UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Four Penn State journalism majors will gain abundant practical experience during a working trip to Philadelphia, where they will staff the student newsroom for the annual convention of the Associated Press Media Editors and Associated Press News Editors from Sept. 11-14.
The student newsroom effort, a collaboration between Ball State University and Penn State this year, is an annual occurrence at the convention. Two Penn State faculty members — John Beale, a senior lecturer in the Department of Journalism, and John Dillon, the Norman Eberly Professor of Practice in Journalism — will assist students and help supervise the effort. Ball State’s Juli Metzger is the director of the student newsroom.
In addition to covering convention sessions, seven Ball State students and the four from Penn State will receive mentoring from editors and have the chance to talk with top editors from around the country during the three-day convention.
Penn State students selected for the program were:
-- Kayleigh Barber, a senior completing double majors in journalism (both digital and print mediums) and English. She is on track to graduate in three years and has completed an internship with the Pennsylvania Center for the Book and is currently a marketing intern with Penn State University Press.
-- Shuyao Chen, a senior focused on photojournalism. She is currently a photographer for Onward State, an independent student news website. She also is the Penn State football correspondent for Sports Illustrated Campus Rush. In 2015, she participated in the Online News Association’s Student Newsroom in Los Angeles.
-- Morganne Mallon, a senior completing double majors in journalism and international politics. She has completed internships with CNN in Atlanta and with PennLive in Harrisburg. Her work has been published in the Centre Daily Times and the Pike County Courier. This fall, she is working for Penn State Athletics as a videoboard production intern. She is a founding member of The Daily Collegian’s investigative reporting team, an executive producer and director for “PSN News” (Penn State’s student-run live news show), and a producer and director for 46 LIVE, the live webcast of the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.
-- Leon Valsechi, a junior journalism major pursing an English minor. During the spring semester, he was selected to a team of six students who contributed feature stories and covered spot-news stories for the Centre Daily Times. His work has also been published in Mainstream, the Penn State Sustainability Institute’s online magazine. He is also an award-winning creative nonfiction writer.
The Associated Press Media Editors is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization of newsroom leaders and journalism educators that works closely with The Associated Press to promote journalism excellence. The conference is part of the organization’s overarching goal of helping editors and broadcasters improve their news coverage and newsroom operations.