Category: More News

Medill has created the Medill Illinois News Bureau, which will provide local news outlets with coverage of the state legislature and government agencies.

Working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois (CNI), Medill graduate and undergraduate journalism students will develop expertise in covering state government, producing stories and multimedia content that will be distributed to news organizations statewide and in bordering states. CNI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization based in Springfield that is operated by the Illinois Press Foundation. Its vast distribution network includes about 700 newspapers, digital-only news sites and broadcast outlets throughout Illinois and in border state cities such as St. Louis.

“This new Medill Illinois News Bureau is intended to help strengthen coverage of state government at a time when the Statehouse press corps has been depleted and after most newspapers have closed their Springfield bureaus,” said Medill Dean Charles Whitaker. “Medill is stepping up to help fill some of that void, and to provide students with invaluable, real-world experience and classroom expertise covering one of the largest and most complex state governments in the nation.”

A team of Medill students will be based in Springfield during the legislative session and will work out of CNI’s newsroom. When the legislature is not in session, these students will develop enterprise pieces and cover breaking state government news from Chicago.

“Our Capitol News Illinois team is very excited about this partnership with Medill,” said Jeff Rogers, the founding editor of CNI and executive director of the Illinois Press Foundation. “Through its Local News Initiative, Medill and Northwestern University are making a significant push to revitalize community journalism and address the growing number of news deserts in Illinois. Because Capitol News Illinois addresses a news desert at the Illinois Capitol, this is a perfect partnership that will further connect communities statewide to their state government. This is a win for everyone, including the fantastic student journalists at Medill, who will get their work published by newspapers and broadcast outlets throughout the state.”

The program is funded with a grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. The McCormick Foundation is a major supporter of the Medill Local News Initiative, a multi-pronged project aimed at bolstering local news locally and nationally. The initiative includes the Medill State of Local News Project, which tracks the number of news outlets nationally and news desert communities, and programs such as the Medill Local News Accelerator, the Midwest Solutions Journalism Hub and Teach for Chicago Journalism. Program participants also will conduct local news audience research.

“We are glad to have Medill and Capitol News Illinois as partners in keeping our citizens informed about the actions of their government and keeping the State of Illinois accountable to its residents,” said Tim Knight, the president and chief executive officer of the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

Medill Senior Lecturer Bob Rowley will serve as director of the Medill Illinois News Bureau. Rowley is a former national and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, where served as national editor for seven years. Rowley covered state government and local politics early in his reporting career.

Medill welcomes three alumni to serve as board members of the new-and-improved Medill Club of the Bay Area.  Maria Hunt, Carly Schwartz and Chanel Vargas will provide expert guidance and local assistance with programming, including local events and communications.

As Medill continues to grow its presence in San Francisco and more students are spending time in Northwestern’s satellite campus at 44 W. Montgomery, we hope to expand our alumni programming thematically – and geographically. With the Covid exodus from downtown still echoing, we will be looking to host events outside of central San Francisco, where many Medillians reside and work.

We need your help. If you have an idea for an outing or event, please post a note to the Medill Club of the Bay Area Facebook page or send an email to me at b-clarke@northwestern.edu and I’ll share with the board.

Similarly, if you are willing to speak to, or better yet, host students at your company, we are always looking for off-site opportunities for both our journalism and integrated marketing communications students.

More about our new club leaders:

Maria is a California-based journalist, brand content strategist and author with two book credits: “The Bubbly Bar” and “Tanya Holland’s California Soul: Recipes from a Culinary Journey West.”

While earning her degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, Maria learned about designing and managing high end culinary events, fine French and Italian wines and the art of bartending. These experiences prepared Maria for a career as an award-winning food journalist and restaurant critic at the San Diego Union-Tribune.

In the Bay Area, Maria has created successful content and social media marketing programs to drive revenue and engagement for brands including Houzz, Rodan + Fields, and One Medical.  She designs cultural and educational events for Northwestern University alumni and students, as well as writing cultural stories for The Guardian, Dwell, OLTRE, Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal and Esquire. Maria shares her wine and food adventures, new recipes and pairing ideas on her website, the bubblygirl.com and on Instagram @thebubblygirl.

Carly is a writer, editor, and media entrepreneur with nearly two decades of experience as a professional storyteller. She’s currently a consultant with Google’s moonshot division, and she served as editor in chief of the San Francisco Examiner and founding editor of HuffPost’s SF bureau. Her writing has appeared in Quartz, VICE News, GOOD magazine, San Francisco magazine, and Burning Man’s Black Rock Beacon, among other outlets, and Editor & Publisher magazine named her one of ten “women to watch” in 2021. Her first book, a memoir about her adventures overcoming addiction and depression while living in two very different communes, will be released later this year. She lives in San Francisco’s Mission District with her best friend, a three-year-old Boston terrier named Nacho.

Chanel is a journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 2017, Chanel served as a breaking news writer in Hearst Digital Media’s New York office. Following her stint in NYC, Chanel returned home to California and carved out her beat in the wellness and entertainment space. Her work can be found in various publications including POPSUGAR, Well + Good, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, SELF, Town & Country, Bustle, and more. When she’s not writing and reporting, Chanel loves taking long nature walks, exploring the SF food scene, reading novels, and performing improv comedy with her house team.

Want to help with events and club programming? E-mail b-clarke@northwestern.edu. 

In response to a rapidly changing journalism industry, Northwestern University has launched a new five-year dual degree program between the School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) and Medill.

The new offering allows undergraduates to learn journalistic skills in the context of education and social policy, ultimately earning degrees from both schools. Since SESP and Medill prioritize experiential learning, students can choose between Medill’s Journalism Residency or a traditional SESP practicum during their third year in the program.

A community workshop component lets them share what they’ve learned with each other in a participatory and interactive environment, facilitated by experts from both schools.

“Over the last five years, several students have sought an opportunity to match their interest in journalism with their interest in education or social policy,” Medill Dean Charles Whitaker said. “We see many connections in these fields, and we are delighted to be able to provide students with a formal path to pursue these interests.”

The dual degree, which fulfills the requirements of both schools, will help students learn how to use media as a tool for creating change in learning environments, human relationships, organizations, and for social policy movements.

It is designed to prepare students for a wide variety of careers, and targets those who hope to make an impact in the world through communication, policy analysis, and reporting skills.

“Some of them, for example, may be interested in being science writers,” said psychologist and learning scientist David Rapp, the Walter Dill Scott Professor and director of undergraduate education at SESP.

“How do they convey the accuracy of a vaccination procedure to communities who might not be amenable to it?” Rapp said. “If students opt to serve in a role where they need to testify in front of the government, how do they provide evidence in accessible terms to folks who might not be scientists? The dual degree would support that.”

Rapp, who studies fake news and how to overcome it, said joint courses will eventually be offered. “Our students want to know how they can take what they’re learning about individuals and communities and make change in real world settings by addressing real world issues,” he said.

Students would earn a Bachelor of Science in Journalism and a Bachelor of Science in Education and Social Policy. In addition to social policy, they can select any of SESP’s undergraduate concentrations, including elementary and secondary teaching, learning and organizational change, learning sciences, and human development in context.

Undergraduate applicants can apply to the dual-degree program when they apply for admission to Northwestern, and current students can follow the process through the Registrar’s Office to request to add an additional bachelor’s program. All students in the program would complete all requirements for both degrees.

“Fundamentally, the School of Education and Social Policy prepares leaders,” said SESP Dean Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy. “Many come to us with this drive and they’re interested in community and relationships. Our job is to create the conditions for students to lead whatever lives they wish, and the new dual degree program with Medill is another piece of that.”

To learn more, contact:

• Ian Williams at the School of Education and Social Policy
• Daniel MacKenzie at Medill