Erik Wells, senior Saint Michael's College journalism major from Barre, Vt., was named one of four finalists in the Reporter of the Year Competition of the Associated Collegiate Press organization. Well's and the other finalists are listed on their Web site
http://studentpress.org/acp/winners/reporter08.html
Wells' selection was based on three extensive news articles he wrote for
The Defender, the weekly Saint Michael's student newspaper. He will travel to the National College Media Convention in Kansas City, Mo., Oct. 29 to Nov. 2 for intensive media workshops, and the awards ceremony at which time the Reporter of the Year will be announced.
The other finalists for the award are writers from
The Daily Bruin of the University of California, Los Angles (UCLA); from
Red & Black of the University of Georgia, and from
The University Daily Kansan of the University of Kansas - all major universities with daily newspapers and paid staffs, according to Dr. Kimberly Sultze, chair of the Saint Michael's department of journalism and mass communications.
"To be recognized along with reporters from major universities with daily papers is a great accomplishment," said Paul Beique, adviser to
The Defender and Saint Michael's journalism instructor said. He added, "I'm most proud of the fact that, after the stories on diversity were published, Saint Mike's faculty and staff created the Diversity Working Group to brainstorm ways to help the college in this area. When a story results in greater awareness and change, you can't ask for more from a student journalist."
Wells submitted three stories to the national competition: "Fade to white: St. Michael's is least diverse college in least diverse state" (co-authored by Chris White); "Iraq at five: A look forward and back," and "S.A. election results private: Executive decision made to not follow bylaw and release totals; record of results no longer exist." With each story edging into 1,800-words in length, Wells did extensive investigation, exploring all sides of tricky issues. He even found a government authority in Washington to interview by phone regarding the war in Iraq. The story is archived
here.
For the Iraq story, Wells said, "I wanted to achieve a complete balance; I wanted to see what's happened in five years and what the future holds." Wells was one of the three news editors for
The Defender last fall, and was managing editor during the Spring 2008 semester.
Internship at The Burlington Free Press
"Working on
The Defender was extremely educational," Wells said. "It allowed me to put my class work into practice." He is now an intern with
The Burlington Free Press and has written page-one sports stories for the weekend papers for the last several weeks. Covering high school Friday night football and Saturday soccer, he has to ramp up delivery time from a week to about an hour. The process includes covering a game, tracking down the statistics, talking to players and coaches after the game, and delivering a 350- to 400-word story in an hour and half to meet deadline. "The internship has been most helpful," Wells said. "I'm really learning by doing."
National College Media Convention
Wells will be taking his second-ever plane ride to the convention in Kansas City on his birthday, Oct. 29. The former executive editor of the paper, Courtney Lamdin is also going, and they are planning which workshops to attend. Wells hopes to get into sound slides, interactive maps, and the digital multi-media story-telling workshop.
Erik Wells is the son of Donna Wells of Barre, Vt., and Bill Wells of Stanfordville, N.Y. He graduated from Spaulding High School in 2005.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's
Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009
U.S. News & World Report rankings.