Encouragement for a career in journalism

Orientation with the Chips Quinn Scholars program has been phenomenal. Within four days, I've met many journalism heavyweights. My knowledge about where journalism came from and where it is heading has grown, thanks to everyone from John C. Quinn, CQS program co-founder, to John Seigenthaler, founder of the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center, as well as many editors and reporters in the field. I would like to thank you all for persuading me to stay in journalism instead of joining sports medicine "for a life of stretching hamstrings." I appreciate what you and people like you are doing to encourage young journalist to stay positive in a field that is continually changing.

In order to understand, ask questions

Is it racist when someone of a background other than your own tells you that you are surprisingly articulate? Is that considered offensive? Growing up in the South, without an accent to pin me down to any race, per se, I have experienced this offense. I learned today from Keith Woods, dean of faculty at The Poynter Institute, that I have to resort to questions in order to understand where a person who says this is coming from. As journalists, we must ask questions to avoid making mountains out of mole hills. Mr. Woods’ speech, I hope, will stay in the mind of Chipsters and be spread throughout our profession.