In the President’s Corner, about once each month, I have started something I will continue for the coming year: recognition of some of our members. This reminds us it’s the individual members who make BEA great. Please contact me directly to let me know about someone’s job change, or publication, or important BEA contribution, or similar reasons why they should be recognized here. We want to share our members’ accomplishments with the membership at large. Highlighted in this month’s President’s Corner are Julian Rodriguez and Candace Egan.
Julian Rodriguez is a broadcast journalism specialist in the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He currently serves as the Chair of the BEA News Division. Julian worked in television news at KOLN-KGIN in Nebraska, the station where he developed an interest in bilingual journalism and reporting on issues affecting the Hispanic community. Julian joined UTA in 2008 and since then has been developing a bilingual broadcast journalism program that, to this day, has a 100% graduation and job placement rate. Hispanic students work with Rodriguez under the umbrella of the Hispanic Media Initiative (HMI), a program focusing exclusively on the advancement of Hispanic media education, journalism, and research. More about the program can be found at www.utahispanicmedia.com.
In the Department of Communication, Rodriguez teaches television news and audiovisual production. His Latino students produce nationally distributed content via the Telemundo News Service (TNS) and work side-by-side with media professionals from Telemundo and Univision. Julian researches Hispanic media in the United States and the adoption of new and emerging media technologies to develop and nurture awareness systems. His latest work is the first Open Educational Resource (OER) book on Spanish-Language Television News Production in the U.S., which will be available at no cost for the fall 2020 semester, titled Producción de Noticias Televisivas en Español en Estados Unidos de América. He also involves undergraduate students in research studies leading to publications and presentations at professional and academic conferences.
A soon-upcoming event Julian would like you and your students to be involved with is the 2nd Hispanic Media Conference at UTA, for which he is the program planner. The virtual conference will be held on Saturday, August 15, and offers free registration at www.utahispanicmedia.com/conference. Rodriguez is also part of the team spearheading efforts to bring BEA to Latin America (BEALA), with the first BEALA conference held in fall 2019 in Mérida, Mexico. Julian is working on developing a second BEALA, in fall 2021 in Bogotá, Colombia.
Julian’s work with Hispanic students has been recognized by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) and the Association of Opinion Journalists (AOJ). He was recently recognized with the UTA 2020 Provost Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Professor Candace Egan teaches courses in video production and manages the student staffed MCJ Multimedia Production Service at California State University-Fresno. She began teaching in 2002 and has been involved in service learning since 2006. She also is the first chair of the Broadcast Education Association’s new Service Learning and Community Engagement Interest Division (SL&CE).
Egan began her media career in 1982 as a news videographer, the first woman in that position at that TV station. In addition to television news, her professional experience includes instructional and promotional videos, and she has received over 40 national awards for her work. She has produced many videos that have regional, national or international reach and impact. “Sebastian: An Extraordinary Life” received a CINE Golden Eagle award, is in many libraries around the U.S. and was shown in Europe. The nine-part series, “Complying with Pesticide Laws and Regulations in California,” is currently being distributed throughout California to the Hmong farming community.
Egan has been a leader in developing connections with high schools and community colleges in the San Joaquin Valley region. Currently, she serves on the advisory boards for Monache High School’s Multimedia Technology Academy and Fresno City College’s Graphic and Visual Communications program. Her commitment to service was recognized in 2017 when she received the Spirit of Service Award for Faculty Service-Learning from Fresno State and in 2018 when she was honored by her department with The Paul V. Sheehan Service Award.
In regard to her service learning work, Egan is developing a special program that will be part of this fall’s BEA On Location conference. As you will find on the current call for presentations and panels, the SL&CE Interest Division invites submission of presentations or panels in one of three areas of focus for the fall 2020 BEA On-Location: the Service Learning Showcase, a Spotlight Panel, or an open topic SL&CE panel. The SL&CE Showcase seeks short presentations where you share the cool thing you’ve done and how it fits with or in your course or program. The SL&CE Spotlight Topic for On-Location is “The New Normal”: Service Learning/Community Engaged Teaching in a Pandemic. You are encouraged to submit an individual presentation or a panel that addresses this topic and covers the background and impact of the pandemic, explains the approach and method, and provides new deliverables and general takeaways for teaching service learning in a pandemic. Proposals should be submitted by July 24. See the full details at the On Location web page.
Thanks to these BEA members for your continued service to academia and BEA. In closing, a reminder again to please email me and help identify a BEA member who deserves recognition in an upcoming President’s Corner. Self-nominations are welcome. De brevitate vitae carpe diem.
