Scholarship honors late veteran and alumnus Fred L. Peterson ’72, G’73

A new scholarship at the Newhouse School, established in memory of alumnus Fred L. Peterson ’72, G’73, will support students with financial need, particularly students from underrepresented groups.

The scholarship is funded by a gift from Peterson’s partner, Carol O’Brien, with support from his children, Patric Peterson, Vical Peterson, Katie O’Brien Cancila and Megan O’Brien Cancila.

The fund will support undergraduate students at the Newhouse School, with preference given to Black and Latinx students.

A native of Chicago, Peterson served as a military journalist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He attended Syracuse University on the G.I. Bill, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in public relations. “He was tremendously proud to be a graduate of the Newhouse School,” O’Brien says.

After graduating with honors, Peterson had a successful career in public relations. He worked for International Harvester, becoming the first African American to serve as spokesperson for the company. He later held PR positions at Bethany Hospital in Chicago and the American Dental Association.

A staunch fan of the Orange, Peterson had hoped to visit campus again during basketball season. But he became ill with the coronavirus in November and passed away Dec. 22, before he could return.

“It is the hope of his family and loved ones that the scholarship for Newhouse students in Fred’s name will continue to honor his memory by helping other Newhouse students achieve their dreams,” O’Brien says.   

Gifts to support the scholarship fund may be made online. For more information, contact Ed Gorham at 315.443.4926 or ejgorham@syr.edu.

Chew, Egan paper wins first place in BEA competition

Fiona Chew, professor of television, radio and film, and Beth Egan, associate professor of advertising, worked on a paper that won first place in the Open Paper Competition for the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Research Division this year. The paper was co-authored by Egan and Chew with Chilukuri K. Mohan, Sanup Araballi, Dongqing Xu and Amanda Qi Ni.

The paper, “Developing an ad viewing retention model for TV comedy through machine learning,” will be presented at the virtual annual conference in April. This paper presents a model for audience prediction which can potentially be used to predict audience retention at various levels of ad clutter allowing networks to curate commercial breaks to optimize the viewer experience.

This is Chew and Egan’s second BEA win with a paper they worked on together. In 2019, their paper “TV Program-Ad Genre Congruence and Ad Avoidance: Applying Neural Networks to Assess Effects” took top place in the BEA’s research division.

This research was funded by a CUSE Grant and is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Newhouse School and the College of Engineering and Computer Science, with data provided by Comscore. 

Photos from The Stand featured in Museum of Modern Art course

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is hosting an online course that features two pictures from The Stand, Syracuse’s south side newspaper.

“Reimagining Blackness and Architecture” looks at the connection between Black lived experience and architecture, and features insights from Black artists, architects and scholars.

The course, launched March 4, also includes Syracuse University School of Architecture assistant professor Sekou Cooke’s project, “We Outchea: Hip Hop Fabrications and Public Space.” Both Cooke’s project and MoMA’s course are available for free through Coursera.

The Stand is a collaboration between the South Side Community Coalition, Syracuse University and a number of dedicated community residents.

Magazine, news and digital journalism student selected to receive paid editorial internship at Forbes

Forbes Magazine has selected magazine, news and digital journalism junior Haniyah Philogene to be its first intern through a new partnership with the Newhouse School.

The partnership, announced in January, provides a paid editorial summer internship. Philogene will spend 10-12 weeks this summer as a remote intern with the Forbes newsroom.

“Haniyah is a campus leader with impressive internship experience and work on award-winning campus magazines,” says magazine, news and digital journalism chair Melissa Chessher. “We’re lucky to have her here at Newhouse, and Forbes is lucky to have her on their team this summer.”

Newhouse graduate student wins photography scholarship

Zoe Davis, a graduate student in the multimedia, photography and design program, was one of 12 college students selected by the National Press Photographers Foundation to receive the Brown/Falwell Storytelling Scholarship, given to students whose portfolios emphasize storytelling in multimedia. Zoe won the scholarship based on a selection of stories she produced during her Newhouse classes.

Congratulations, Zoe!

Newhouse students win in White House News Photographers Association contest

Madeline Powell G’20, a graduate of the Goldring arts journalism and communications program, and photography junior Cole Strong both won first place in two different categories of the White House News Photographers Association Eyes of History student contest.

Powell took first place in the General News or Feature: Natural Sound category fo her piece “I Am My Crown” which examines the beauty and stigma of natural Black hair.

Strong won first place in the sports category for “Chasing the Dragon,” which details Newhouse assistant professor Ulf Oesterle’s quest to make the Paralympics. Oesterle teaches in the Bandier Program. Strong recently placed 12^th in the Hearst Journalism Awards program with “Chasing the Dragon.”

Congratulations, Madeline and Cole!

Students win big in Graphis New Talent Annual 2021 competition

Newhouse students were recognized with 22 awards in the Graphis New Talent Annual 2021 competition. They won for original typefaces and stamps created in the VIS 317 Typographic Design course taught by adjunct Claudia Strong.

Each fall, Strong challenges her students to develop new typefaces inspired by Newhouse faculty and staff. That work paid off for student Xiaoqian Dong, who won a Gold for her typographic work, Calla Lily, inspired by Martha Coria, assistant director of graduate professional programs.

Three students won Silver awards for their typographic work: Meghan Gulley for Broadcast, inspired by broadcast and digital journalism chair Chris Tuohey; Elizabeth Wolf for Coordinate, inspired by academic adviser Kristin Cutler; and Natalia Deng Yuan for Flow Script, inspired by dean’s administrative assistant Heather Speach.

Honorable Mentions went to Kacie Price for Gloaming (Max Devesty); Shuchen Zhang for Poly (Steve Masiclat); Emily Baird for Global Sans (Carol Liebler); Shannon Kirkpatrick for Resolute (Tracy Feocco); Marisa West for Ingenious (Evan Smith); Zuzanna Mlynarczyk for Lodato Oblique (Mark Lodato); and Lydia Herne for Zinger Display (Adam Peruta).

In the stamps category, two students won Silver awards: Shannon Kirkpatrick for “To the Moon and Back: Women of NASA,” and Huiru Yu for “Through the Decades: Women’s Fashion Trends in the Early 20th Century.”

Honorable Mentions went to Natalia Deng Yuan for “Diversifying Space”; Payton Alibrandi for “African American Astronauts”; Amanda Smith for “Aloha from the Islands”; Gianna Corrente for “Inspirational Despite Every Obstacle”; Kashawn Stroman for “Time for a Change: Black Lives Matter”; Nya Bragg for “Breaking Barriers: African American Athletes”; Catie Haugen for “Colorfully in Love: LGBTQ Activists”; Maya Goosmann for “Uniquely American”; and Deleha Decker for “Oreos.”

Magazine, news and digital journalism senior finals in student innovation competition

Hanna Martin, a senior in magazine, news and digital journalism (MND), is a finalist in the Reynolds Journalism Institute’s 2021 Student Innovation Competition.

Associate Professor Aileen Gallagher used the competition as a class assignment, and challenged students to increase community engagement with The Stand, a community newspaper serving Syracuse’s southside neighborhood. Martin pitched a student writing contest, and her idea made it to the national competition’s final round.

With the help of Stand director Ashley Kang, MND assistant professor Greg Munno, and the Syracuse School District, Martin spent winter break selecting the winners, whose entries were published in The Stand.

Martin will present her project to judges for the innovation competition Feb. 26. The first prize for the competition is $10,000.

Congratulations and good luck, Hanna!

First-ever Newhouse Creative Challenge announces winners

The Newhouse School held its first-ever Creative Challenge over winter break, encouraging students whose internship opportunities were minimized by the pandemic to create their own multimedia projects, gaining experience while competing for cash prizes. Students submitted ideas for projects, and were matched with faculty advisers who helped them realize their ideas. Winners were announced Feb. 18.

1^st place: Swipe

Jacob Hearl and Luke Stirpe (television, radio and film seniors)
Faculty Project Advisor: Shaina Holmes
Prize: $250

2^nd place: You have the right to vote in silence

Adriana Rozas Rivera (magazine, news and digital journalism graduate student)
Faculty Project Advisor: Greg Munno
Prize: $100

3^rd place: Learning Culture

Jessica Kelleher and Sonia Bartolomeo (television, radio and film graduate students)
Faculty Advisor: Michael Schoonmaker
Prize: $50

Congratulations, winners!

Newhouse PR program recognized with inclusion on PR News ‘Education A-List’

The Newhouse School’s public relations program has been named to PR News’ inaugural ‘Education A-List,’ which recognizes the top 35 U.S. educational institutions that are advancing the careers of PR and communication professionals.

“We’re very excited to land on the inaugural Education A-List from PR News, along with other peer programs such as Boston University, Northwestern University and the University of Southern California,” says Hua Jiang, interim department chair. “We couldn’t have made it without the efforts of our outstanding students and faculty.” 

Newhouse offers residential bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in public relations; a master’s degree in public diplomacy and global communications; and online master’s degree programs in communications management and communications with a PR specialization.

Department faculty oversee the W2O Center for Social Commerce, which provides students with skills in social commerce, social media, technology and analytics, and the W2O Emerging Insights Lab, a state-of-the-art social media command center. Hill Communications, an award-winning, student-run PR firm, provides individualized communications services to real-world clients. The PAN ePortfolio program, developed in partnership with marketing and PR agency PAN Communications, supports graduating students in the development of a digital portfolio to showcase their work to potential employers.

PR News looked at how programs prepare students for continued success in existing and future career paths. “These schools continue to evolve their program offerings to reflect the changing nature of the field of communication and ensure students learn about emerging trends,” according to PR News.