Dear Digest Editor:
I want to congratulate The Southern Digest staff for the awards they won this year at the 11th Annual HBCU Student News Media Conference in Durham, N.C. It shows that not only did the hard work pay off for the media winners, but the honors promote prestige for the student newspaper and the university itself.
I particularly want to note the achievements of one of my students, who is also The Digest sports editor, Larry Young Jr.
Rarely have I seen a student who has taken to heart and then used every recommendation from his major professor, texts and media professionals to get a head start in this competitive field of print journalism/mass communications.
Young is an exception, and he is being rewarded. I also expect him to be a top news sports writer in the years to come.
At the Durham news media conference, he placed second in best sports news for the second consecutive year and received an honorable mention for best overall sports.
He has been selected to participate this summer in the highly competitive Sports Journalism Institute and the New York Times Student Journalism Institute. At the Sports Institute, Young will be one of only nine students selected from throughout the nation’s universities to participate in the training and internship program. He will work for nine weeks at the Houston Chronicle, where he is assigned to cover the Houston Astros baseball and the NFL’s Houston Texans pro football team.
For the NYTs Institute, which will be held at Dillard University in May in New Orleans, Young will work with the Times editors covering and writing sports stories. He will also participate in making a sports page into a student edition of the NYTs. While at the Institute, Young will have the opportunity to work with some of the leading sports editors in America, including Don Hecker of the Times and Gregory Lee Jr. of the Boston Globe.
Young is one of 24 student journalists selected to the NYT Institute.
Besides carrying a full academic load, Young is also working at The Advocate as a news aid to assistant metro editor Johnnie Brooks.
And last summer, Young worked as a sports reporter for Gannett’s Newsleader in Stanton, Va.
Marilyn Goff, Associate Professor
SU Department of Mass Communications
Categories:
Letter to the Editor
April 16, 2009
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