By Joan Niesen
Master’s Student

Columbia, Mo. (Oct. 26, 2009) — Boris Korby, a second-year master’s student at the Missouri School of Journalism, was awarded the David Kaplan Memorial Fellowship, which will provide him with a spring internship at the ABC News Washington Bureau.

Boris Korby

The fellowship, which was created in 1993 by Sam Donaldson of ABC News, honors the late David Kaplan, his field producer and close friend who was killed by a sniper in Sarajevo. Donaldson, whose wife is an alumna of the School, wanted to provide an opportunity for Missouri students interested in careers as behind-the-scenes reporters and researchers through work in the network’s D.C. office.

“While the demands of the ABC News Washington Bureau have changed quite a bit over the past 17 year, students chosen for the Kaplan Fellowship still need to have a passion for public policy news, know what it takes to make a story visually appealing and have the personality to thrive in a pressure-cooker environment,” said Mike McKean, associate professor and chair of the selection committee.

Korby will work on his professional project while working for ABC in a paid position. This semester he is helping develop an iPhone application for KOMU-TV in a joint venture between the College of Engineering and the School of Journalism. He worked at Bloomberg News last summer and believes that his experience in a major corporate media environment will help him at ABC.

“Boris will be another J-School success story when he returns from ABC News in Washington next spring,” McKean said.