Redding shares UMD scoop with J students

By Jake Dziubla
Round Table online editor-in-chief

Lauren Redding stood on top of a parking deck, waiting for a man that she had never met before to drive her to an undisclosed location just so she can get the facts needed for her controversial story. If the identity of this “Deepthroat” is revealed, their job could be in serious jeopardy and Redding could find herself in hot water.

In just two years, Redding went from working on relatively small stories as the style editor for the Round Table, the Middletown High School student newspaper, to her Watergate-like story as a rookie reporter for the University of Maryland student newspaper, the Diamondback, that gained statewide attention.

Beginning as a writer for the style column of the Round Table, the Middletown High School newspaper, Lauren Redding did not take a serious approach to journalism, initially. That all changed when she read a moving novel about a journalist held hostage when in a war zone. This novel was the spark that started the fire. Redding became inspired, to the extent that she now had aspirations to become a journalist. Redding spoke with her adviser, Noah Kady, about her recent change of heart and she became the eventual online editor-in-chief, something unheard of for a rookie journalist.

 On Friday Nov. 11,Redding shared her experiences at MHS and at the University of Maryland where she is now the editor-in-chief of the Diamondback, the independent student newspaper.

Redding hit the ground running after speaking with Kady about her new aspirations and began to stand out amongst her fellow classmates.

Redding quickly moved her way up the ranks in the journalism hierarchy and became the online editor-in-chief; a position in which she believed was previously out of her reach. These experiences with Kady, and the journalism class, contributed to her journalism scholarship to theUniversityof Maryland following her senior year. However, her success mostly stems not only from experience and natural ability, but from her drive and “thirst” that comes only from within.

“You have to put everything you have into it. You need to want it,” Redding said.

This fearlessness and determination is needed for her laborious editorial job at the  Universityof Maryland that she earned after an internship with the Frederick News Post. As an editor, she may go days without eating, sleep in her office, and brave the elements just to follow local action and facilitate the paper. In the “sink or swim” atmosphere that accompanied Redding’s new position, she quickly learned the ropes and added new journalistic knowledge to her basic experience.

Redding has had writing appear in the McClathy Tribune, a wire service that appears in newspapers across the country. She has an interest in health-based journalism and hopes to eventually become a health journalist. She is currently studying at the University of Maryland where she maintains her position as the editor-in-chief of the Diamondback.

 

 

Sara (Jerome) Baker

Sara (Jerome) Baker is currently the senior editor for AmericanStyle and NICHE, two national art magazines located in Baltimore. Sara served as the co-editor-in-chief for The Round Table during the 1999-2000 school year. After graduating from Middletown High School in 2000, she received a degree in journalism from Loyola College in Maryland. She has been working as a magazine editor since 2004. She lives with her husband Mike in White Marsh, Md.

Casey Cavanagh

Casey Cavanagh is a 2008 graduate of Middletown High School. He served as the co-editor-in-chief of RT Magazine in the 2007-08 school year. He also was one of the originators of RT Magazine Online. Casvanagh currently attends James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. He is majoring in Media Arts and Design. He is a contributing sports writer for JMU’s newspaper, The Breeze.  His current articles to date can be found at http://breezejmu.org/author/casey-cavanagh/. In addition, he is writing his own music and performing it live in both Harrisonburg and Frederick. His MySpace music page can be found at http://www.myspace.com/caseycavanagh.

Jeff Colsh

A veteran from the ancient days of heated wax, Jeff Colsh now studies The Round Table on-line and can appreciate the awe people growing up with horse and buggy must have felt like at the first sight of an automobile.  As a writer and a section editor, Jeff served under several strong women who, along with the help of others, turned The Round Table from heated wax to award-winner. After graduating from Middletown High School in 2000, Colsh wrote sports for a year at James Madison University’s student paper, The Breeze, an experience which helped him during a year’s thesis work interviewing soccer fanatics of a local professional team.  Even after college, journalism never dies–he writes game updates for the MHS boys soccer team and still salivates at the smell of heated wax.

Tess Colwell

Tess Colwell is a 2003 graduate of Middletown High School. She received a Bachelor of Science in Visual Communications from Ohio University with a concentration in photojournalism in 2007. While at OU, Colwell attended the Scotland Visual Field School and interned at both The Columbus Dispatch and The Reading Eagle. She worked as a campus staff photographer for The Athens News throughout her college career. She received the prestigious Provost Undergraduate Research Grant from Ohio University to pursue an ongoing documentary project on Appalachian midwives. She was treasurer of the National Press Photographer’s Association student chapter. Since graduating, Tess has been a freelance photographer in the Washington, D.C., area and is working on a documentary project on immigrant female crab pickers on the Eastern Shore. She expects to finish a Masters of Arts degree at Hood College in 2009. This summer she will be traveling to Nigeria to document a University of Maryland medical project to help treat HIV and AIDS. You can view her portfolio at www.tesscolwell.blogspot.com.

Lance Duvall

Lance Duvall is a 2005 graduate from Middletown High School. He pursued his interest in television production and attended Frederick Community College where he graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in Digital Media Design in 2007.  While attending FCC, Duvall worked with the Frederick Keys as a camera operator and at WHAG (NBC25) as a production assistant.  At WHAG, he was able to work in the studio, tape high school sports, and operate camera in the field for road shows and news packages.  Duvall then transferred to Towson University and graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Media and Film.  He became an “on-air” talent for Towson University’s WMJF-TV, anchoring for 16-News and hosting a sports panel show “Face-Off.” Currently, he works part-time with the video production teams of the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Redskins and University of Maryland, College Park. You can check out some of Duvall’s work at his website:  www.ecnalvideo.com

Kristina Manente

Kristina Manente is a Middletown High School graduate. Manente graduated from Lycoming College this past May with a BA in History and Archaeology. She had a radio show for a period of time. Manente kept with the features and did cover some news stories. As a junior she studied abroad in London, England and traveled most of Western Europe on her own backpacker style. There she found her home, and while she wrote some, she found her true passion in preserving memories through photography. When Manente returned back stateside and entered her senior year, she finally knew what I wanted to do; she wanted to be a professor. Manente set about writing her senior thesis and 10,000 words later she earned the prize for the best paper. A few awards and presentations later, it helped her earn her way into seven graduate schools in England and Scotland. Manente decided on Kings College London for the Masters in Medieval History and was set to move to England for September 2010. Manente wound up in Japan. She was hired by the Japanese Government to teach English in an advanced high school. She’s in Shizuoka prefecture (Mt. Fuji’s homeland) and has set to start teaching Oral Communication 1 to the freshman.

Melissa Pfau

Melissa Pfau is a 2004 graduate of Middletown High School. After unsuccessfully attempting to get into the journalism concentration through the Media Arts and Design program at James Madison University, Pfau began working in the Technical and Scientific Communication program (now called the School of Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication). In addition to recieving a Bachelor of Arts in Technical and Scientific Communication in 2008, Pfau will be recieving her Master of Science in Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication in May 2010. Pfau also minored in Creative Writing. Pfau, as a member of the Society for Technical Communication, was elected the Public Relations Manager where she supervised a small staff of writers and editors to put together a small four-page newsletter to explain new skills that communicators need to have and various chapter events that were happening. Pfau was responsible for a complete redesign of EmD@sh. She graduated with a Master of Science in Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication from James Madison University at the top of her class. Pfau was named the Outstanding Graduate Student for 2010 (an award she earned as an undergraduate student as well). She focused primarily in publications management, but allowed herself to pick up the trade of documentation and document design as well. Now she’s working full time for Poole & Associates (a small government contractor) in Annapolis Junction, Maryland as a technical writer and editor.

Jordan Schlotterback

Jordan Schlotterback is a 2007 graduate of Middletown High School. He is a student at The Culinary Institute of America and majoring in Professional Sciences in Culinary Arts Business. He is serving on the editorial board for CIA’s school newspaper, “La Papillote.” Schlotterback has also begun working for Manhattan’s based Saveur Magazine, a nationally recognized culinary arts monthly publication. His work at the magazine will include writing, researching, culinary consulting and testing.

Carrie Spade

Carrie Spade is a graduate of Middletown High School, class of 2008. She is currently a freshman at Bridewater College with a major in English and a minor in Communication. During the fall semester, Spade was published in the weekly Bridgewater College newspaper, the “Veritas,” twice as a contributer. She will join the staff in the upcoming spring semester. Future plans for Spade include graduating and obtaining a position at a newspaper as a reporter or copy editor before teaching English at the secondary level.

Ryan Tice

Ryan Tice is a 2006 Middletown High School graduate. Tice is a 2010 graduate of North Carolina State University, where he wrestled for four years and was a member of the 2007 ACC Championship squad. Ryan earned a bachelor’s degree in communication media and a minor in journalism. While at Middletown High School, he learned everything he needed to know (including how to shake hands and properly money dance) about being successful from Noah Kady while serving as the sports editor. He is currently a staff writer for The Wolfpacker, an independent magazine that covers N.C. State athletics. He also regularly contributes to The Wolverine (covering University of Michigan athletics), The Cavalier Corner (University of Virginia) and The Blue and Gold Illustrated (Notre Dame). His work has previously partnered him with The Greensboro News and Record, The Frederick News Post and Intermat Wrestling. He currently lives in Raleigh, N.C. with his mutt, Carlton, and also works as an assistant wrestling coach at Jordan High School in Durham, N.C.