Program Development

Guiding Principles

Not all learning takes place in the classroom. Journalism students, especially, need to put their learning into practice. The programs I build combine my journalism experience with best practices informed by scholarship on teaching and learning.

Team-building is an important part of every program. I prioritize time for students to get to know each other and me – to build trust, to include student input into activities and to work so that all students feel like they belong.

These programs are also experiential in the truest sense of the word. They include practical experience, space to slow down and reflect on what we’ve learned together, and a structure that allows us to make improvements for the next time.

SOJC Track Bureau

Because the University of Oregon is home to Hayward Field, one of the great venues of track and field, I created a news bureau that covered all of the major competitions on campus from 2015 through the World Athletics Championships in 2022. More than 75% of the students who took the class eventually found work in sports media.

Here’s what we did during those eight years:

Published 863 deadline stories, including 295 that were published by professional publications.
Freelanced for 40 professional publications, ranging from small daily newspapers like the Lewiston (Maine) Sun to major metros like Oregonian and Tampa Bay Times to national and international outlets such as Athletics Africa and Runner’s World.
Conducted more than 1,200 Virtual Mixed Zone post-competition interviews distributed worldwide to news media.

Media coverage of the class:
- University of Oregon students are reporting on one of track and field’s biggest events, Think Out Loud, OPB, July 2022
- University of Oregon students among the journalists to cover Oregon 22, KGW-TV, July 2022
- Track Bureau class at University of Oregon gives journalism students hands-on reporting experience, World Athletics website, May 2022
- Tracktown Tuesday Q&A, Tracktown USA, March 2020
- Deadlines in Doha, Around the O, October 2019
- How to teach journalism in the press box, MediaShift, January 2017

Writing Central

I founded the SOJC’s peer writing support program with colleague Courtney Munther for four reasons: to offer students an in-house writing resource, to show that the SOJC values the craft, to offer additional support for students whose first language is not English, and to empower strong writers to be coaches and leaders.

Since January 2016, we have done more than 1,000 sessions with students every academic year, and more than 90% of students say they benefitted from the experience.

We live by the ethos that’s been at the center of writing center work for decades: process over product. We focus not on the writing, but on the writer. Our coaches don’t look at a piece of writing until they have had a discussion with the student who has written it, and they don’t write on a student’s paper or type on a student’s computer. Instead, they ask questions, listen actively and work with students to work toward solutions.

We send students on their way with a sticky note with three suggestions for the future. We encourage them to come back, and often, they do.

Media coverage of Writing Central:

10 things I learned as a student writing coach, by Chloe Montague, April 2023. This piece explains not only what we do at Writing Central, but why we do it.
How Oregon’s writing center uses peer tutors to engage reluctant writers, March 2017

Magic Boost

I am a co-facilitator and educational consultant for this program, which is designed to diversify media coverage of track and field by teaching storytelling skills to students, podcasters, YouTubers and social media influencers. The vast majority of sports journalists and media are white men, which does not reflect the sport as a whole. More than 80 percent of our alumni are women and/or BIPOC.

In our first year, 2021, I built out biweekly interactive remote sessions for the cohort, and I worked with Chris Chavez of CitiusMag to facilitate those sessions. I’ve continued to update our offerings with a focus on craft skills, business skills and networking skills. I also do one-on-one coaching with the cohort.

Publications I've Worked With

My Courses

Reporting 1

Journalism is a public service. That’s why our industry is in the Constitution … well, the Bill of Rights, as part of the First Amendment. Everything we do this term will keep that concept—the public—front and center.

Newspaper Editing

This is a class about language and why it matters. About readers and why they matter. About learning to work as a team to make news coverage more readable, more accurate, more accessible to the public, more useful to our democracy.

Journalism & Democracy

Journalism is essential for a healthy democracy. We’re going to focus on how to make journalism more diverse, more inclusive and — therefore — more accurate. And being a journalist means you need to be a continuous learner, so this class will give you strategies for doing that.

Let's Collaborate

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