Category Archives: Greatest Hits

GRADUATION: The Year-end Awards & Grading

Awards/Grants, FAQ, Graduation, Greatest Hits, M.S. Program

GRADUATION: The Year-end Awards & Grading

This information is for M.S. Students primarily.

We received the following question from a student:

Today in REPORTING, we had a guest speaker whose bio mentioned that she received the “Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, won for graduating first in her class…”

Since we don’t receive grades, I’m wondering how this designation of “first in class” is decided.

Good question. Here’s the answer:

The Journalism School has a Pass-Fail system of formal grading. It aims at encouraging students to perform as well as they can, without competing with classmates. In most courses, students receive written evaluations of their work from the instructors. Copies of these evaluations are kept in the DOS Office. As part of that evaluation process, we use an informal system of additional grading, which permits each instructor to designate one or two students as having completed a course “with honors.” Students are informed of the honors designation via the written evaluation form.

That designation, in the individual classes, is “honors in class,” and you will see it – if you get it – in the written evaluation form you receive (It will not appear on your official transcript). If you receive two or more “honors in class” in our six-credit courses (Reporting, Master’s Project, S&P 1, S&P 2) AND one or more in a three-credit module (Written Word, Image & Sound, Audience & Engagement), you will “graduate with honors.” 

At graduation, the honors list is announced, recognizing students for superior performance in multiple courses; the faculty determines the honors based on the number of honors-in-class designations. The faculty also awards more than a dozen special prizes at graduation, including five Pulitzer Traveling Fellowships for overall performance during the academic year.

Except for a few prizes for which students can submit stories to be judged, the rest of the prizes are decided by faculty, without input from the students.

We hold briefing sessions close to Graduation to explain the procedures.

Part-time students are eligible for the awards and are tracked during their entire academic career here (though the prizes are typically given out the year they graduate).

Please direct all questions to Dean Huff – mgh2@columbia.edu.

Covering Religion 2020

Action Item, Courses, Curriculum, FAQ, Greatest Hits, M.S. Program, Part-time Students, Registration, Spring Prep, ,

INFORMATION SHEET AND APPLICATION FOR “COVERING RELIGION”

SPRING 2020

PROFESSORS ARI L. GOLDMAN, GREG KHALIL AND DUY LINH TU

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

  • Info Session: Tuesday, November 5, 12;30 p.m., Room 601B
  • Application Deadline: Monday, November 18, 9 a.m.

“Covering Religion” aims at preparing students to write about religion with intelligence and sophistication for secular media outlets in the U.S. and around the world. In the Spring 2020 semester, the class will focus on the role of religion in the American South with special (but not exclusive) attention to the 2020 Presidential election. Thanks to a generous grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the course will include a 10-day study-tour of two Southern states, Louisiana and Mississippi, at virtually no cost to students. (The minimal expenses that students will incur are described below.)

The study-tour will take place over Spring Break, with the weekends before and after the break used for travel. The tentative dates are March 13 to March 23, 2020. The first seven weeks of the course will be spent reporting on religious diversity in the greater New York area. At the beginning of the term, each student is assigned a faith, or a sect of a faith, in which to specialize. While a primary focus of the semester will be on the region’s diverse Protestant and Catholic communities, the class will also look at minority faiths like Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and others. In addition to their reporting and writing projects, each student will make an oral presentation in class about his or her assigned faith. While still in New York, students will identify and begin to report on the stories that they want to cover while traveling in the South. (The stories they report on the trip will not necessarily be on their faith beat.)

We believe that this spring is a particularly good time to look at the role of religion in the Southern states, especially as we approach the 2020 presidential election. It is clear that the Evangelical support for Donald Trump was one of the stories overlooked during 2016 election. This factor was one of the reasons that Trump’s victory caught much of the news media by surprise.

The 16 members of Covering Religion class will travel as a group for parts of the trip, visiting houses of worship and speaking with religious leaders. But there will also be several “reporting days” for students, working alone or with a partner, to pursue their reporting projects. Students in the class will have the opportunity to work in print, audio or video.

During the 2020 trip, the class will maintain a website that will include daily updates from our travels. Each day on the trip, one student will be responsible for reporting on that day’s activities and posting the story on the Web. In addition, two students serve as Webmasters and others coordinate photographs, video and social media. Upon returning from the study-tour, students will complete and post their major reporting projects from the trip. (The Websites from previous years can be found at www.coveringreligion.org.)

Here are a few additional points —

  • Class size: The class is limited to 16 students drawn from the M.S. Program.
  • Dates for the trip: The trip roughly takes place over spring break, making use of the weekends before and after for travel time.
  • Full-time and part-time students in the M.S. Program & M.S. Data Journalism programs are invited to apply.
  • The class meets for 15 Tuesdays, from roughly 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., beginning on Jan. 28.
  • Academic Requirements: All students must be up-to-date on assignments for all other classes. No student on academic probation or academic warning will be allowed to go on the trip.
  • Composition of the class: We are looking for a group of students that will reflect the diversity of the school in terms of gender, language skills, travel experience, region of the United States and country of origin. No prior travel experience is necessary.
  • Cost to students: The Scripps Howard Foundation grant pays for airfare, hotels, transfers and two meals a day. Students can apply for extra money for other reporting excursions during the class trip. Students will have to arrange their own travel to and from the airport in New York.
  • Application process: Please fill out the on-line application at http://bit.ly/CUJ_religion. 
It asks for a 500-word essay on why you would like to be considered for the class. It should include personal information as well as a statement about what contemporary religion story you would cover in the South if you had the opportunity.

Good luck. We look forward to reading your application.

DEADLINE: November 18, 2019, 9 a.m.

ColumbiaYou

Alumni, Fun Stuff, Graduation, Greatest Hits, Knight Bagehot, M.A. Program, M.S. Program, Part-time Students, PhD, University Life

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ColumbiaYou is the human story of Columbia University in the City of New York, told by the heart of Columbia – its people. It’s Columbia seen through You.

ColumbiaYou serves as a collective memoir: how Columbia has changed lives, introduced mentors, sparked ideas, launched careers. It reveals Columbia’s impact today: the people behind groundbreaking research, activist movements, and how love and friendship can endure. And it’s the story of Columbia’s future: the promise of collaborations, innovations, and individuals that will shape the world in years to come.

Through ColumbiaYou, you can share your stories in the way that you choose: your words, images, and voice.

You can also discover stories and people, curated by topic, geography, and more. Plug learn about related opportunities to make a difference today, through Columbia.

ColumbiaYou is open to anyone with a Columbia story: students, alumni, faculty, staff, family and friends. Sign up to add yours, and help write the story of Columbia.