Local & National Media Coverage of Unique
JMC School "Education on Wheels" Project

 NBC BAY AREA COVERAGE OF SJSU TRIP

Here in the Bay Area, NBC 11's Bob Bedell flew east  this weekend and joined the
SJSU student group on the final leg of their journey to the nation's capital.
Bedell reported on the student's stop at a historic civil right stop in Greensboro,
North Carolina on the 6pm Sunday evening newscast. Online Coverage

The Bay Area's KTVU Ch.2 hosts student trip stories & videos

KQED-TV (PBS), Bay Area Channel 9 invited SJSU's Justin Allegri
to participate with local professional journalists on their weekly reporter roundtable
 program "This Week in Northern California." The live telecast aired Friday, January 23rd,
 and was hosted by award-winning journalist Belva Davis.

KRON-TV, Bay Area Channel 4 interviewed two SJSU Students,
 Jade Atkins and Bianca DeCastro about their historic travels through the landmarks of the
Civil Rights movement. Award-winning news anchor Ysabel Duron, who talked with
the students live on-air Sunday morning, January 25th, is a distinguished broadcast
journalism graduate of San Jose State University.

National Network Aired Daily Live Reports on the
 SJSU Inauguration Trip
 

HISTORY & MEMORIES NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN

   
Historic Inauguration of President Barack Obama           January 20, 2009

Wednesday, January 21st, students on the Inauguration Trip flew home from
Philadelphia, PA. Exhausted after their ten day trek across America,
students in the "Education on Wheels" project have a memory to last a lifetime!


    
 

CNN i-Report  A Road Trip 44 Years In The Making

SJSU student Justin Allegri gets a kiss goodbye from CNN anchorwoman Kyra Phillips!
All student profiles: See photos and info about all students on the trip.

SJSU enjoyed a great visit to CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
While they were there, students got to see the international network
cover a breaking story...a plane crash in the Hudson River in New York City.


The SJSU group arrived in WASHINGTON D.C.
January 17th, 2009



Dr. Michael Cheers and broadcast journalism major Jade Atkins-Nikolaou
were interviewed LIVE on TV FOX 5 in Washington DC.
 
Anchorman Will Thomas, a distinguished SJSU Radio & TV Journalism
graduate, conducted the interview.

 SEE IT ONLINE

At 10pm that Sunday night, it was possible that
President-Elect Barack Obama, his new administration,
President Bush and his people all could have learned
first hand about our SJSU Education on Wheels project!
 

2010 Post Civil Rights/Inauguration Trip - Special Guest     CNN Anchor Kyra Phillips  was the School of Journalism & Mass Communications Spring 2010 Convocation Keynote Speaker May 27, 2010.   Kyra Phillips was instrumental in 2009 in getting SJSU network TV news coverage  of our journalism, public relations and advertising student travels to the Inauguration of President Obama through the landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement. Ms. Phillips worked with CNN producers to enable the ten SJSU new media students to offer live daily reports on their 10 day road trip with stops in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. When they arrived in Atlanta at CNN World Headquarters,  the SJSU group was given unique access to news production meetings where they interacted with CNN executives and producers, pitched story ideas, and participated in a group interview with Ms. Phillips which was televised live on CNN.

 

 

MONDAY: JANUARY 19, 2009

Mornings on 2, in the Bay Area, interviewed, via satellite from their
 Washington D.C. bureau
SJSU Radio & TV Journalism major Justin Perry.

 

BIG NEWS...

 
The SJSU Inauguration Trip was on the front page of the
 

 

See the current SJ Mercury News Student Blog
(with photos from their trip!)


The day before the Inauguration, the SJSU student group met with 
Bay Area South Bay Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren in her
House of Representatives office next to capitol hill.

She surprised the group by giving them tickets to the Inauguration
and to the Inaugural Parade!




SJSU Public relations Prof. Chris DiSalvo and her family, along with
new College of Applied Sciences & Arts
Dean, Charles Bullock, were also in Washington to the historic day.

 

 

Behind the Scenes on this Trip

The public is invited to
contact us with your comments.

Trip Co-organizers, Prof. Bob Rucker, Dr. Michael Cheers or the students at

professorrucker@yahoo.com

 
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Tuesday, January 13th

CNN's Kyra Phillips interviewed
        LIVE, by telephone, Radio & TV Journalism major

  Justin Perry.
 

The group was driving from Selma to Birmingham, Alabama to
 visit more landmarks of the Civil Rights South.

  Justin Allegri

Perry and Justin Allegri produced another impressive video package report
for national showcase. All student videos were uploaded to
CNN's i-report website later that day.

KTVU Channel 2 - SJSU Inauguration Trip Project

STUDENT BLOG - Going LIVE on CNN !
 

Monday, January 12. 2009
The SJSU Interview Ronnie Agnew, Executive Editor, Jackson Clarion Ledger.
Agnew is the only African American editor at a major daily newspaper in Mississippi.
Depart Jackson for Philadelphia, MS (Neshoba County) 87 miles (two hour drive) and view
the area where the KKK killed the three civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman
and Michael Schwerner, who died registering black voters. Overnight stay in Selma, Alabama.

 

On June 21, 1964,  three young civil rights workers—a 21-year-old black Mississippian, James Chaney, and two white New Yorkers, Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24— were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia, in Nashoba County, Mississippi.

"In Mississippi, in the 1960s, when segregation was king, racism the status quo, and bigotry the law, it was young people who rose up and challenged the system." More from Ben Chaney James Chaney Andrew Goodman Michael Schwerner

Sunday, January 11th  - Visit  the National Civil Rights Museum; Depart for Jackson,
Mississippi. Drive through the destitute towns Tunica, Tutwiler, Marks and Clarksdale
along the Mississippi Delta. They stop along the Tallahatchie River to reflect on
Emmitt Till, who was killed by whites in August 1955. Overnight stay in Jackson, MS.

Emmitt Louis Till was abducted and murdered in August, 1955.       
Background Information               PBS Online:Emmitt Till Timeline
You Tube Video: Death of Emmitt Till
 

SJSU Students Justin Perry and Justin Allegri First special video report focused on the group's powerful interview with Memphis Civil Rights activist Rev. Samuel Kyles

 

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assassination - 1968

SJSU students interview with Rev. Kyles the first night of their Inauguration Trip
will be posted on the KTVU/CH. 2 website by Monday evening. ( Link to be posted here)
 

School of Journalism & Mass Communications

The School of Journalism & Mass Communications is sending several
SJSU students from diverse communities to the Inauguration of Barack Obama
by way of America's civil rights landmarks in the South.

The goal for these journalism, advertising and public relations students -
to walk back through time and learn at these historic sites how the blood, sweat and
tears of the 1950s and 60s equal rights pioneers paved the way for all
people of color, women, gays and lesbians, the disabled and religious cultural groups
in America to be recognized, appreciated, and valued in our society,
and to have equal opportunity to live the American dream.  

TRIP PLANS & ITINERARY

Information: San Jose State University

 

Local Media Coverage: SJSU Inauguration Trip 
San Jose Mercury News
Published: December 10, 2008             Dana Hull, Reporter

 Print Edition:    FRONT PAGE STORY       Part Two, Page 19

   Mercury News Online Edition

 

SJSU Announces Inauguration Trip
   November 6, 2008

(San Jose, CA) - One of the west coast’s most respected schools for journalism education
has begun fundraising to send a group of selected students to history in the making on
January 20, 2009 in Washington D.C. ”Before they get there, we want our Bay Area ethnic
and cultural students to explore, learn, connect and report back to their communities
the connection we share with the civil rights movement which made the election of the first
African-American as president possible,” says Dr. Michael Cheers, who conceived this
cross-country learning experience for San Jose State University journalism, advertising
and public relations students. “Now we are asking local individuals and businesses to help
us raise the funds needed to pull off this once in a lifetime opportunity to connect
California’s diverse communities with America’s historic past.”

Cheers, an award-winning, internationally known photojournalist and National Geographic
Fellow is the Coordinator of the SJSU Photojournalism degree program. He and his
students were inspired by a poignant online multimedia election night presentation
featuring the life and the historic impact of the Obama election for the 95-year-old aunt
of SJSU colleague and former CNN Correspondent, Professor Bob Rucker. The two
African-American journalists talked with their students about covering the inauguration in
a unique way. “They were excited about being a part of history and finding their cultural
connection to the civil rights movement,” Rucker says. “Some also saw the connection
to the ongoing struggle of same-sex couples to have the right to marry as the modern
day struggle for equal protections and civil rights.”

The two veteran educators believe by taking a group of diverse students to
Washington DC in January, by way of a van driving tour through Memphis, Tennessee
( home of the national Civil Rights Museum ), Selma, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia
(places Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made famous with his voting rights marches in
the 1960s), Cheers and Rucker believe the SJSU students will get a better understanding
and an invaluable appreciation of the blood, sweat and tears 44 years ago which set
America on the course to this year’s “Change” election in 2008.

More than 600 Journalism School students, representing nearly all Bay Area ethnic and cultural communities, can apply for selection by Cheers and Rucker to go on the cross-country trip. Between six to ten students will be chosen. “Each applicant must identify
their understanding of civil rights history, and demonstrate their skill at using laptop and
new technology software to write multiple news stories and shoot, edit and post photos
and video online as part of a daily reporting assignment while on the trip,” says Rucker.
Cheers adds “this will be a working trip, an ‘education on wheels’ designed to produce
work which can be shared with the Bay Area community back home and people
around the world.”

To realize this goal, however, Cheers and Rucker must raise a minimum $25,000
 to cover the costs of student airline flights to Memphis where they plan to start their
van tour through the South. They will also need overnight motel/hotel accommodations
for ten days on the road, and insurance must also be secured. Students will get
academic credit for their effort, but they must pay that cost along with food and daily
 expenses.
“We are hoping local Silicon Valley high tech companies and media outlets
will help underwrite this effort and sponsor this historic caravan,” Rucker says. “It’s a
golden opportunity for local businesses to showcase some of their new technology
and connect with Bay Area cultural communities in a personal and powerful way like the
San Jose Mercury News slideshow and audio presentation about my 95-year-old aunt
and mother.” LIVING TO SEE IT was produced by photojournalist Pauline Lubens
at Rucker’s San Jose home on election night.

Cheers and Rucker are asking local community leaders to help them raise the
funds and secure donations of new technology before SJSU goes on Thanksgiving
break in two weeks. SJSU student applications for the Inauguration trip
will be taken beginning on campus Monday, November 17th in the
School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Any amount of donation from private individuals, groups, local businesses, schools,
government officials, etc. are most welcome!  Thank You!

  

        
CREATIVE DONATIONS - THANK YOU!

The School of Journalism and Mass Communications
at San Jose State University
wants to thank Nikon, Apple and Pix Sense
for providing new technology cameras, video editing & web design
software and high definition cell phones
for student on the trip to use to post their efforts on the
KTVU Channel 2 website.
 

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