VERMILLION, S.D.—Gathered on opening night of the American Indian Journalism Institute June 1, students from 13 states and 16 tribes were told by Jack Marsh, vice president for diversity at the Freedom Forum, "What you learn in the next three weeks will change your life for the better."
The eighth annual AIJI brought 21 students to the University of South Dakota for a welcoming dinner and a question-and-answer session with Al Neuharth, founder of USA Today and of the Freedom Forum, which sponsors AIJI in seeking to increase the number of Native journalists in mainstream newsrooms.
"From this day forward," Marsh told students and faculty, "you are part of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute." The students were also designated "honorary Coyotes," the university's nickname.
AIJI is a rigorous multimedia course for which students can receive college credit. At least 13 will move into internships at newspapers and offices of The Associated Press, primarily west of the Mississippi.
Fourteen instructors are teaching AIJI students in three courses involving reporting, editing, writing, still photography, video and audio.
As they ate on opening night, students worked on their first assignments — interviewing each other in pairs before introducing their interview partners to the group from the podium.
A highlight of those exchanges involved two returning students when Jacquelyne Taurianen, Sault Ste. Marie and 2007 AIJI grad, a rising junior at the University of Michigan, recounted asking her partner Sarah Welliver, Metis and a 2006 AIJI grad, a graduate last month of the University of Montana, why Welliver had joined the Marine Corps out of high school.
According to Taurianen, Welliver, a four-year veteran and marksmanship instructor, replied: "Because the Girl Scouts wouldn't give me a rifle."
In his remarks and answers to students' questions, Neuharth touched on a variety of topics, including the state of the New York Yankees, his childhood years in rural South Dakota and the First Amendment. A University of South Dakota graduate, he has spoken at every AIJI. Sessions are held in a campus building named for him.
"I hope that you ... recognize this is a hell of an opportunity," he told the students. "I hope you will eat it up and leave here not only excited but prepared."
Neuharth urged the class to bring diversity to newrooms nationwide and said they must recruit more Natives to the profession to fulfill that objective.