Category Archives: Alumni News
Broadcasting the Olympics: An Alumna’s Dream Come True
During this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, alumna Courtney Lyle (’12) of ESPN and the SEC Network will deliver NBC’s play-by-play for men’s and women’s field hockey alongside Olympic ice hockey medalist and analyst A. J. Mleczko. When the announcement was made, Lyle tweeted, “Athletes dream of playing in the Olympics. Announcers dream of calling them. I couldn’t be more excited to be part of NBC’s field hockey coverage this year!!! Dream Come True!!!”
Lyle and Mleczko will broadcast from NBC studios in Stamford, Connecticut, beginning August 1. “We will have a feed of the match from Tokyo … Read more “Broadcasting the Olympics: An Alumna’s Dream Come True”
JEM science communicator alumni analyze their academic, career experiences
One of the perks about studying Journalism and Electronic Media (JEM) at UT is the amount of local resources that students have access to. From interning at the Knoxville News Sentinel to Discovery, Inc. to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), there are ample opportunities to combine the communications field with other specialties.
Here are four science communicator alumni stories.
ORNL is known around the science and technology communities for many things, one of those being its Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). Essentially, this accelerator-based system sends proton pulses to a steel target filled with liquid mercury. Then the neutrons move toward … Read more “JEM science communicator alumni analyze their academic, career experiences”
JEM Sports-Focused Alumni Share Academic, Career Journeys
They trekked across campus sporting their University of Tennessee shirts, hats and even checkered overalls.
They also walked the curved halls of the College of Communication and Information [CCI], where they laid the foundations for their careers in sports media.
These journalism and electronic media [JEM] alumni are eight of the hundreds who’ve found careers in sports media, and all of them agree that their work on campus helped shape their careers.
Katherine Donnelly (2015), ESPN
Students in the JEM program learn about social media platforms and how to use them as content creators.
Katherine Donnelly found a career managing … Read more “JEM Sports-Focused Alumni Share Academic, Career Journeys”
Teresa Walker receives JEM 2020 Alumna of the Year award
Teresa Walker, pro football writer for The Associated Press in Tennessee, is the 2020 Alumna of the Year for the School of Journalism and Electronic Media.
A three-time Tennessee Sportswriter of the Year recipient, Walker was elected to the Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s Hall of Fame in 2020.
Furthermore, Walker won a 2015 APSE award for a feature from the Masters, and she is also a two-time president of the Pro Football Writers Association in Nashville and past president of the Tennessee Sports Writers Association.
Walker has come full circle with UT’s recognition of her work.
“It is incredibly … Read more “Teresa Walker receives JEM 2020 Alumna of the Year award”
Cherokee Stickball Documentary Scheduled for TV, Festival Premiere
Documentary Synopsis
Nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina is a tight-knit community of the remaining members of the Cherokee tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. One of the tribes’ cultural traditions still practiced is the game of stickball. In the year 2000, nearly 100 women: mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins, and friends, took the field to play and exercise the matriarchal spirit that the Cherokee were known for. ᎡᏘᏴ ᏥᎾᎾᏛᏁᎮ ᎠᏰᎵᏐ ᎾᏛᏁᎰ / She Carries On tells the story of these women, how and why they played, and what the game means to them and their
Q&A with News21 Fellow Gabriela Szymanowska
While she was a student in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, Gabriela Szymanowska (JEM ’20) developed a passion for telling people’s stories that can raise awareness or inspire change on important social issues.
She gained more experience telling those critical stories through writing and photography during her eight-month fellowship with the Carnegie-Knight News21 program, the prestigious multimedia project that brings together the country’s top journalism students and graduates. Because of COVID-19, this year’s 35 News21 fellows from 16 universities collaborated virtually on “Kids Imprisoned,” an investigation into juvenile justice in America.
Szymanowska served as Editor-in-Chief of the Daily … Read more “Q&A with News21 Fellow Gabriela Szymanowska”
Lexie Little (JEM ’18) Places in Hearst Awards for Clarence Brown Story
Alumna Lexie Little (JEM ’18) recently placed sixth nationally in the Personality/Profile Writing Competition in the 2019-20 William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program.
Her award-winning feature article, “A Roustabout Career: The Forgotten Celebrity of Clarence Brown,” started as a class assignment but eventually appeared in the Torchbearer, the University of Tennessee’s alumni magazine.
Little is now pursuing her Master’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She recently started work on her thesis project, which explores shifts in the collective memory of the Civil War through studying newspaper coverage of … Read more “Lexie Little (JEM ’18) Places in Hearst Awards for Clarence Brown Story”
John Jackson Miller: From Daily Beacon Editor to Star Fantasy Writer
After graduating from the University of Tennessee where he served as editor of The Daily Beacon, John Jackson Miller (JEM ’90) set his sights on the stars.
Specifically, the stars in a galaxy far, far away and the ones in the far-flung future where no man has gone before.
Miller turned his lifelong passion for comic books and science fiction into a career, evolving from a trade publication editor to a creator. Today, he is a New York Times bestselling novelist and comic writer for Star Wars, Star Trek, and many other fantasy licenses and original works in between. … Read more “John Jackson Miller: From Daily Beacon Editor to Star Fantasy Writer”
Successful Alumni: Sharrie Williams’ goals led her from Tennessee to Philadelphia, the number four broadcast market in America
By Lisa Byerley Gary
Instructor, JEM 414, Fall 2014
When Sharrie Williams began her first full-time job in television after graduating from UT, a news job with a small station in Jackson, Tennessee, she also waited tables to make ends meet.
“It paid that poorly,” she said.
But Williams had goals. She wanted to learn everything there was to learn about television news in exactly one year. Then she would move on to a bigger market.
Today Williams is a reporter and anchor at ABC-owned WPLY-TV in Philadelphia, the fourth largest television market in America. Her journey from a … Read more “Successful Alumni: Sharrie Williams’ goals led her from Tennessee to Philadelphia, the number four broadcast market in America”
A Message to Freshmen: Alumnus Kendall Downing Gives Advice to Journalism Students on how to Reach their Goals Post-Graduation
By Kelsey French
JEM 414 Fall 2018
Kendall Downing has worked in various markets: WYMD-TV in Hazard, Kentucky, WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky, WXIN-TV in Indianapolis, and back to his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee at WMC Action News 5.
For Downing, it was always a childhood dream to work in news. It’s no wonder he started setting himself apart from his peers as soon as he started college.
“The first thing I did was try to get myself in front of people that would get me as much experience as possible” Downing said.
Downing became heavily involved on campus, both … Read more “A Message to Freshmen: Alumnus Kendall Downing Gives Advice to Journalism Students on how to Reach their Goals Post-Graduation”