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January 2011
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Pathway to a Full-Time JobFour Alumni Share How the Master's Professional Project Provided Skills, Contacts for a Post-Graduation HireBy Jeramy SewerStrategic Communication Student The lives of Harley Geiger, Mark Stanley, Ben Poston and Andrew Del-Colle have taken different directions since each earned his master's degree at the Missouri School of Journalism. But what they do have in common is their choice of the professional project as the capstone of their graduate program. Master's students finish their program by either writing a thesis or completing a professional project. The project places students in real-world media environments. Students gain experience while completing a research component and attending seminars once a week. Many students are offered full-time jobs with their respective companies after completing their projects. Harley Geiger, MA '08"You really have to take your education beyond the classroom," Harley Geiger, MA '08, says. After finishing law school, Geiger focused his MA project research on how nonprofits and government agencies educate audience with varying levels of knowledge on policy issues. Geiger worked at the Federal Trade Commission in the Division of Consumer Protection. "Data privacy and identity theft are technical subjects," he says. "It's hard to find the right way to speak to an audience with members ranging from tech-savvy to those who know nothing." Geiger chose the professional project over writing a thesis because he felt the practical experience gained through an internship would be more beneficial to his career. "People with experience are a known quantity," he says. "Having a semester-long professional project helps me prove that I produce good work in the field of information security policy." While working for the FTC, he drafted agency reports to Congress, monitored Internet advertising for fraud, developed and managed contact databases and wrote consumer education material. He was able to add his professional project to a list of other internships and clinics which, along with letters of recommendation, demonstrated his ability in the workplace. Geiger now works as policy counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C. He focuses on projects dealing with health and consumer privacy, as well as surveillance and national security. CDT is a non-profit organization that works to keep the Internet open, innovative and free. During his time at CDT, Geiger was reintroduced to fellow master's graduate Mark Stanley, MA '09. Their first meeting took place when Geiger was Stanley's teaching assistant in Associate Professor Sandy Davidson's communications law course.
Mark Stanley, MA '09Stanley chose to go to Washington, D.C., for his professional project. Headquartered in the National Press Building, Stanley's work was enhanced by weekly seminars with Washington insiders who work as legislative specialists, lobbyists and bureau chiefs. For the research component, Stanley performed a quantitative study to determine if people value original investigative journalism more than opinion journalism. He found that participants do place a higher value on investigative work. Stanley says the hands-on experience gained in his CDT work, as well as from courses such as convergence reporting and convergence editing and producing, was a major reason he was able to transition from coursework to full-time employment after graduation. He credits the journalism school for teaching him the skills and providing the technological knowledge needed to accomplish his work at CDT. While working for CDT, Stanley produced video, designed graphics, wrote stories for the website and compiled outreach research. Although there were no openings when he first graduated, Stanley was immediately offered a position at CDT when one developed in August 2010. As new media manager, Stanley engages the public through online communications to help inform them about struggles to keep the Internet open, innovative and free. Stanley says the experience, the confidence in using new technology and a great recommendation are all things he owes to the professional project program. Learning to use new technology is often a side-effect of choosing the professional project.
Ben Poston, MA '07"I came to the Missouri School of Journalism in August 2005, a graduate student seeking to become a better writer and learn database, mapping and statistical analysis skills," Ben Poston wrote. Poston, MA '07, completed his project at Investigative Reporters and Editors, a professional organization headquartered at the School. Fifteen months after he first looked into a wrongful conviction case for his intermediate writing course taught by Professor Emeritus Steve Weinberg, Poston's story was published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in November 2007. The story detailed the case of Josh Kezer, who was later exonerated after 15 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit. Poston's interest in publishing the story drove him to continue working on it after the course ended. His professional project allowed him to conduct extensive background research on the conviction. The experience gained at IRE plays an integral part in his current job at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. As an investigative reporter, he does database reporting, mapping, statistical findings and data analysis for other stories. Many of these functions he performed at IRE.
Andrew Del-Colle, MA '10A professional project can also take people in directions they weren't expecting. Andrew Del-Colle, MA '10, knew he wanted to complete his program at a magazine but was conflicted about where. Del-Colle applied for internships at several city and regional magazines and also used a list of contacts he received from Associate Professor Jennifer Rowe, his graduate committee chair and whom he worked with on Vox magazine. One contact was Clint Carter, BJ '07. Carter, an associate editor at Men's Health, passed along Del-Colle's information, and after a phone interview and reference checks, Del-Colle was offered a summer internship, which he accepted. Carter became Del-Colle's supervisor for the professional part of his project, which had Del-Colle primarily working on the Men's Health brand Eat This, Not That! Spawned from a monthly magazine sidebar, Eat This, Not That! is a New York Times best-selling book franchise dedicated to informing readers about making healthier eating choices. Del-Colle assisted with all aspects of the brand on a daily basis and also helped produce two editions of Eat This, Not That! books. In addition, Del-Colle pitched and wrote sidebars for the magazine and wrote for a Men's Health blog. Del-Colle's research, largely unrelated to his professional work, focused on how the use of Facebook and Twitter quotes affect the perceived credibility of news stories. He found that there was a negative effect when using Facebook and Twitter quotes in stories versus direct quotes. Del-Colle credits his work with Vox and classes in the journalism school with giving him the experience he needed to work at Men's Health. "I can't stress enough how much Vox prepared me because you're learning how to pitch and develop stories, write decks, subheads and all those little tricks for blurbs, whether it's alliteration or the power of your verb," he says. Working for Men's Health also helped Del-Colle take the skills he learned at Vox to a new level. "The biggest thing I polished was my speed and efficiency when it came to working," he says. Because of Del-Colle's hard work, his editors offered him an editorial assistant position after his project was complete. He continues working for Men's Health and Eat This, Not That! and also assists the senior managing editor on business aspects of the magazine.
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