but we are still short of our fundraising goal. Consider making a donation or pledge in honor of your favorite faculty mentor or SJMC organization before June 30. For many of us, our most treasured memories of Meredith involve a relationship with a professor (Bob Woodward, Joe Patrick, Ronda Menke, John Lytle, among many) or student organization (the Times-Delphic, DBS, Drake Magazine, Ad Club, PRSSA). You can honor these people and transformational experiences by going to our campaign site: https://alumni.drake.edu/Meredith.
We have a leadership donor wall and room-naming opportunities for classrooms, offices and other spaces (for example, the Times-Delphic or DBS offices). If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact Dean Kathleen Richardson or Tim Tesar in University Development.
Summer internship scholarship application due this week
The Drake SJMC has been chosen as a partner institution for the Scripps Howard Foundation summer journalism internship program, joining about 20 other universities around the country. The foundation seeks to help students obtain real-life industry experience, and is especially interested in helping to diversify the journalism field. As a Scripps Howard partner, Drake SJMC will receive $3,500 to support a student who has an internship in summer 2021. The Scripps Howard Scholar will receive $3,000 to help with living expenses and, upon successful completion of the internship, a $500 grant. Scholarship requirements are:
- Applicants must have obtained an acceptable internship for summer 2021, OR the SJMC will help them find an internship.
- The internship must be journalism-oriented, but can be print, digital, multimedia, broadcast, social media or entrepreneurial.
- The internship must be at least 35 hours/week for 10 weeks.
- The scholarship grant will be considered taxable income and the student must pay any applicable taxes.
- If the internship is not completed, the student must return all or a portion of the grant.
- The Scripps Howard summer journalism internship program is open to both returning students and graduating seniors who obtain post-graduate internships.
Students who are interested in applying for the summer 2021 scholarship should email your current resume and a Word document with the following information to SJMC administrative assistant Denise Ganpat (denise.ganpat@drake.edu) by Friday, March 19.
- Your name
- Your year, major and adviser
- Whether you already have an internship for summer 2021 (if so, where that internship is and what the position entails) OR whether you will need help finding an internship
- A statement that explains how choosing you as the Scripps Howard Scholar will help advance the goal of increasing diversity in the field of journalism. The Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s diversity and inclusion mission statement reads:
“The School of Journalism and Mass Communication strives to create a community of scholars that represents the complexity of the human experience in regards to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, gender identification, religion, age and physical abilities. We are committed to creating a welcoming and supportive environment for all our faculty, staff, students and visitors, and celebrating our differences through the lens of the First Amendment value of freedom of expression.”
Professor Snider teaching two new workshops for community
Drake SJMC associate professor Chris Snider will be teaching two workshops for members of the community in late-March and April. He will teach a two-week Virtual Social Media Workshop starting March 30. This workshop will meet for 90 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
Snider will teach a three-week Virtual Smartphone Video Workshop starting April 13. This workshop will meet for 90 minutes on Tuesdays with homework in-between.
Have a news item for the Memo?
The SJMC Monday Memo (and other days of the week as needed) is a newsletter to keep members of the wider SJMC community updated on School news, achievements, events and opportunities. If you have an item for the Memo, please send it to Dean Kathleen Richardson (kathleen.richardson@drake.edu) or SJMC webmaster and multimedia professor Chris Snider (christopher.snider@drake.edu). SJMC alums and other professionals can also subscribe to the Monday Memo via email here: http://eepurl.com/bPNbxn