Enter the 2020 Summer Academy Social Media Challenge

Attention King’s students! Need a break from #KingsOnLion classes? Want to win up to $800? Enter the Summer Academy Social Media Challenge!

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Why a contest?

We know Coronavirus has affected many plans (including our plans at MPJI to attend high school journalism conferences to speak and recruit for our Summer Academy program) … But we are still taking applications and planning to host an online Summer Academy at King’s. So we are asking current students at King’s to help. Let’s give high school students something to look forward to during this time of change.

How to enter:

• Create a post on your favorite social media platform (TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) spreading the word about Summer Academy. The goal is to spread awareness and drive signups.

• Share the link: bit.ly/tkc-summer in your post.

• Tag @TheKingsCollege and @JMPJournalism in your post. If your post is on a platform where King’s and MPJI don’t have accounts, just tweet @ us or email us a link to the post.

How to win:

• Help generate the most Summer Academy applications (applicants should mention your name or social media handle in the “How did you hear about us?” section of their application)

• Go viral! The post with the most likes, shares and comments will win a prize of its own.

Prizes:

• 1st Place: $800

• 2nd Place: $500

• 3rd Place: $200

• Most Viral Post: $500

• Automatic Winnings: $20 for every student who registers using your name!

About Summer Academy

Summer Academy (SA) is a week-long program hosted by The King’s College every July that offers high schools students the opportunity to earn college credit through workshops with our professors. While SA is usually offered in-person in NYC, this year SA will be going online. High schoolers will study big ideas, connect with other talented peers, and learn from professionals and industry leaders in New York City. This summer, Week One (July 12-17) will focus on philosophy, economics and finance while Week Two (July 26-31) focuses on journalism. Learn more at bit.ly/tkc-summer.

Deadline to Enter for Grand Prizes: May 1, 2020.
Deadline to Enter for Automatic Winnings: June 15, 2020.

We are excited to see the creative content you come up with. Ready, Set…Go!

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Please contact phillipsjournalism@tkc.edu with any questions. Read the official contest rules here.

Arne Fjeldstad Scholarship Brings International Journalism Students To The King’s College in NYC

Carol Wambui is the fourth Arne Fjeldstad Scholar, who received a scholarship to be part of the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ) at The King’s College in NYC. She is studying Journalism at the Multimedia University of Kenya. During her time at King’s in the NYCJ program, she is interning at ReligionUnplugged, an award-winning non-profit news outlet that covers religion.

After a Norwegian journalist and minister named Arne Fjeldstad died of a blood clot in his lung in 2014, MPJI director Paul Glader had the privilege to meet Hilde Margrethe Sæbø Fjeldstad in Kristiansand, Norway and other family members of Arne in 2015. 

Glader and Hilde spoke and prayed about how they might honor her late husband, Arne, his focus on reporting about religion in public life and his legacy of caring for journalists around the world. Arne was a Lutheran minister and a night editor at the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. Arne helped develop The Media Project, an international network of working journalists who care about good journalism, particularly religion reporting. Arne was beloved by many people in Africa, India, Latin America and other corners of the globe. 

As Hilde and her daughter, Silje Marie, visited New York City in 2015, Hilde said she believed in what the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute was doing to teach and promote quality journalism through its programs at The King’s College in NYC and as the home of The Media Project, of which Professor Paul Glader now serves as executive director. She said she would love to see a scholarship that honored Arne and allowed students from the global south to participate in the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ) program. 

Hilde Fjeldstad (right) with her mother and Prof. Paul Glader (left), executive director of The Media Project and the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute, during a visit in Kristiansand, Norway, in 2015

Glader and team began raising money to make it possible for a student from Uganda, Gertrude Too-Rom, to attend the program. Then, in 2016, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson (Roberta being the chairwoman of The Media Project) agreed to fund an annual scholarship ($20,000 in value) for at least one international journalism student from the global south to attend the NYCJ program. Since then, the NYCJ program has hosted two annual Fjeldstad Scholars from Uganda, one from Kenya and one from the Republic of Georgia. 

The scholarship funds either two $10,000 scholarships to help students attend NYCJ or one $20,000 scholarship. The scholarship(s) covers the bulk of tuition and housing for students (leaving costs for transport to NY, food and a small amount for tuition). In some rare instances, one student may be selected for the scholarship each year and fully funded. The students will be placed in a newsroom internship in NYC for 20 hours per week (receiving 6 academic credits). Most often, the Fjeldstad Scholar will serve as an intern at ReligionUnplugged.com, the award-winning, non-profit news outlet connected to TheMediaProject.org and an important outlet for TMP members to report on religion in public life around the world. The Fjeldstad scholars also take three classes at The King’s College with other students in the NYC Semester in Journalism program, who come from 40 partner schools around the US and world.

Silje Marie Fjeldstad (left) and Hilde Fjeldstad (right) the daughter and wife of the late Arne Fjeldstad, during a visit to New York City in 2015.

Colleges and universities that would like to become a partner to the NYCJ program so their students can compete for the Arne Fjeldstad scholarship can write to Paul Glader at Pglader@tkc.edu. And students who would like to apply for the scholarship can do so at https://www.tkc.edu/nycs and should be in touch with Eleni Glader at eglader@tkc.edu about their application.

We spoke with our current Arne Fjeldstad Scholar, Carol Wambui, who is from Nairobi, Kenya, and is interning at ReligionUnplugged.com as part of her internship. 

What first sparked your interest in journalism? What led you to consider pursuing it in college?

From a young age, I have always been fascinated by the media, from news anchoring to news reporting. I did not know much about journalism then but I was sure it was what I wanted to do, even if it was not full-time. Just before graduating from high school, we wrote down our courses of interest and the colleges where they were offered. I wrote out my choices, and journalism was at the very top. When I received my high school grades, and was accepted to enroll in a journalism program at college, it was almost a confirmation of my destiny. Back in high school, I had done some basic newswriting and reporting after major school functions, but that was all I knew about journalism. An opportunity to learn more excited me.

How did you hear about NYCJ and the Arne Fjeldstad scholarship? What made you decide to apply?

Stella Ogigo, a former editor at the Kenya Broadcast Corporation in Kenya, who has also worked with Professor Glader in the past, mentioned the program to me and advised that I apply. I knew that an opportunity to study journalism in the U.S.—a place of diversity, advancement and exposure—was exactly what I needed for my career. I believed God had blessed me with a rare opportunity, so I took it. I applied and I am so grateful that I was accepted.

“Becoming one of the people who is shining a light on religion across the globe is a beautiful thing and I cannot wait to learn more and grow in this.”

- Carol Wambui, Arne Fjeldstad Scholar

What do you hope to gain from your time in New York?

During my time in New York, I want to learn everything that was not taught in my college classes—from the field work experiences to my writing skills. I want to learn and enhance my reporting skills, whether by live-recording or writing as both will help me in my investigative journalism. I believe that studying in one of the biggest cities in the world will not only enhance my career, but also my view and perception of the world, of successful journalism and of life in general.

How will you bring the skills you have learned here back to Nairobi?

My time at The King’s College is giving me a true journalistic eye that I will bring back to Nairobi. I am learning to work with diligence and excellence at my internship with Religion Unplugged. I believe I will practice and even show others how to make journalism in Kenya better than before.

You are interning at ReligionUnplugged (a publication of The Media Project, which Arne led). What are you learning about the importance of religion coverage in the news?

Honestly, I had never thought about religion coverage before starting this internship. The only religion news coverage I ever knew of were the videos I made with my church. When I joined Religion Unplugged, it was like my eyes were opened to religion reporting. I am sure there are other people out there like myself, who probably have not learned the importance of religion coverage. Becoming one of the people who is shining a light on religion across the globe is a beautiful thing and I cannot wait to learn more and grow in this. I feel like a lot of people need to know what is going on in their particular religions as well as in other religions and that is exactly what Religion Unplugged is doing for the world. I am happy to be part of it.

What are some of your future journalistic goals?

I am interested in moving into investigative journalism, and would like to take journalism into a whole other level of finding and fighting crimes. This is not a well developed field in Kenya, and I hope to be among the few who can grow it and make it something huge. I hope to have a media network at some point in my career where I can host different types of media coverage like sports, investigations and religion, and mediums like print, radio and broadcast. I would want to help highlight any sort of journalist worldwide starting from my home country. I hope to help not only future journalists, but also people with other career interests, by offering scholarships and sponsorships to advance in their education. These are some of my many future goals.

What has surprised you about New York City? 

New York City is nothing like I imagined, read or watched in the movies. I guess seeing things with your own eyes makes all the difference. I think it is one thing to hear or even read about something, and it’s another to actually experience something. I came in winter, and the weather is like nothing I have ever experienced before in my life. With extremes of up to -3 degrees Celsius, I definitely wasn’t ready for the cold. 

How is Nairobi different from New York and what has been the biggest challenge to living here?

New York boasts a diversity of cultures and religions that makes it unlike Nairobi or any other town in Kenya. Nairobi is my city, my town—I literally know almost every corner of the city. I know how to get around Nairobi, which is not the case in New York. Still, I am learning little by little how to get around. I am naturally adventurous and curious, which has made aligning with how things work around here much easier. I am always ready to learn or experience something new. I am happy in New York, even with its many differences.

Carol Wambui, on the roof of her apartment building overlooking Brooklyn, NY.

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Meet our previous Arne Fjeldstad Scholars:

Gertrude Too-room, Spring '17

Uganda Christian University

Keta Bagashvili, Spring '18

Caucasus University, Georgia

Ruth Rose Akongo, Fall '18

Uganda Christian University

King’s Announces Semester Study Partnership with Morocco’s Ecole Superieure De Journalisme De Communication

ESJC students may now attend The King’s College as visiting students through the New York City Semester program. Pictured here: the fall 2017 Journalism track with track co-leaders Paul Glader, far right, and Clemente Lisi, far left.

By Rebecca Au-Mullaney

The King’s College is pleased to announce a new partnership with Ecole Superieure De Journalisme De Communication (ESJC), a journalism and communication school in Casablanca, Morocco. Founded in 2008, ESJC is a three-year degree granting institution established to train journalists and media professionals. It is owned by Eco Media, the largest private media group in Morocco.

Through the partnership, ESJC students are eligible to apply to and attend The King’s College as visiting students through the New York City Semester program (NYCS). Students will receive ESJC course credit for their semester at King’s.

ESJC is one of 35 partner institutions that participate in The King’s College’s NYCS, with tracks in journalism, theater and business. ESJC is the sixth international partner school, joining other institutions in Uganda, Indonesia, Lithuania and Norway.

In the journalism track, students take three courses at The King’s College—Journalism Foundations (3 credits), Entrepreneurial Journalism Skills and the Future (3 credits) and an elective course of the student’s choosing (3 credits). Journalism students also intern 20 hours per week at a news media organization in New York City (6 credits). Likewise, the tracks in business and theater include discipline-specific courses, elective courses and the opportunity to pursue an internship for credit. All NYCS students interact with guest speakers on campus, meet with professionals at work and learn how to practice Christian faith within the competitive environment of their industry.

This partnership agreement came through the work of ESJC general manager Khalid Belyazid and Paul Glader, co-director of the New York City Semester in Journalism track and an associate professor of journalism at The King’s College.

Belyazid says, “ESJC managers, teachers and students are so proud to belong to The King’s College NYCS network. We hope we’ll build a bridge between Casablanca and New York, two dynamic cosmopolitan Atlantic cities. The best vehicles for this bridge are education, journalism and communication that allow the people to overcome borders.”

Interested students can apply at www.tkc.edu/nycs. Upon acceptance into the program, King’s will issue students a J-1 visa for the semester of study. Tuition and housing payment for the semester will be made directly to The King’s College before classes begin. Any international students interested in the journalism track should apply for the Arne Fjeldstad Memorial Scholarship, which provides $20,000 each year to qualified students.

Since 1938, The King’s College has educated young leaders to integrate their faith, ethics and morality seamlessly into their lives and careers. The only traditional Christian liberal arts college or university located in the heart of New York City, King’s prepares students for principled leadership around the world. Visit tkc.edu for more information or request a personalized visit by calling 888-969-7200.

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republished from tkc.edu

MPJI Journalism Students Report for Midterm Elections for The Google News Initiative and Ground Truth Project

Two King’s journalism students - Morgan Chittum (Junior, JCS Major)[right] and Anastassia Gliadkovskaya (Senior, MCA major)[left] — volunteered to help cover the November midterm elections with the Google News Initiative, the Society of Professional Journalists and theGround Truth Project on a sprint project to help support Propublica's Election Land efforts. As part of the training, they learned to use tools like Google Scholar, Tilegrams and ProPublica’s Election DataBot to hunt down data such as recently-searched topical issues by district. 

On Election Day, their coverage focused specifically on the topic of voter suppression. As Anastassia and Morgan covered the race for the last Republican seat in the city, on Staten Island, they learned that some voting machines were malfunctioning in Brooklyn and causing voters to leave without casting their ballots. They immediately checked Twitter. Dozens of posts by angry voters and other reporters were already trending.

Coordinating with journalists from the Independent and the Guardian, who were already there on scene, Anastassia and Morgan were able to find out locations of affected neighborhoods, zip over to several Brooklyn voting centers and track the story in person as it developed. They used iPhones, shoulder rigs and lapel mics to speak with voters and voting coordinators to gauge the severity of the problem, how it was hindering people’s ability to vote and what it might mean for democracy.

Local art curator Cora Fisher, whom we interviewed, said she waited in line for nearly an hour before the last working scanning machine jammed as she inserted her ballot. She left not knowing if her vote, along with dozens of others, was counted. At the end of Election Day, we produced video segments of our interviews using Adobe Spark editing software.

Here is the story Morgan and Anastassia reported that evening:

By Morgan Chittum and Anastassia Gliadkovskaya

Concerns Over Voter Suppression Emerge in New York as Multiple Poll Centers Experience Malfunctions on Election Day

On this Election Day, we covered District 11 of Staten Island and District 35 of Downtown Brooklyn, New York.

District 11 is the last Republican seat in the city, leaving Max Rose (D) and incumbent Daniel Donovan (R) to battle out a tight race for Congress.

Local Lei Lah, 28, expressed concerns about voter suppression during both the primary and the current election cycles. Though she has lived on Staten Island her whole life and has never had difficulty registering to vote herself, she knows others who have.

“Their addresses are mixed up. Their names aren’t exactly right... Middle name or their surname got changed ‘cause they got married,” she said. “It’s been difficult for some of my friends, especially in Brooklyn, for some reason.” At the time of the interview, which took place at 9:30 a.m., Lah said she received a text from a friend in Downtown Brooklyn that there’s a line around his block, which he can see from his apartment.

She had heard that four out of five voting machines were down at some locations.

At my voting location in Brooklyn they just announced that only ONE MACHINE is working. 300 of us in line.

Two people just left and said they couldn’t wait.

This is ridiculous.

— Shaun King (@shaunking) November 6, 2018

She expressed concerns that these malfunctions could be due to a lack of proper funding each year, which could be considered voter suppression.

“It affects people who have to go to work, who have to take care of their kids or other loved ones,” she said.

VIDEO: Firefighters had to pry open a locked voting center in Brooklyn to allow people to vote pic.twitter.com/nxHvOs7kqc

— Al Boe - BREAKING NEWS (@AlBoeNEWS) November 6, 2018

Other locals like 62-year-old Frank Carrera likewise decided to go blue this election, voting for Max Rose.

“Rose was in Iraq... I think Max Rose has a lot of good value and he was in the war... during the debate...Donovan got caught in more lies. I don’t really like Donovan. I like Max Rose. I think he was better qualified for the job.”

Carrera, however, denies voter suppression allegations in New York.

“Everybody’s saying it’s fixed, from Democrat to Republican--no,” he said.

In Brooklyn Heights at St. Francis College, 27-year-old Connor Leslie said she voted “heavily Democrat today for, obvious reasons.” Leslie claimed in all the years she’s lived in the area, voting, she’s never had to wait in as big a line.

Part of the long lines, now sneaking outside of the gym and just part of the reason, is that only 3 of the 9 or 10 scanners at the polling place are working. The others keep jamming. Poll workers called the Board of Elections at around 10/11am and a guy just arrived.

— Mythili Sampathkumar (@MythiliSk) November 6, 2018

“I take that as a very good sign,” she said. “I think that there is a huge amount of information out there, which is probably one of the benefits of social media...I think people are more aware now of what their rights are than I think even the last election, so I feel optimistic.”

As we were reporting in Brooklyn, we were tracking the development of voting machine malfunctions at several polling locations on Twitter. Coordinating with reporters from the Independent and the Guardian, who were already there on the scene, we headed deeper south into Brooklyn.

UPDATE: Both scanners at the Brooklyn Public Library give out!

(Ballots will now be collected by hand.)

The people are ready for democracy. Now, when will US democracy be ready for the people? #Vote2018 #vote

— Moustafa Bayoumi (@BayoumiMoustafa) November 6, 2018

At PS 705, voting coordinator Keith Luke said the machines had shut down at 10 a.m. The Board of Elections had come but they were looking for bags into which to empty the bins full of emergency paper ballots. Luke did not definitively admit that the machines were broken, but said they were “up and down,” in between getting fixed and getting jammed. All of the emergency ballots would have to be counted by hand by Tuesday night, he said.

NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson demanded the resignation of the director of the Board of Elections.

Voting should not be this difficult. @BOENYC has had all year to prepare for this day. Bad weather and high turnout are no excuse when we have forecasts for both. Michael Ryan needs to resign and we need a full top to bottom review of what went wrong today.

— NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) November 6, 2018

At my voting location in Brooklyn they just announced that only ONE MACHINE is working. 300 of us in line.

Two people just left and said they couldn’t wait.

This is ridiculous.

— Shaun King (@shaunking) November 6, 2018

At Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, both scanners had also broken. A long line awaited a scrambling team of coordinators and a Board of Elections official as they unlocked bins, kneeling on the ground, and took piles of ballots out of the bins, transferring them to large, transparent bags.

Cora Fisher, whom we met at the library, told of a similar experience voting earlier in the day near Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. Upon arrival at around 8:30 a.m., the line was already snaking out the door, according to Fisher. The first of two scanners had already broken. After waiting 45 minutes in line, she finally placed her ballot into the scanner. As the second page went in, the machine jammed.

“I have no idea what happened to the crunch of people that were behind me but it seems like it didn’t go very smoothly for the rest of the day.” There were only two machines, she said. Fisher tried calling the Board of Elections three times, but to no avail. She left not knowing if her vote was complete.

“It was a really, really disheartening thing to see and obviously raises a lot of questions for all of us and concerns.”

She expressed her outrage, stating that the malfunctions were, in her opinion, due to the fact that the state was about to vote blue.

Meanwhile, other voters at the library were completely satisfied with their voting experience, not having experienced long wait times/not having heard of the area’s earlier technological difficulties.

“I don’t think that’s voter suppression, I think that’s just New York being incompetent,” one voter commented.

“It’s New York, stuff breaks here all the time,” said another couple.

Josh Minkin, 62, described his experience as “easy,” with a little bit of a wait.

Brooklyn resident Elizabeth Isadora Gold has lived in Brooklyn for two decades.

“There’s definitely something messed up about [the current situation], because it’s in every polling place, so either the machines are not designed to accommodate a substantial number of the voting public, or they’re broken,” she said.

One out of four voting machines in Flatbush, Brooklyn (dist 42/43) is broken and one “never worked,” per a poll worker. So there’s >200 people here now waiting to use two machines pic.twitter.com/pMVYsXjHWZ

— Zoë Schlanger (@zoeschlanger) November 6, 2018

At my polling place in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, so many people were voting that most of the scanning machines were overheated or broken. The lead poll worker said we could all give our ballots to him and that they would be submitted via Emergency Ballot Box. #NYCVotes #Midterms2018 pic.twitter.com/FFQyOcMkJ3

— Sean Ludwig (@seanludwig) November 6, 2018

“I think it’s ludicrous that in a district which honestly goes blue every single time, there’s not a highly-contested race in this district. [Voter suppression] seems like a waste of energy, but maybe it’s to make it seem like there’s low turnout, except there’s obviously high turnout...This is such a politically active and leftist district that if you talk to any number of people, they will be like... ‘This is voter suppression!’ so that was kind of funny. There was no shortage of people complaining.”

Student of The King’s College Haley Davidson, 19, did not notice anything out of the ordinary in her own district in Downtown Brooklyn while voting, though she expressed concerns about voter suppression in her home state of Georgia.

“My parents voted in Georgia today, I think. I actually don’t know if they voted,” she said. “I do know that for the past week or so there has been a lot of talk about voter suppression which kind of worries me and I wanted to push my parents to maybe vote for...Stacey Abrams...I know people like my parents just tend to vote for Republican, they just see ‘R’ on the ballot, and they don’t really keep up with the news, and that’s kind of scary because a lot of people are going to be doing that today.”