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ABC News Summer Institute: Second Class of Carnegie Fellows Start at ABC News

Students Chosen by Universities Involved With Carnegie Corporation Journalism Initiative.

(New York, N.Y June 15, 2006). Five journalism students from universities participating in the Corporation’s journalism initiative will be Carnegie Fellows for 2006 at ABC News in New York. The five will work in the television network’s investigative unit on projects for Nightline, World News Tonight, ABC News Digital and ABC News Radio. The 10-week program offers paid internships and hands-on reporting experience in one of America’s most respected news organizations to students from universities involved with the Corporation's efforts to highlight the role of journalism schools within research universities.

The ABC News Summer Institute program, now in its second year, grew out of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education, which seeks to reinvigorate the curriculum of journalism schools around the country and to integrate them more deeply into the intellectual life of a university. This summer’s fellowship seeks to give students practical experience in the news industry to complement their rigorous academic studies.

“For Americans to participate in their democracy they must depend on journalists for information, news and enlightened debate,” says Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. “Today, that means journalists who are superbly trained, intellectually rigorous, steeped in knowledge about the subjects they report on, steadfast about their ethical standards and courageous in their pursuit of truth. A university challenge combined with a high-level professional experience will put these students at the forefront of journalism for a new century.”

The five participants, selected in a highly competitive process by their journalism school deans for positions in the ABC Network, will do research, develop stories and produce reports as well as receive training in ABC News ethics and procedures. Schools involved in the program are as follows: Newhouse School, Syracuse University; Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland; School of Journalism, Howard University; School of Communication and Journalism, University of Texas at Austin and Missouri School of Journalism.

Andrew Carnegie created Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1911 to promote
"the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding." As a grantmaking foundation, the Corporation seeks to carry out Carnegie's vision of philanthropy, which he said should aim "to do real and permanent good in the world." The Corporation's capital fund, originally donated at a value of about $135 million, had a market value of $2.2 billion on September 30, 2005. The Corporation awards grants totaling more than $80 million a year in the areas of education, international peace and security, international development and strengthening U.S. democracy.