JEM Students Explore International Correspondence in Prague

Four aspiring journalists from UT prepared for the world of foreign correspondence during a trip to Prague, attending lectures, presentations and receiving hands-on training from the best in the business along with other journalists and journalism students from around the globe.

"We were chosen... to represent UT because of our interest in foreign corresponding and our determination and experience portrayed in various activities we have been involved in," said Shannon Winaker, one of the UT participants. "Other students from around the world were given the opportunity through undergraduate and graduate programs as well as (through) companies they currently work for."

Participants put their skills to the test during a project aimed at immersing the students into foreign correspondence through interviews with people in a culture unfamiliar to them.

"The project consisted of us researching, preparing for, interviewing and writing an article that has the potential to be published, " said Winaker.

The most influential aspect of the trip for her, Winaker said, was the opportunity to gain confidence in her ability to perform well in her chosen profession.

"I now see being a foreign as a tangible occupation," she said. "I have no doubt that I can go into a foreign country and produce news stories for various publications or news organizations. The advice we received from our lecturers and lessons we learned from other students and professionals on the trip are extraordinary."

For UT freshman Eric Gedenk, the trip was unexpected and invaluable.

"Myself, being only a freshman, thought I had little chance of getting accepted into the program," he said. "Lo and behold, I did though, and I was in turn the youngest student in the entire program."

Choosing the highlight of the trip is difficult, Gedenk said. But if he had to choose, "it would have to have been the sensation of immersing myself within another culture for a short time." This "planted the seed within me to work my hardest throughout the rest of my tenure at UT, so that I can turn foreign correspondence into a career that I can be proud of one day."

The educational adventure was all-paid trip thanks to money from the study abroad program, College of Communication and Information and the School of Journalism and Electronic Media. In addition to Gedenk and Winaker, students Joel Smithson and Margaret Menefee participated in the Prague trip.

Trainers for the international correspondence course included:

Rob Cameron- BBC's correspondent in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, covering politics, human interest stories, arts and other issues for the BBC World Service, BBC domestic radio, BBC Online and occasionally BBC television. Rob moved to Prague in 1993. He has also reported for the BBC from Albania and Russia.

Michael Jordan- a Bratislava-based correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, and earlier served as the Monitor's correspondent in Budapest, and at the United Nations. He now writes about the new and aspiring EU and NATO members and covers the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. He also works as a media trainer for Roman journalists in eastern Slovakia. Before relocating to Bratislava, Michael was the a journalist-in-residence at Long Island University where he taught journalism andd worked as faculty advisor to the student newspaper.

Petr Josek- Based in Prague, photojournalist Petr Josek is currently a contract stringer for the Associated Press. Covering everything from wars, demonstrations, riots, summits to major sporting events, Petr's assignments have included Pope Benedict XVI's visits to Turkey and Poland, the Bush-Putin summit in Slovakia, the Soccer World cup in Germany and recently the war in Iraq, where he served as photo editor at the AP Baghdad bureau and was embedded with U.S Military in neighborhoods of Baghdad, North of Iraq and Diyala province. Petr was also a stringer for Reuters for several years and has consistently won awards for Czech Press Photo.

David Rennie- He joined The Economist in 2007 as European Union correspondent and Charlemagne columnist, based in Brussels. Previously he was on the foreign staff of the Daily Telegraph, with postings in Sydney, Beijing, Washington DC and Brussels. Before that he worked for the Daily Telegraph in London, and the Evening Standard. He has reported from nearly 40 countries, covering riots and earthquakes in Central and northeastern Asia, dissidents in Cuba, elections on four continents, nd the war in Afghanistan.

Aernout van Lynden- A war correspondent with more than 20 years' experience in the Middle East and the Balkans. He started in 1979 and in 1980 he was one of the few western journalists in Iraq when Saddam Hussein launched an attack on Iran. The following year he started working as freelancer, reporting for the BBC, The Observer and The Washington Post. During this period he spent extended periods in Afghanistan with the anti-Soviet resistance. In 1982 he became The Observer's correspondent in Beirut, covering the Lebanese civil war and other conflicts in the region. After four years, he moved to London, initially writing and presenting for Granada Television. He then joined Sky TV, helping to set up the 24-hour news channel Sky News, where he worked for 13 years. Amongst other events, he covered the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Romanian revolution in 1989, the conflict in Lebanon, the Gulf war, the Yugoslav conflict and the Palestinian uprising. He won two international awards in 1993 for his coverage of the war in Bosnia.