Volume 144, Issue #4
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Features
UC BERKELEY JOURNALISM STUDENT HONORED WITH TOP SCHOLARSHIP
BY JIM PATTERSON
STAFF WRITER
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Sindya Bhanoo, journalis and AAJA scholarship recepient Sindya N. Bhanoo is passionate about journalism. Though her undergraduate degree was in computer science, it was an easy decision for the 26-year-old to seek a graduate degree in journalism at UC Berkeley.
Bhanoo freelanced while getting her bachelor’s from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. After graduation she realized she wanted a career in journalism.
A world traveler, Bhanoo, who identifies as Indian-American, held positions in Paris and Bangalore, India, as well as at the U.S. Patent Office in Alexandria, Va. She wrote and freelanced through all her positions.
The Asian American Journalists Association San Francisco Bay Area Chapter notified Bhanoo in June that her story set in India had earned her its highest achievement award, the Ken Wong Memorial Scholarship. She would get a check for $4,000 at the chapter’s scholarship reception.
Five other young Asian American journalists also received scholarship awards. The event took place Sept. 15 at the Maharani Restaurant on Post Street.
Phil Bronstein, editor of The San Francisco Chronicle, served as the keynote speaker. He was not without competition.
In fact, the ground shook when Bronstein spoke. But it was not an earthquake.
The Polk Village Street Fair was under way and alt-rockers Guitarfish were outside, blasting 15 feet away from Bronstein’s speaking position. Hard-rocking Guitarfish didn’t stop Bronstein, 56, from delivering an straightforward speech on the future of news and journalism.
Bronstein said, “I don’t know what the future of the news business will be, and anyone who tells you they do is lying.”
Bronstein, who has won awards from The Associated Press and World Affairs Council for his reporting in the Philippines, offered some observations on the rapidly changing news business.
Dressed business casual with an open-shirt collar, Bronstein said he envisions the masses getting news through multiple mediums in the future. People will increasingly get news from the Internet, he said. Newspaper Web sites will give readers more video content and all Chronicle photographers will be video savvy, producing quality images nearly as clear as still photographers.
“Long stories may not work on the Internet right now,” Bronstein added, “but technology, such as Tablet Laptops and Microsoft Reader, could change that. The future is rich.”
Bhanoo listened intently.
“The Chronicle is in touch with its readers,” Bronstein said. He acknowledged that Yahoo and Google are just beginning to aggregate content, whereas the Chronicle has a long history and huge database of events and information. He admitted, though, the paper is not good at using the information.
Bronstein cited Chronicle Watch as a successful cooperative news effort with readers. A graphic panel illustrates a problem in the city, say, a pothole in the road. Chronicle Watch displays a photograph of the pothole and a photograph of the city official responsible for fixing it along with the official’s name and contact information.
“Chronicle Watch is a huge success,” Bronstein said. “The success rate is 90 percent.”
The trend of millionaires buying newspapers will continue, Bronstein said. He openly wondered if Rupert Murdoch would impose his views on the Wall Street Journal. The San Francisco Chronicle, Bronstein said, writes about the Hearst Corporation and its holdings without corporate pressure. Hearst acquired the paper in 1999 for a reported $600 million, according to Dick Rogers, the Chronicle’s Reader Representative.
Bronstein said San Franciscans appreciate odd news. He said the paper could not compete with the theatrics of CNN, but the Chronicle is not against provocative events.
People like “to have fun with the Chronicle,” Bronstein said. He said Don Asmussen’s “Bad Reporter” strip is especially popular with readers. He said the paper has a tradition of satire and that Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce had written for the Chronicle.
When an audience member complained to Bronstein that the Chronicle includes too much celebrity news, he dryly said he isn’t a fan of celebrity news. “And I have some experience with it,” he said, referring to his failed marriage with actress Sharon Stone.
When Bronstein said TV producers assign evening news stories based on articles in The Chronicle, Randall Yip, a senior producer at KGO-TV, took exception. He jumped to his feet.
“I can’t let that stand,” Yip said to Bronstein, who was once a reporter with KQED-TV. “At KGO, we never assign stories based on the Chronicle or any other newspaper. You may have done it when you were in broadcast news, but we don’t do it at KGO.”
Still, Bronstein said the cooperation between newspapers and television is nearly over. In the future, he said, the paper will have video content online before the evening television news. He predicts TV news will be less popular in the future.
After Bronstein’s speech, the six scholarship winners were announced. Over $12,000 in scholarship money was presented to six students. Bhanoo received her check last, accepting her scholarship amid audience applause. She had traveled to India with UC Berkeley grant money to write a profile on an interesting phenomenon related to the December 2004 tsunami that killed thousands in India.
India compensated survivor husbands with payments of US $2,000 for each family member killed, Bhanoo said. Per capita income in India is US $620, according to the World Bank in Washington.
“Government compensation made these men wealthy by India’s standards,” Bhanoo said. The middle-aged men used the money to entice much younger women to marry them. “In some cases, the marriages worked, but not all did.”
Bhanoo, an AAJA member for two years, said the article is still being edited, but it will appear in The Baltimore Sun. She has written for the paper before.
She said the key point in Bronstein’s speech was that “the news media is struggling and looking for innovative ways to connect with readers.”
“I will use my scholarship money to finance my master’s thesis,” Bhanoo said. She is currently in Washington, DC where she is writing about the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would offer a path to citizenship for children brought into the country illegally. The Senate is considering the bill.
e-mail: jpatterson@theguardsman.com
BY BRITTANY MOSLEY-CARDONA
SPECIAL TO THE GUARDSMAN
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Cecile Dawdiak, chair of the nursing departmentThe energy in Cecile Dawydiak’s Cloud Hall office is intense, much like the pronunciation of her last name (Dah-wid-ee-yak). Dawydiak is pretty intense herself: The 81-year-old chair of City College’s nursing department is talking to her granddaughter in Spain via AOL Instant Messenger and wearing a Bluetooth headset — she needs one to stay organized while running what is arguably City College’s most overcrowded department.
Dawydiak has been with City College’s nursing program since it began almost 50 years ago. She has been the department chair since 1982.
Before City College, Dawydiak was a registered nurse at Mount Zion Hospital. She transferred her nursing knowledge to City College in 1961.
“It was never in my plans to come here,” she says. “I’ve always been at the right place, at the right time, with the right piece of paper.”
Dawydiak refers to herself as the “mother of the house” and downplays her responsibilities.
“I mostly listen to complaints and work closely with the students,” she says.
When Dawydiak took over the department, the nursing program was receiving about 100 applications per year. Today, approximately 700 students apply each year. In addition to San Francisco residents, students from all over the Bay Area enroll in the program.
“I’d like to think they apply because we are so wonderful,” she says. “But San Francisco is a highly sought after location.”
Dawydiak says she has always enjoyed coming to work and has great respect for the faculty she works with.
“They are all experts in their field … they don’t get enough recognition,” she says.
“I’m the last of the older ones,” she adds. “It’ll be a sad day when I leave.”
e-mail: features@theguardsman.com