Journalism Department receives $250,000 from McCormick Foundation for Links Program
CHICAGO, IL, October 24, 2008
The Columbia College Chicago Journalism Department has been awarded a grant in the amount of $250,000 from the McCormick Foundation to advance and support the Columbia Links program.
The goal of the Columbia Links program, which began in 2006, is to provide high quality journalism training to Chicago high school students and their teachers. The impetus for Links grew from the need for enhancement of writing and critical thinking skills among high school students from underserved schools. The Links program will engage students in producing quality journalism; using creativity, problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills as they embark on a project.
Links, which was founded and is now run by highly regarded journalists and teachers from Columbia’s award winning journalism department, seeks to broaden the impact of youth-driven journalism, presenting their voices and point-of-view to their peers and the scope of their communities. By providing teen and teacher workshops, which will evolve into “boot camps,” Links will give high school teachers and their students the tools and knowledge they need to create relevant quality journalism that showcases thought-provoking student writing.
To learn more about the Columbia College Chicago Links program, please visit:
www.columbialinks.org.
The Journalism Department at Columbia College Chicago helps the student to become the best reporter, producer, editor, writer, or publisher he or she can be for the 21st century, in their chosen medium. The approach is informal, with a faculty that has broad experience and high standards. Faculty members have reported all over the world and in urban and rural areas of the nation. Professors are trained and experienced as dispassionate observers, but are passionate about the disparities in coverage in their own backyard: Chicago, Columbia’s premier reporting laboratory. The Journalism department strives to educate future journalists from underrepresented communities and those who grew up in more privileged surroundings, widening worldviews and covering underreported communities.
Columbia College Chicago, an urban institution committed to open access, opportunity and excellence in higher education, provides innovative degree programs in the visual, performing, media and communication arts to nearly 12,500 students in over 120 undergraduate and graduate programs, including film & video, art & design, arts management, television, radio, music, interactive multimedia – all within a liberal arts context. Founded in 1890 as a communications school, Columbia College Chicago was revisioned in 1963 as a liberal arts college with a “hands-on minds-on” approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. Under the current leadership of President Warrick L. Carter, Ph.D., Columbia is aggressively pursuing this mission. Columbia is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college is accredited as a teacher training institution by the Illinois State Board of Education. For further information visit
www.colum.edu.
The McCormick Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening our free, democratic society by investing in children, communities and country. Through its five grantmaking programs, Cantigny Park and Golf, and three world-class museums, the Foundation helps build a more active and engaged citizenry. It was established as a charitable trust in 1955, upon the death of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. The McCormick Foundation is one of the nation’s largest charities, with $1.2 billion in assets. For more information, please visit
www.McCormickFoundation.org.