Four students participated in National Public Radio’s Next Generation Radio at the annual conference of the Native American Journalists
Association (NAJA) in Lincoln, NE, in August. The students worked with noted native journalists as their mentors to learn first-hand about broadcast journalism.
Alexandria Mortenson, a Yupik Eskimo from Western Alaska, got into radio in 6th grade reading the weather. She is a journalism/public communications major at University of Alaska in Anchorage. She currently works at KNBA-FM on a 90-second history modules project called Today in Alaska Native History. Alex worked with Mary Bowannie (Zuni Pueblo/Cochiti Pueblo), UNM, Albuquerque.
Jessica Abeita is a junior at the University of New Mexico, in Native American Studies. She is Isleta Pueblo and Laguna, and an intern with Native America Calling. Previously, she was a DJ at KADP, the college station in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Brian Bull (Nez Perce), News Director at Wisconsin Public Radio was Jess’s mentor.
Kaeleen McGuire, Confederated Umatilla Tribes of Oregon, attends Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO, and is a 2002 graduate of the Freedom Forum’s American Indian Journalism Institute. In summer 2003, she was a reporting intern at the Fort Collins Coloradoan. Last summer she interned at NPR in Washington, D.C. Kaeleen’s mentor was Bernadette Chato Charlie (Navajo), Cultural Heritage and Education Institute, Fairbanks, Alaska.
A proud member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Vince Feeling is attending Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, pursuing a degree in Mass Communications. He was the Vice-President of the United National Indian Tribal Youth Organization. Vince worked with Doug Mitchell of National Public Radio.
There is a link to the student’s work at www.airos.org, where you can find more photos and listen to the stories produced by Abeita, her peers and mentors during the NAJA Conference in Lincoln. Visit http://www.npr.org/about/nextgen/naja05/index.html.