Joe LaPuma '05 takes your favorite artists, athletes and pop culture icons "Sneaker Shopping, " a Webby-Award winning YouTube show with more than 1 billion views and 250-plus episodes. (Photo by Peter Morenus/UConn)
Joe La Pumacatches the understated but symbolic paisley touch. He and another sneakers enthusiast consider the design’s attention to detail, right down to the celeb’s tagline — “Underestimated” — on the ankle straps. Pretty sick, they agree.
Roll the clock back 20 years, and La Puma could have been having a similar discussion with friends in his UConn dorm room, the South Campus dining hall, or Gampel Pavilion’s student section. Known to friends for his ability to cop some of the latest sneakers on the market, La Puma’s newest pair surely would have generated intense interest among his fellow Huskies.
But this isn’t 2003-era Storrs, not by a long shot, and the black and red Adidas aren’t on La Puma’s feet.
It’s a temperate February evening in the heart of SoHo, and La Puma is in a high-end sportswear store Stadium Goods, with its walls of pristine sneakers of all makes and colors on display around him.
This pair — the hard-to-find KSI X Adidas Forum Hi model — was specially flown to New York City, and is now displayed in a glass case in the store’s center aisle.
And it’s KSI himself who’s walking La Puma through his design choices with Adidas while a production crew captures their conversation from cameras at various angles. After seven efficiently orchestrated takes, they’re ready to take down the lights and wrap up the latest taping of “Sneaker Shopping,” the Webby-Award winning YouTube show that La Puma originated and hosts for Complex Networks.
It’s garnered more than 1 billion views over 250-plus episodes since it launched in 2014, during which time he’s welcomed Grammy and Oscar winners, Hall of Fame athletes, Vice President Kamala Harris, and sneaker connoisseurs as diverse as Bill Nye the Science Guy and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
Using his UConn education and his Complex connections, La Puma has carved out his own career path to become the network’s senior vice president for content strategy and one of the nation’s — if not the world’s — foremost experts on sneaker culture.
Pretty sick, indeed.
A pop culture and sneaker enthusiast since youth, La Puma has made “Sneaker Shopping” the must-watch show for established and aspiring sneakerheads. The high-profile personalities who join him come from all walks of life, but share his passion for the industry’s history, creativity, and cultural significance.
From left, Alex Villegas '12 is based in Chile and works as a senior correspondent for Reuters; Diego Cupolo '06 is a freelance foreign correspondent in Turkey.
Journalists working in the United States may feel used to navigating the motives and special interests that influence their sources. Once a model of freedom of expression, the United States this year ranked 45th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom index. The reasons why America doesn't rank near the top include media company monopolies, public distrust of the press and fake news.
Conditions, however, are worse in numerous other countries, where governments instability, wars, protests and other unrest make finding the truth a risky task. We talked with two UConn Journalism alumni who have extensive experience working abroad as foreign correspondents. They have learned to navigate difficult situations when political unrest, war or press restrictions severely challenge movement and interviewing sources.
Diego Cupolo '06 has been working for seven years in Turkey, which ranks a dismal 165th out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index.
Alexander Villegas '12 is based in Chile as a senior correspondent for Reuters News Service. He recently reported on the killing of political protesters in Peru. Peru ranks 110th out of 180 on the Press Freedom index.
Getting around roadblocks both real and bureaucratic
Using their experience and wits as foreign reporters, and relying on the foundation of their UConn Journalism training, Cupolo and Villegas say they are constantly challenged to find creative ways to gain information.
Cupolo has been freelancing as a multimedia journalist for seven years in Turkey, where he lives with his wife, Ceylan Akca, and their child.
The Turkish government denied him an official press card several years ago, he said, because he had covered a conflict in the Kurdish region in the southeast of the country. “The government did not like my reports,” Cupolo said, adding that his situation is not unusual for foreign journalists in Turkey. “A lot of people get deported.” He has been able to stay because of the residency he gained through his family.
Cupolo’s wife, Akca, became a candidate for parliament this year, running as a pro-Kurdish Green Left Party candidate. As a result, Cupolo has recused himself from covering Kurdish politics. But there’s plenty more to cover. He publishes a newsletter on Substack called Turkey Recap, which updates readers familiar with Turkey on the week’s news and political developments. The newsletter highlights his deep knowledge of Turkey and helps him secure assignments from foreign outlets. Lately he’s been reporting for the CBC on political speeches and Russian soldiers in Turkey.
Just as gaining press credentials can be difficult, so too is the process of finding accurate government data. He said he does not generally trust data released by the government. He will cite “official statistics” and quote independent research groups. “The problem is when you’re in a highly polarized political environment without free speech,” he said, “these groups that give you the alternative data often have political motives.”
Most citizens in Turkey are not eager to talk to reporters, he said. “There’s nothing they can gain from talking to journalists. You have to be lucky or approach them in the right way or in the right place. Usually if you’re at a pollical rally, people are more open to talking because they’re already in public, showing their preferences. But if you’re going to stop someone random on the street, it’s pretty difficult.”
Police officers in Istanbul have stopped Cupolo, ordered him to stop filming or photographing and even made him delete his material on the spot. “It’s like: ‘Be detained or erase your photos while I watch.’ ”
Despite all that, much of his work gets through; there’s no hard-and-fast prohibition on reporting there. Rather, it’s unpredictable and arbitrary. “Most of my day is just based on circumventing limitations,” he said, “and I don’t even think of them as limitations after seven years. It’s just the environment. You don’t step on a tack.”
Villegas has been senior correspondent for Reuters in Chile for two years. He is based in Santiago in a bureau that covers several countries. Before that, he reported from Costa Rica, where he grew up, for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, and others, including the Tico Times, a Costa Rican paper where he was assistant managing editor for two years.
In his work reporting on indigenous land conflicts, political unrest, drug trafficking, climate change, and other stories, Villegas has found that consistently asking for more information and stating whom he works for has worked to build trust.
For example, in December 2022, Villegas was sent to Peru to cover public killings of protesters after the ouster of former President Pedro Castillo. The reporter said he feared he had arrived too late to get the full story. But then he started talking to people who lived near some of the shootings. He persuaded a woman who owned a security camera to share crucial footage of one innocent man’s shooting. And Villegas visited government officials and asked questions—repeatedly. He said that Peruvians often don’t trust the local press and that there’s a saying there that it takes the foreign press to get the real story.
Villegas, who five years ago worked in protest-torn Nicaragua and has written about drug trafficking, said he over-prepares for his physical safety. “The main thing is preparation,” he said. He owns two bullet-proof vests, one light and one very heavy, and he sometimes takes a gas mask.
And he wears locally made steel shoes he learned about from a photographer.
“They look like sneakers” but protect from electric shock, nails and glass, and hazardous chemicals like gasoline.
Teaching students why world press freedom matters
Scott Wallace interviews an officer from the Sandinista Popular Army in Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua, 1984. (Photo by Bill Gentile)
The United Nations marked the 30th anniversary of its World Press Freedom Day on May 4. Although digital platforms have helped advance reliable news reports, reporters around the world continue to struggle with their physical safely and freedom to ask questions and communicate in public.
UConn Journalism Associate Professor Scott Wallace said he believes covering conflicts is more dangerous today than it was 30 years ago. Wallace has worked as a foreign correspondent in South and Central America, the Arctic, South and Southeast Asia, China, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union. He is known for sharing his extensive international experience with students in his environmental journalism and visual journalism classes.
Reporting in pressure-filled regions requires respect for the culture, physical safety precautions, and sometimes the willingness to talk one’s way out of a situation, said Wallace, who is writing a book about his time covering Central America, Baghdad, and Iraq, in the 1980s through the 2000s.
Once in El Salvador, Wallace said, soldiers with no uniforms stopped him as he was driving through an area looking for rebel forces. He had a hunch these soldiers were not rebels but actually government army people trying to disguise themselves. So when they asked, “Are you looking for terrorists?” he said, “No, not at all.” He was, of course looking for rebel forces, but he spoke knowledgably to the soldier who stopped him, saying he’d heard the army had taken control of the area and had come to see for himself. “They looked at me like, ‘Who is this guy?’ And they let me go past their roadblock.”
Wallace, who has taught in UConn’s Human Rights Institute in its partnership with the Scholars at Risk program, is working on a new special topics course that will examine world press freedom. The course will be cross-listed with Journalism and Human Rights. Wallace said he and HRI Director Kathy Libal aim for the course to launch in Spring 2024.
UConn student Jake Kelly, center, asks a question while he and his fellow students, Faith Greenberg, left, and Meredith Veilleux, right, interview a housing mediator Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, in an empty courtroom in New London Superior Court. (Dana Jensen/The Day)
With the evictions crisis rising in high-priced Connecticut, Prof. Mike Stanton's investigative reporting class in Fall 2022 looked into the impact on the people of southeastern Connecticut. The result was the story and sidebar, “A Day in Eviction Court,” published on March 5, 2023 in The Day, a daily newspaper in New London.
The Day, an independent newspaper owned by a public trust, has a longstanding relationship with the UConn Journalism Department. To enable the students to hit the ground running at the start of the Fall 2022 semester, Stanton obtained a database in August from the Connecticut Judiciary – a spreadsheet of some 100,000 eviction cases in the state of Connecticut from 2017 to 2022. The team later received an updated database through the end of 2022, giving them six years of data.
Five undergraduate students – Wyatt Cote, Faith Greenberg, Hudson Kamphausen, Jake Kelly and Meredith Veilleux – worked with Stanton to analyze the data, identify trends and statistics, statewide and by county and city/town so that we could break down what was happening in the communities of New London County. The students sorted the data chronologically and geographically to show where evictions occurred and to chart how they fell off during the pandemic moratorium on evictions and subsequently rose last year above pre-pandemic levels.
The class also enlisted a wealth of data and studies – from the Connecticut Bar Foundation, the Connecticut Fair Housing Center and Connecticut Legal Aid and national housing advocacy groups – to show how evictions disproportionately affect poor single mothers, chiefly minorities.
To tell the human stories behind the numbers, the students spent weeks going to sessions of housing court in New London and interviewing tenants, landlords, lawyers, court mediators, judges, court officials and non-profit advocates. One woman we identified, who became a central figure in our story, was a grandmother fighting eviction while caring for two young grandchildren and her dying husband, who passed way during our reporting. Because this kind of reporting can take longer than anticipated – getting data, reaching people, persuading them to cooperate, etc. – the project carried beyond the fall semester, with the students contributing to its completion for publication in early March.
This project was part of a larger, year-long project by The Day, the Housing Solutions Lab, to not only identify a defining problem in their circulation area but also to pinpoint solutions. The final story and sidebar also focused on solutions, most notably Connecticut’s second-in-the nation Right to Counsel law to provide low-income tenants with lawyers and level the playing field.
The students demonstrated their grasp of the issues in an accompanying Day podcast in which they reflected on their experiences and proposed solutions. The writing and reporting contributions from The Day were minimal. Each student was assigned to write different sections of the story, which was put together under Stanton's supervision.
The team discussed various leads and the organizational structure during in-class meetings that functioned as news meetings and editing sessions. The Day’s court reporter Greg Smith accompanied them to some court hearings and sat in on some of the interviews that the students led. He wound up using some of that material in separate stories that were part of The Day’s housing project outside of the evictions package. The Day’s photographer took the photos and the newspaper’s graphics editor produced the graphics, based on data provided and analyzed by the students.
In May 2023, 'A Day in Eviction Court' earned 5th place in the national Investigative Reporting competition of the 2022-2023 Hearst Journalism Awards Program, considered the Pulitzer Prizes of college journalism. The team of UConn student journalists split a $1,000 scholarship award. The department’s was awarded a matching grant.
UConn Journalism students surround Jose Diaz, a local landlord they interviewed. The students from left are Faith Greenberg, Wyatt Cote, Hudson Kamphausen and Meredith Veilleux.
UConn and high-level collegiate sports are practically synonymous, which was perfect for Julia Gintof '23, a UConn Journalism and Communications double major who will graduate on May 7. Gintof’s passion for sports journalism has seen her playing positions at ESPN, UConn Football, Hartford Athletic and UCTV, where she served as assistant sports director. The experiences she’s had, from sideline reporting to video production, will serve her well as she pursues a career in sports media, but even for students who don’t share her love for athletic competition, she has words of sage advice: don’t miss the opportunity to watch a game at Gampel Pavilion.
Why did you choose to go to UConn?
As someone with a passion for pursuing a career in sports media, I knew I wanted to go to a school that could provide high-level opportunities in athletics. With so many championship programs and top-notch facilities as well as an incredible gameday atmosphere, UConn was really a no-brainer.
What drew you to your field of study?
I love to tell stories, particularly through a visual medium. Studying both journalism and communication has helped me advance my skills in speaking, writing, understanding relationships, and presenting material to better convey meaning.
What activities were you involved in as a student?
UConn Student Television (UCTV), UConn Football, and UConn Athletics.
What’s one thing that surprised you about UConn?
The resources and opportunities that I was able to take advantage of during my time here surprised me, including the ability to work with high-level equipment, travel for football and basketball games, and work alongside professional journalists and videographers.
Remarks delivered by Amanda J. Crawford, Assistant Professor, during the Journalism Department's annual scholarship awards ceremony on April 27, 2023.
A lie tears “a hole in the fabric of factuality.”
“Consistent lying, metaphorically speaking, pulls the ground from under our feet and provides no other ground on which to stand.”
As a writer, I love metaphors. And those two different ones, that I sort of mashed together unceremoniously there, are drawn from political philosopher Hannah Arendt’s essay “Truth and Politics.” She first published that essay about the impact of political lies in The New Yorker in 1967 -- even before our nation endured the trauma of Watergate.
I first came across these quotes about 50 years after Arendt wrote them, back in 2018 when I started researching the misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy theories, and political lies that had coalesced to launch what many commentators have dubbed the “post-truth era” of American politics. I thought Arendt’s metaphors spoke so directly to the kind of vertigo I felt then, as public discourse became increasingly polluted by outrageous falsehoods. It’s a sense of vertigo that I think that many of us continue to feel today.
I was invited to talk to you today about my research – and how this “misinformation moment” we are in, which is how I often refer to the mendacity of our times, impacts those of us who choose to pursue truth as our profession.
The calling to seek the truth – which our students and graduates know is the ultimate ethical tenet for journalists – is why I decided to be a journalist.
I was raised in rural Appalachia. My high school was just outside the Antietam Battlefield in Western Maryland. It’s the kind of place where patriotism is defined as God and Country. I grew up spending a lot of time at two places: my church and the American Legion. But I knew pretty early on that the kind of truth I wanted to seek wasn’t the kind spoken about from the pulpit and my version of patriotism didn’t entail military service.
To me, the First Amendment was the promise of America. The idea that we all have the right to the province of our conscience. We can choose our God, speak our minds, and disagree with our leaders. And the free press – the only profession specifically mentioned in the Bill of Rights – is key to the very functioning of our democracy. The free press is charged with an extraordinarily important duty: to hold public officials accountable and provide the information that enables our system of government by the people.
As a child, when I decided I wanted to be a journalist, it was because I saw journalism as a noble, patriotic profession rooted in serving the public good and serving democracy. Recent scandals and some bad actors aside, I still believe this wholeheartedly.
There are many people in the public who would find this contention laughable. They accuse journalists of pushing fake news, of being biased, of having nefarious agendas. The last president even went so far as to dub journalists “the enemy of the people.”
I think there is a saying that explains what a lot of this criticism is about: truth hurts.
We live in an era in which our sources of information are splintered. Fake news, conspiracy theories, and propaganda compete alongside legitimate reporting online. And the sad reality is that many of our fellow Americans are far less interested in truth than they are about promoting their own agendas, beliefs, or political tribe. Sometimes, there are news outlets that fall into this, too.
Truth doesn’t always feel good. The truth can disrupt our sense of how the world works, it might make us question our loyalties, our preconceived notions, our sense of right and wrong. Many people want to run from this discomfort. It’s easier if everything you read, watch or listen to tells you that what already believe is right, that your team is the best, that your friends are good, and that your beliefs are moral.
You may be familiar with a psychological phenomenon which comes into play here. It’s called “confirmation bias.” People believe what reinforces their existing beliefs and dismiss what doesn’t. A related phenomenon is called “motivated reasoning.” That’s when deeply held beliefs cause people to dismiss facts and reshape reality to fit the preexisting narrative of their beliefs. This is how people can be drawn down the rabbit hole to believe outlandish ideas such as the notion that major mass shootings like Sandy Hook have been staged or even that high-ranking Democratic politicians are trafficking children to please Satan (a grand conspiracy theory known as QAnon).
This tendency to dismiss truth and engage in conspiratorial thinking isn’t new. But the modern media and political environments have changed in ways that enable people to ignore facts more easily. You can find someone supporting almost any ludicrous idea online. Quacks who promote anti-science gibberish. Politicians who make up voter fraud – but only in elections they lose. It’s easy to find your tribe – even if your tribe believes the world is flat and the moon landing was a hoax.
When you are the journalist engaged in the important work of telling the truth -- reporting facts as well as the “truth about the facts” – you can find yourself running head-on into people’s confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and ludicrous false beliefs. You can find yourself facing angry, polarized people clinging to a false reality.
Journalists need to be brave and remember the high stakes of our calling. Recently, we saw what happens when a major media organization kowtows to an audience clinging to conspiracy theories. For months, some prominent media personalities at Fox News helped to promote conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. We know, because of documents released in Dominion Voting’s lawsuit against the network, that Fox knew better: they knew from their own reporting that the conspiracy theories about the election didn’t pass the smell test and that the proof some of their guests said they had of rigged voting machines didn’t exist. But they were afraid of losing market share if they told their audiences the truth.
Journalists can never be afraid of the truth. That is our highest calling. But telling the truth requires bravery more now than ever before. It also requires us to think about the way we practice journalism and how we can do better so we serve the truth and don’t inadvertently help to make this misinformation moment worse.
So, some advice for our graduates – and a few unpopular ideas -- as you head out into the world and do the brave work of telling the truth:
Work to build trust: We not only face a crisis of truth. We also face a crisis of trust. A lot of people don’t trust journalists, and it will be up to your generation to demonstrate why you should be trusted. How can you do this? For one, you should be transparent: explain why and how you cover the news. Share your sources. Show your work. Tell the story of your journalism, honestly. This means revealing more than reporters of my generation did about the work that you do.
Be cautious about how your reporting can help misinformation or disinformation to spread. My research shows how sloppy reporting about mass shootings helped conspiracy theories to spread. Our technology allows us to publish almost at the speed of light. Truth takes longer to get at. And the internet will remember every tweet and every mistake, even if you correct it – and bad actors can take advantage of that. Here is my unpopular opinion: You might need to slow down sometimes to get it right.
Avoid repeating misinformation or disinformation and introducing it to a new audience. It might feel like you are doing the good work of the truth when you debunk a conspiracy theory or call out a political lie. Be mindful that you might have good intentions, but if that false information is fringe you might just be platforming it and helping it to spread to a whole new audience. My unpopular opinion: there will be sensational, controversial things that sometimes you just shouldn’t cover, even if it gets hits. Because it feeds the polarized world of disinformation and lies.
And finally, remember that telling the truth is your job. You are not stenographers, charged with just telling what happened. Your job is not just to talk to “both sides.” You have no obligation to report something just because someone says it or believes it or because the other side says it is so. Your primary obligation as a journalist is to seek the truth and report it.
There is a saying that I sometimes tell my students: A journalist’s job is not to interview people and report what color they say the sky is. The job of a journalist is to look out the window and report the truth.
In today’s world, there are lots of storm clouds. Looking out the window can mean seeing things that are disturbing or scary. But that is the charge.
Go forth. Open the windows. Look outside. Tell the truth. And be brave.
Our UConn Journalism students work hard and achieve much. Tanajah Fryer, left, and Amaree Love were two of our distinguished scholarship recipients at the department’s 2023 annual award ceremony.
John Breen Scholarship Sara Bedegian
Sheehan Family Memorial Scholarship Jalen Allen
Donald and Jewell Friedman Award Colleen Lucey and Marissa Kaika
Dave Solomon Scholarship Jia Stolfi and Amaree Love
Charles Litsky Memorial Scholarship Tanajah Fryer, Skyler Kim, Hallie Letendre, Colleen Lucey and Kaily Martinez
The Barbara K. Hill Journalism Award Madeline Papcun
T.C. Karmel Award for Sports Journalism Julianna Bravo
Michael Whalen Award Madeline Papcun
Phi Beta Kappa Wyatt Cote, Julia Gintof, John Leahy, Colleen Lucey, Laura Mason, Madeline Papcun, Carson Swick and Meredith Veilleux
Members of the Class of 2023, such as Hudson Kamphausen, also received their black & white journalism honor cords for commencement on May 7.
The ceremony on April 27 featured UConn Journalism-branded chocolate-covered Oreos and inspirational words from Assistant Professor Amanda J. Crawford:
“You have no obligation to report something just because someone says it or believes it or because the other side says it is so. Your primary obligation as a journalist is to seek the truth and report it.”
STORRS — UConn journalism students are enjoying wider readership of their environmental stories by publishing on Planet Forward, an outlet for college students housed at George Washington University. It focuses on informing the public on innovative ideas to help improve the planet.
The UConn students’ stories covered a range of Connecticut climate-change stories and appear on Planet Forward along with work by students from across the United States who contribute written work, podcasts, videos, infographics, and more, focusing on telling stories “that would move the planet forward.”
Jonathan Kopeliovich reported on marine biologists at UConn Avery Point who are studying the effects of noise pollution on ocean life.
Madeline Papcun, a junior Journalism major, talked to farmers in the Mansfield, Conn. area, asking them how they are adapting to wild swings in rain and drought from year to year.
Wallace’s student research assistant Claire Lee, a biology major, attended the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in November in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. She published a piece on discussions there about ocean acidification.
Associate Prof. Scott Wallace, an environmental journalist whose book “The Unconquered” is about the Amazon, has encouraged many of his students to cast their nets wider and submit to Planet Forward. “It’s a great opportunity for students to get published, especially from an honorable publication,” Wallace said.
McCard, a sophomore studying environmental science and journalism, said her story on wild cats began as an assignment for Wallace’s Newswriting I class.
“I sent them an email and they got back to me the next day,” said McCard, who writes for the Daily Campus and contributes to HER Campus magazine. McCard said this was her first time being published outside a school publication. “I would love to do more environmental pieces,” she said.
Kopeliovich, a junior majoring in digital media design and filmmaking, said Wallace told him about Planet Forward during the fall semester’s environmental journalism (JOUR 3046E) class.
“I decided to submit my second story in his class,” Kopeliovich said, “because I didn’t like my first story.” Wallace “always gave us notes on how we could improve our stories, and after some editing I felt confident in turning it over to Planet Forward,” Kopeliovich said.
Students also can submit their stories to Planet Forward’s annual competition, Storyfest. Grand prize winners will travel to Iceland from July 15-20 with Lindblad Expedition aboard the National Geographic Resolution. The trip will include seminars and guidance to help shape the journalists’ careers.
In April 2023, three UConn students joined with Prof. Wallace to attend the Planet Forward Summit in Washington, D.C.
Prof. Scott Wallace poses for a selfie with students Zareen Reza, Sophia Dover and Skyler Kim at the 2023 Planet Forward Summit in Washington, D.C.
Jake Sherman, the journalist, author, and co-founder of Punchbowl News, speaks with UConn journalism and entrepreneurship students about the future of the press in a moderated discussion held at the Toscano Family Forum on April 11, 2023.
Jake Sherman got some really good advice from a fellow reporter when he joined the newsroom at the Wall Street Journal.
“Don’t try to be a generalist,” he shared. “Find your niche, and be really good at one thing, and people will always need you around.”
Sherman offered that advice – and his thoughts on the current state and future of journalism in the United States – to more than 70 journalism and entrepreneurism students who attended a moderated discussion with the political journalist and author, held at the Toscano Family Ice Forum’s Blue Line Club on Tuesday afternoon.
For more than a decade, Sherman has worked in his own niche, covering national politics with a focus on reporting on the U.S. Congress, congressional leadership, and the politics of legislating. He worked for 11 years as the top congressional reporter on Capitol Hill for POLITICO and the co-author of POLITICO’s Playbook newsletter. But after watching the news organization grow from a newsroom of 20 to a worldwide operation of more than 500, he decided to leave.
And to launch his own online political news venture, forcing him to wear a familiar hat – that of the journalist – and a brand new one: that of the entrepreneur.
“It was a huge risk,” he said. “But I think, in life, you know when it’s time to take a risk.”
Frankie Graziano '11, is the new host of "The Wheelhouse" on WNPR, Connecticut Public Radio. The show, featuring a roundtable of political commentators, is back by popular demand after a 2-year hiatus.
Graziano has been a member of the Connecticut Public newsroom since 2012, when he first worked on sports production for CPTV. He's covered news and politics for WNPR. He's a native of Torrington who lives in Glastonbury with his family. He once advised our aspiring journalists not to fear being embarrassed to get the story.
This July, the University of Connecticut’s Department of Journalism will offer a one-week residential high school journalism summer camp, continuing an initiative started by the Connecticut Health Investigative Team (C-HIT) 12 years ago.
“Basically, we give the students a crash course in multimedia journalism,” said Lynne DeLucia, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former assistant managing editor at the Hartford Courant who co-founded C-HIT and the high school journalism camp with the late Lisa Chedekel. Chedekel was an award-winning investigative journalist who passed away in 2018 at the age of 57. The two set up C-HIT as a non-profit independent news site dedicated to in-depth public service journalism and funded by foundation grants and individual donors.
“When we launched C-HIT in December of 2010, we knew we wanted to start a program that would get high school students a good introduction to this craft,” DeLucia said. “Our mission has always been to train this younger group to just be empowered, and give them some skills and maybe instill a little bit of confidence in them.”
C-HIT garnered many journalism awards for its deep-dive stories on health, safety, and medical issues, which were regularly published by Connecticut media outlets. The non profit news organization ended its 12-year run at the end of 2022. Its stories, including a wide selection of student work completed at the camps, remain online and will be archived.
The summer journalism camp, which took place on UConn’s Storrs campus numerous times, will continue here. In the past dozen years, the summer workshop has trained 330 high school students in multimedia journalism skills. This year’s program will be taught by Julie Serkosky, associate professor-in-residence in UConn’s Department of Journalism.
Serkosky said her aim is to lay a foundation of good practices. “Journalism is the best job I’ve ever had, and everything’s different every day,” she said. “We want to get high school students interested in that and excited about it, so that if it’s what they choose to do, they’ll be responsible and ethical journalists.”
Working journalists teach sessions. Teachers and speakers during the 2022 workshop included Kate Farrish ‘83, an award-winning reporter and editor and assistant professor at Central Connecticut State University; Ayah Galal, Hartford Bureau Chief at WFSB News; Patrick Raycraft, a former Hartford Courant photojournalist, Sabrina Herrera ‘14, community engagement and social media editor at Connecticut Public; and Bonnie Phillips, editor of ecoRI News and an adjunct journalism instructor at UConn.
Stories produced by the high school students covered a wide range of news and personalities. New Haven student Trinity Ford interviewed the coordinator of UConn’s Rainbow Center. Bowie, Maryland student Sydnee Assan investigated what’s changed 10 years after the Sandy Hook tragedy. Milford student Melissa Santos reported on abortion laws in Connecticut and Oregon since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Other stories covered sexual assault threats, climate change, music programs and more.
DeLucia said the camp’s aim has always been “to embolden students to challenge authority, ask questions, get answers, and translate complex subjects into compelling multimedia stories.”
The students also meet and work with others from economic and racial backgrounds different from their own. “That interaction provides for meaningful discussions about current events and the role of the media — as well as friendships,” DeLucia said.
Kate Ariano is a 2022 UConn Journalism grad who attended the C-HIT camp as a high school student in 2017.
"Had it not been for the opportunity to be fully immersed in all facets of news writing, reporting, and making connections with peers and professors at UConn, I may not have realized the potential I had as a young writer," Ariano said. "My confidence in my ability to tell stories is founded on the lessons I learned in just one week with professors that would go on to be mentors for my next four years of college. Prepared is an understatement to how ready I was to start at UConn after the camp."
She added, "If you want to learn how to become a master storyteller; if you want to learn how to connect with your community to make a difference through your words; if you want to succeed as a writer, UConn Journalism is where you do it. And it all starts with the high school summer camp."
The total cost of the seven-day program is discounted at 50% for students who take the 2023 multimedia journalism course. The cost is $1175. If accepted, the final payment for the program is due by June 5. Thanks to a generous donation from C-HIT and supporters of the high school summer journalism program, eligible campers with financial need can receive free tuition. DeLucia said that a majority of the 330 students the camp has trained so far had received full or partial scholarships. Students should contact the UConn Pre-College Summer Program at pcs@uconn.edu for more information.
The application fee of $45 will also be waived for applicants of the multimedia journalism course. Use Waiver code: UCJOURNALISM.
In keeping with C-HIT’s long-standing mission to make the workshop accessible to all students, a special fund for donations has been established by the UConn Foundation. Please consider donating so that all who apply can participate. Donate here: https://s.uconn.edu/campfund
