Athens, Ga. -Twelve undergraduate and graduate students have been named McGill Fellows by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
They were selected by a faculty committee “for their strengths in academics, practical experience and leadership,” said John F. Greenman, Grady’s Carter Professor of Journalism, who chaired the committee.
The McGill Fellows are Anna Dolianitis, journalism graduate student, Old Tappan, N.J.; AshleyDronenburg, senior magazines major, Lawrenceville; Mimi Ensley, junior magazines major, Dalton; Shanessa Fakour, senior newspapers major, Morrow; James Hataway, journalism graduate student, Kingsport, Tenn.; Stephanie Jackson, senior newspapers major, Warrior, Ala.; Aaron Marshburn, junior magazines major, Davidson, N.C.; Marc McAfee, senior broadcast news major, Kennesaw; Devora Olin, journalism graduate student, Atlanta; Hayley Peterson, senior newspapers major, Woodbine, Md.; Claire Rock, senior magazines major, Smyrna; and Justin West, senior broadcast news major, Stockbridge.
The McGill Fellows will participate in the upcoming McGill Symposium, which brings together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how it is exemplified by reporters and editors. The McGill Symposium will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4, in Grady’s Drewry Room.
Later the same day, the McGill Fellows will attend and be introduced at the McGill Lecture, which will be presented by Martin Kaiser, president of the American Society for News Editors and editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The lecture will be held at 4 p.m. in Room 102, Miller Learning Center.
The McGill Fellows also will help select the second winner of the McGill Medal, awarded annually to a U.S. journalist whose career has exemplified journalistic courage.
Finally, the McGill Fellows have first priority to enroll in a one-hour, spring semester, independent study on journalistic courage, to be taught by Greenman.
This is the third class of McGill Fellows. The first class was selected in 2007.
Joining Greenman on the selection committee were Grady College journalism professors Valerie Boyd, Conrad Fink, Janice Hume and Patricia Thomas.
For nearly 30 years, the McGill Lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to the University of Georgia to honor Ralph McGill’s courage as an editor.
McGill, while editor and publisher of The Atlanta Constitution, was regarded as the “conscience of the South,” using the newspaper’s editorial pages to challenge segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. McGill was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for “long, courageous and effective leadership.”
Established in 1978, the annual UGA McGill lecture series addresses major issues impacting American journalism and is sponsored by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers seven undergraduate majors including advertising, broadcast news, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and telecommunication arts. The college offers two graduate degrees, and is home to WNEG-TV, the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow Grady on Twitter at twitter.com/ugagrady.
