On Friday, July 13 two students from the Murrow School of Communication, Steve Thorpe and Katie Yeager, will begin a 10-day road trip from Seattle to Los Angeles. During their travels the students will interview a wide variety of successful Murrow graduates, now working in industry. The two students travelers are going not only with the blessings of their college administrators, but also with their dean’s financial backing.
“Our excellence fund is designed to support opportunities, like this one, that come up after the budgets are set,” said Erich Lear, dean of the College of Liberal Arts. “We offered support from our excellence fund because this project connects current communication students with successful alumni and re-enforces our desire to promote the meaning of the Murrow legacy.”
“Edward R. Murrow’s commitment to ethical and thorough communication is very important to the school, and projects like this help keep that legacy alive,” he added.
On the trip, the two students will interview a several dozen Murrow school alumni who have become successful industry professionals. Some of the communication professionals they are interviewing are Kathi Goertzen and Eric Johnson of KOMO TV; Jeff Payne, VP of International Programming for E! Entertainment; Scott Hallock, co-founder of Hallock Healey; Mike Harney, executive producer for “Scare Tactics” and “Breaking up with Shannon Doherty;” as well as alumni working for “Prom Queen,” “Top Chef” and “The Amazing Race.”
The students will be documenting their trip and interviews through a “live-blog” (online @ <https://murrow-blog.com/%3Ehttps://murrow-blog.com). Dates and places for the interviews will be updated on the blog.
Thorpe and Yeager will also be providing a video podcast which will be available at the iTunes Music Store, Podcast Alley, PodPlanet, Technorati, and their own Web site. The podcast will contain a mini-documentary of their trip, as well as clips from all of their interviews. The Edward R. Murrow School of Communication will cover the journey on its Web site, (online @ <https://communication.wsu.edu/%3Ehttps://communication.wsu.edu/%3Chttps://communication.wsu.edu/>).
“We expect this project will help connect prospective students, current students and alumni from the Murrow school,” Lear summarized.
“That is how we sustain Murrow’s legacy, by maintaining that connection. We want our students to see themselves as Cougars for life.”
