About the Florida FlyIns Program
Florida FlyIns is the nickname for a University of Florida course in special projects journalism. The class is open to advanced graduate and undergraduate photographers and writers and is entitled "Advanced Journalism Practicum: Latin America in Words and Pictures."
The program is taught each fall by Professor John Kaplan and teaches about the principles and techniques of international journalism. We hope that in time the program may expand to other parts of the world as well.
In the field, student writers, photographers and multimedia journalists spend one week working in teams to document life in Latin America. In addition to the selection of student work presented in this online magazine, we also produce a photography and writing exhibition each December that is open to the public.
During the first half of the semester, students learn advanced story research techniques and choose possible story ideas for their fieldwork. After an October visit to Latin America, each student produces a story in either words, pictures or video for publication.
The Florida FlyIns Guatemala online Web magazine was created by the 2008 Flyins student journalists in partnership with Scott Hasz of Hasz Studios LLC.
Our writing, telecommunication, photography and multimedia coaches this year included faculty and staff from the University of Florida: John Kaplan, Mark Leeps, Dr. Kim Walsh-Childers, Boaz Dvir, Ted Spiker, Steve Orlando and Dr. Norman Lewis.
The Florida FlyIns program has won several major awards and honors:
With his piece “Saving Antonia,” 2008 FlyIns student, Miles Doran was awarded first place in the National NBS Award for Video News Segment, the Florida AP Broadcasters Award for Best Long Hard News Feature, the Regional Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award in In-Depth Reporting and the Florida AP Broadcasters College Competition Best Long Hard News Feature. The work also won the Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for News Documentary.
William Randolph Hearst Photojournalism Championship College Photographer of the Year
Since 2000, for virtually every year of our program, photographs from a FlyIns trip have won Hearst and College Photographer of the Year awards for individual students and contributed to three national championship second place wins for the University of Florida.
Twice this decade, student work (from Costa Rica and Belize) contributed to UF winning its first-ever national collegiate photojournalism championships. The Hearst Awards have been called the Pulitzer Prizes of college journalism. In 2007, Morgan Petroski’s picture story on Ecuadorian mothers raising their children in prison won first in the nation in the Hearst Photojournalism Championship. In 2009, Casey Brooke Lawson and Jason Henry placed in the top 15 with their work from Guatemala.
The Best of Photojournalism
In 2003, the Florida FlyIns Web site placed first in the nation in the international Best of Photojournalism competition, the only award that went to a student-affiliated website. The Best of Photojournalism competition attracted more than 27,000 total entries in the photo, editing and web divisions. In the web division, there were just six first-place awards. In addition to UF’s top prize for Feature Story, the other first place winners were the New York Times, Washington Post and Rochester (NY) Democrat-Chronicle. The judges commented, “The fact that the site was the work of students and faculty is inspiring . . . “ They also said the stories were “refreshing” and “exhibited strong photography.” The FlyIns site also won an honorable mention in the Best Multimedia Package category.
International Documentary Photography Awards / Student Division
In 2005, Emily Harris' picture story on a destitute mother and her family was one of the top eleven honored worldwide in the International Documentary Photography Awards judged in Seoul, Korea. It was one of only two student story winners by an American photographer. The other was by Harris as well.
News Photographer Magazine
In 2007, News Photographer devoted six pages to an article about the FlyIns program featuring student work from Ecuador.
Photo World Magazine / Beijing, China
In 2005, China's largest photo magazine, Photo World, devoted eight pages to FlyIns’ student photography from Nicaragua, Brazil and Peru. As far as we know, this is the only time that Photo World has published student work. The magazine is published by the Xinhua news agency, China's equivalent of the Associated Press.
AEJMC Best of the Web
In 2002, the FlyIns website was named best in the nation for Journalism Sites in the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Best of the Web competition. Students Amy Zerba, Beth Nabi and Dave Cone contributed to the award.
Florida Magazine Association
In 2001, the Florida Magazine Association gave FlyIns stories from Costa Rica its top prize for in-depth reporting, The Charlie Award. Student writing and photography contributed to the award, as published in the University of Florida magazine, Today. It is rare for student work to place in this professional competition, let alone to be named a Charlie-winner. |
