journoprof

Found it! The footage of the Purchase journalism program’s beloved video guru, Nancy (Lofaro)  Kane, telling CNN about her harrowing escape from the Costa Concordia as it capsized. “They’re full of it,” she thought, as the ship’s staff tried to reassure passengers that everything was under control. She and her husband made it into a lifeboat, but for a few seconds saw her life flash before her as the tiny boat was tossed around in the waves near the sinking ship.

Nancy was enjoying some well-earned rest and relaxation in Florence when we exchanged emails last week and was due back to New Rochelle this past weekend. Welcome back to dry land, Nancy.

Christie Rotondo (foreground) reporting an alpaca story this summer for the Gazette Newspapers of Cape May County, NJ

All reporters at the New York Daily News yearn to get their stories on “The Wood,” which is newsroom jargon for the front page. Purchase journalism student Christie Rotondo pulled it off while still just an intern there. Rotondo, a junior at Purchase, shared a Nov. 11 byline on a front page story about anti-semitic vandalism in Midwood, Brooklyn. Rotondo had been assigned to write obits that day but was sent to the scene where three cars had been torched. She worked the story all day and didn’t realize she’d made the front page until she got an email from Purchase Journalism Professor Ross Daly congratulating her. “I definitely learned a lot from working the scene,” says Rotondo, ”and seeing my story on the cover was the ultimate payoff.”

Kyle Kalotschke shown here with his idol: Bob Costas

Purchase journalism program alum, Kyle Kalotschke (class of ’10), returned to campus last week to share his experiences as Web Editor at Regional News Network (RNN-TV) - a postition he landed after applying to a job listing on LinkedIn. As is often the case for reporters in their early days, he’s working when the rest of us are sleeping. “It’s a brutal schedule, but you get used to it after a while,” he said. He’s in charge of social media and getting news video off the TV and onto the web. Kyle had some great war stories to tell the two journalism classes he talked to. Among them: a formative encounter he had with his hero, sportscaster Bob Costas, and how he once had to dress up as the Easter Bunny for live television when he was interning at The Early Show on CBS.

Susan Varghese was always a pleasure to have in my classes. She worked hard, wrote well and was always wonderfully cheerful. She also distinguished herself by becoming Purchase’s first correspondent for HerCampus.com, a website about college life. It was clear she was going to land on her feet when she graduated last year. And sure enough, I heard great news from her earlier this month:

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Our journalism students at Purchase are amazing, talented people. But not too many of them can stand on one foot and point the other one to the sky. Christina Blankenship is one of the few who can because as well as blazing a trail through the journalism program, she is a dancer at Purchase’s Conservatory of Dance. This summer, she described her experiences to DanceU101.com

“I’m a little strung out sometimes, but Purchase is the perfect place for intensive studies. I just have to be really disciplined about my work. The campus is pretty isolated so there isn’t much to distract my focus. But New York City is only 30 minutes away, which provides a nice balance of work and play.”

(Photo by Mark Bertelson, courtesy of Christina Blankenship)  

Liz Mohin, a Purchase Senior, says she was nervous and had the sun in her eyes, but portions of her interview with Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony shown on this You Tube clip were used on Channel 7 news.

It’s been six years since Matt Caputo was sitting in my Features Writing class at Purchase, but I remember very clearly that he was the only person in the classroom that year who knew who Jimmy Breslin was when I mentioned the famed New York columnist in class. Matt knew New York and really knew New York journalism. I was impressed. I had a feeling then that he was going to make it in journalism. Now he’s proven me right. Over the past few months he’s been published twice in the New York Times. The first story ran last December and is about EBUGs or emergency backup goalies in hockey. The second one ran in February and is about in-line hockey. He’s pictured here on the left interviewing retired basketball player, Walt Frazier. I’m so proud!

My features class braved torrential rain and blustering winds for our field trip to NY1. A good number arrived with their coats and backpacks soaked through and water dripping off their noses. It was worth it, nevertheless. We got an extended tour through NY1, which is based above groovy Chelsea Market in Manhattan and housed in a former cookie factory where the first Oreo was allegedly made. My old J-School pal, Philip Klint, who has risen to become an anchor at NY1 Noticias, the spanish-language branch of NY1, talked to us right from his anchor’s chair and allowed us to watch him tape some of his teasers. The students also talked to the weather reporter, posed for photographs on a couple of sets and got to meet the internship co-ordinator. It was a fantastic trip, capped off by a collective cup of coffee and bowls of fries in a Chelsea Market restaurant afterwards.