The Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism has selected Beacon staffers Carlos Fuentes and William Seekamp for paid journalism internships this summer. The ethics-based, hands-on program through the University of Oregon places select college journalists at media outlets throughout Oregon.
Carlos Fuentes, copy editor/senior reporter at The Beacon
William will be a reporter at the Mail Tribune in Medford.
William Seekamp, 2021-22 news and managing editor
The Beacon will benefit from all they learn, as Carlos and William are returning in newsroom leadership positions in the fall. William is the 2021-22 news and managing editor. Carlos is copy editor and senior reporter.
The Snowden internship program has been a launching pad for several Beacon alumni now working as professional journalists.
The Beacon has won five Gold Circle Awards for digital media in a variety of multimedia categories. These awards draw entries from schools around the country, including large universities with major journalism programs. The Gold Circle Awards are sponsored by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, which is based at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City. The entry period covered content published between Oct. 2, 2019 and Oct. 12, 2020.
FIRST PLACE– Single Spot News Photograph : Ryan Reynolds for “Toxic air fills The Bluff”
SECOND PLACE – Podcast: Jennifer Ng, Molly Lowney for “What on Earth?”
SECOND PLACE– Video Feature Package: Taylor Ursulum, “The Beacon reflects on Student Press Freedom Day”
THIRD PLACE – Interactive Graphic: Brennan Crowder, “2020 Summer recap: Everything that’s happened since COVID-19 shutdown campus”
UP President Fr. Mark Poorman, upon recommendation of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Student Media, has appointed Austin De Dios Editor-in-Chief for the 2021-22 academic year. Read more about Austin here.
Austin De Dios, 2021-22 editor-in-chief
Photo: Brennan Crowder
Austin recently scored a prestigious internship, which will prepare him well for the top position at The Beacon as well as his future career: He is among 86 college journalists from around the nation chosen to be part of this summer’s Dow Jones News Fund internship program. He will receive intensive training in business reporting through the program, and work as a reporter for the Portland Business Journal.
Austin has appointed the following staffers to next year’s Beacon Editorial Board: Havi Stewart, Carlos Fuentes, William Seekamp, Mia Werner, Brennan Crowder, Sadie Wuertz and Brie Haro.
Opinion Editor Mia Werner is graduating in December, and Sadie Wuertz will step into that role spring semester. Austin will hire a new sports editor for spring.
The Beacon has won four First Place awards in the 2021 regional Mark of Excellence competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). The contest involved college media outlets from five states: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. The following now advance to the national SPJ Mark of Excellence competition.
Dora Totian (’20) leads a training session at Beacon Boot Camp training in August 2019. She recently won the Snowden Ethics Award.
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Dora Totoian, 2019-20 Beacon Opinion Editor and reporter, has won one of two annual Snowden Ethics Awards, given each year to select interns in the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism. The Snowden program, named after a former editor of The Oregonian and Oregon Journal, places young journalists in paid summer internships in media organizations around Oregon.
Journalistic ethics are a main focus of the competitive Snowden program, which is based at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. The summer internship program accepts applications from students from any Oregon college or university who have completed a basic reporting course or worked at a campus publication. (Dora started as a reporter at The Beacon her freshman year.)
During her internship, Dora worked as a reporter at the News-Register in McMinnville, where she managed to (safely!) cover a wide variety of stories including the COVID-19 pandemic at a local level, wildfires, protests and politics. Infused in the daily challenge of reporting on community events and issues are ethical case studies that require Snowden interns to reflect on issues journalists confront in their work.
No one who worked with Dora at The Beacon would be surprised that among the 18 Snowden interns, Dora stood out for her ethical practices and reflections.
Below is video of the announcement of her award, which, due to the pandemic, occurred at a virtual reception on Zoom. Typically, this event is a catered affair at the UO Agora Journalism Center in downtown Portland.
Hear what UO Associate Professor of Journalism and Snowden Program Co-Coordinator Nicole Dahmen said about Dora:
“Her writing was excellent, her thought process and ethical reasoning were solid. In addition, she raised ethical questions for us to consider and think about.”
-Nicole Dahmen, UO journalism professor on Dora Totoian
This was the second time in recent years a Beacon staffer has won the Snowden Ethics Award.
Update: Kyle Garcia took First Place for Best Sports Column. Dora Totoian took Second Place for Best Editorial. The Beacon engagement efforts led by Natalie Nygren, Ally Weberg, Dora Totoian and Claire Desmarais won an Honorable Mention.
This year for the first time, CMA invited entries for Best Campus Engagement. The Beacon is in the finals along with student media at the University of South Carolina, Texas State University and Southeast Missouri State University.
Engagement encompasses social media, crowdsourcing, events and other ways The Beacon interacts with the UP community. With the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down campus last spring, audience engagement was even more challenging. But Beacon leadership rose to the occasion, leaning in to the virtual landscape.
Below is a summary of The Beacon’s 2019-20 engagement efforts led by Natalie Nygren, Ally Weberg, Claire Desmarais and Dora Totoian.
2019-2020 Opinion Editor Dora Totian is a Pinnacle finalist for Best Editorial. Other finalists in that category are from the University of Alabama, California State University – Fullerton and Auburn University.
Last year’s Sports Editor Kyle Garcia is up for Best Sports Column. Other finalists come from the University of Miami, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania and University of Kentucky.
As we head into a new and historic academic year, here’s a round-up of the most recent awards The Beacon won in 2019-20.
A photo by Beacon photographer Jennifer Ng won First Place for Breaking News Photography nationwide in the Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards. The Beacon competed against student publications at colleges and universities with fewer than 10,000 students.
Jennifer’s winning photo was shot during the massive Climate Strike demonstration in downtown Portland last fall.
Photographer Annika Gordon, who has won many awards for her photography, won a national award for opinion writing: First Place Gold Circle Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for her personal commentary, “I’m racist, so are you. White people, let’s improve.”
Those were just two of many awards Beacon staffers recently won for their work in those two contests. The Beacon also won:
Best Website for four-year colleges/universities in the annual competition sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Association of Journalism Educators (PNAJE).
