The Buskin Mentor Group
You certainly can go it alone - a lot of people do - but that's not the smartest or most effective way to expand your knowledge, opportunities and experience. It is to your advantage to seek out those who have gone before you and who are willing to help you and others understand the way the world works.
It's called networking.
Networking has become a must for those wishing to get into, and succeed, in almost any field. By networking, you will meet people who can help you decipher the codes of whatever career you choose. Your contacts can help you understand industry trends and be important resources when it comes to internships and job opportunities.
There are hundreds of professional journalists out there whose careers started at the desks you now occupy. The result is a well of experience at your disposal.
Remarkably, even though there is no major here, Stony Brook has managed to simulate a major with top-notch journalism courses coupled with a wide variety of student news organizations, where so many students have gotten valuable practical experience and turned that experience into careers.
Below are some of them. The following pros, most of them Stony Brook alums, have volunteered to share their experience with campus journalists.
No strings. The motivation is simple: These pros received help from their predecessors while they were in school, and they want to return the favor.
This is an informal group that will offer its services individually, or collectively among the media, as the subject or situation warrant and to the extent that student editors welcome this advice. These topics could include distribution, technology, photography, access to information, staffing and other timely matters.
This does not have to be a formal process. They are a phone call or e-mail away. Even if you don't end up using their advice, at least you have another intelligent viewpoint to help you make day-to-day and long-term decisions.
The Mentors
FRED BRUNING is a reporter in Newsday's Part 2 feature section. He was graduated from the University of Missouri with a bachelor of journalism degree in January, 1964, and holds an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College. He has worked for six daily newspapers and Newsweek magazine. He teaches features 1 and 2 (JRN 288 and 388).
Contact: 631-843-3713, fred.bruning@newsday.com
JOE CAPONI (class of 1987) is editor of the ChannelWeb network of Web sites (channelweb.com, crn.com and varbusiness.com) that provide news, perspective and tools for technology solution providers. Prior to that, he held a number of Internet and print publication positions at other CMP Media properties, including at VARBusiness, Network Computing and InformationWeek magazines. He's produced publications at locations from San Diego to Germany, but most fondly remembers his years in the basement of Old Bio (then Central Hall, now the Student Activities Center), putting out The Stony Brook Press. He was executive editor from 1983 to 1985, launching the paper's summer edition, as well as publishing (he believes) the largest number of Press issues in one school year. tours st petersburg russia
Contact: 516-733-6709, jcaponi@cmp.com
ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR. (class of 1994) is a reporter at Newsday. In college, he was editor-in-chief of Blackworld, a staff writer for Statesman, and an intern at Newsday. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times and The Hartford Courant.
Contact: 631-843-2760, errol.cockfield@newsday.com
CARL CORRY (class of 1996) is managing editor of the weekly Long Island Business News, where he assigns and edits stories for all sections of the paper. He also oversees its Web site operations and daily e-mail newsletter. Previously, Corry was an Internet and spot news reporter for financial news Web site CBS.Marketwatch.com. Before that, Corry was a reporter for Long Island Business News and a freelance writer for Newsday and other local publications. Corry is serving in his second term as president of the Press Club of Long Island, a professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Corry founded an SPJ student satellite chapter at St. John's University. As an undergraduate transfer student at Stony Brook University, where he was news editor of the Stony Brook Statesman, Corry was awarded PCLI's 1996 scholarship for print and served as president of the university's SPJ student satellite chapter of the Press Club from 1994-1996. kinetico water softeners reviews
Contact: 631-737-1700, carl.corry@libn.com
ZACHARY DOWDY (class of 1989; Buskin Award winner, 1988) is a criminal justice reporter at Newsday. He was editor-in-chief of Blackworld for two years. He was also an intern at The Syracuse Newspapers, a researcher for the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center, and graduated from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1992. Dowdy has worked as a reporter at the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe.
Contact: 631-843-2294, zrdowdy@yahoo.com
CATHRINE DUFFY (class of 1993) is news editor at Newsday. During school, she was a reporting intern on Newsday's Long Island desk.
Contact: 631-843-2850, cathrine.duffy@newsday.com
DAVID M. EWALT (class of 1998; Buskin Award winner, 1997) is an award-winning reporter for InformationWeek, the world's largest weekly technology magazine. In the past, he worked at Newsday, on a variety of investigative projects, and served as executive editor of The Stony Brook Press for two years.
Contact: 718-396-1054, dewalt@cmp.com
TISCHELLE GEORGE (class of 1999) teaches life skills and college prep courses to New York City high school students through the non-profit organization Directions For Our Youth. Prior to switching careers, George wrote about IT hiring, job training, online recruiting and teens & technology issues for InformationWeek, a business and technology magazine. Along with reporting for the magazine, George was the site manager of the InformationWeek Workplace & Career site and was responsible for updating the section, aggregating news content and developing interactive tools.
Contact: tischellegeorge@yahoo.com
PATRICIA HUANG (class of 1993; Buskin Award winner, 1993) reporter, writes about international corporate and political affairs for Forbes. Ms. Huang specializes in economic developments in Asia, with particular expertise in Japanese business news, as well as emerging markets. Her recent coverage includes a cover story on Vietnam¹s apparel industry. She is a member of the Asian-American Journalists Association, and was recently sponsored by the United Nations in a pan-Asia fact-finding mission. In addition, she circumnavigated the globe by sea in 2000, visiting 18 nations, on a scholarship with Peace Boat, a UNESCO-affiliated Japanese humanitarian group. Previously, Ms. Huang lived in Tokyo and reported for The Yomiuri Shimbun and The Japan Times. In the U.S., she has also written for The Newark Star-Ledger (New Jersey), The Virginian Pilot and Newsday. Ms. Huang earned a bachelor¹s degree in English Literature, with a minor in journalism, from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. ASUS EEE PC 1000HA REPLACEMENT LAPTOP LCD SCREEN
Contact: (212) 367-2647, phuang@forbes.com
DAVID JOACHIM (class of 1993; Buskin Award winner, 1992; chairman, Buskin Committee) is editor/business technology at Network Computing, a national technology magazine. He has held senior editorial positions at several technology magazines, including InternetWeek, where he was senior managing editor and ran the news operation. He was also a staff writer at Newsday. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Newsweek.com, Advertising Age, Computerworld and VARBusiness. In college, he was editor in chief of the Statesman newspaper for two and a half years, during which time he won 10 awards, including top writing prizes from Newsday and the Press Club of Long Island chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He was also a Newsday intern and New York Times stringer. He is executive vice president of the Press Club of Long Island.
Contact: 516-562-5565, david@davidjoachim.com
ROBERT F. KEELER is an editorial writer for Newsday, focusing primarily on Suffolk County politics and government, the environment and regional transportation. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for beat reporting, for a series of stories about St. Brigid's, a Catholic parish in Westbury.
Contact: bob.keeler@newsday.com
LAURA LO (class of 1998) is an assistant editor on Newsday's copy desk. She spent three years as a reporter and editor at The Stony Brook Statesman and is a former Newsday copy-editing intern. After she graduated from Stony Brook, she worked as coordinator of alumni affairs at Suffolk County Community College.
Contact: llo@newsday.com
NORM PRUSSLIN (class of 1969) is director of the Media Minor/Living Learning Center for Media Programs at Stony Brook University. He serves as assistant director, Student Union and Activities at SBU where he manages WUSB 90.1FM and advises the Student Media Council. He serves as president of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, the nation's oldest and largest college radio station membership organization. Norm is also an active member of many other media industry associations including the Society of Professional Journalists (board member, Press Club of Long Island chapter), College Media Advisers, Broadcast Education Association and the Radio/TV News Directors Association.
Contact: 631-632-6823, nprusslin@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
PAUL SCHREIBER was a reporter, editor and business columnist at Newsday for 33 years. He graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in journalism and began his career as a reporter and bureau chief for The Miami Herald. He is the former director of the Journalism Program at Stony Brook, where he taught JRN 288, Feature Writing, and JRN 388, Advanced Feature Writing and Magazine Writing, for 13 years. He was named "Outstanding Long Island Journalist" in 2002 by The Press Club of Long Island.
Contact: paulschr@optonline.net
BARBARA SELVIN was a reporter on New York Newsday's business desk for seven years and on Newsday's health and science desk for one year before leaving the paper in 1993. She began teaching college journalism courses in 1999 and came to Stony Brook in 2000. She teaches News Reporting and Writing and Advanced News Reporting and Writing (JRN 287 and 387). She holds a B.A. from SUNY-Binghamton and an M.S. from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Contact: 516-883-3460, bselvin@optonline.net
OTTO STRONG (class of 1992; Buskin Award winner, 1991) is Newsday's Sunday sports editor. Has previously worked as a reporter, night city editor and sports copy desk editor. He was also a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. In college, he founded the USB Weekly newspaper and was a writer, editor and columnist for the Statesman.
Contact: 631-843-4825, otto.strong@newsday.com
ALAN J. WAX (class of 1971) is a business reporter at Newsday. He also freelances on wine, beer and food topics. Before graduating, he was a news editor and business manager at Statesman, a campus stringer for Newsday and a Newsday summer intern in 1970 and 1971.
Contact: 631-843-2790, wax@newsday.com
PAT WIEDENKELLER is a deputy Part 2 features editor at Newsday. While at Stony Brook, she worked for two weekly newspapers and had two internships at Newsday. She joined Newsday full-time in 1991.
Contact: 631-843-4637, wiedenke@newsday.com
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