Points of Pride
Somewhere near you, a graduate of our renowned Public Affairs Reporting program at UIS is informing your community about important issues like school finance and health care, environmental concerns and ethics reform.
Today, more than 500 graduates of the PAR department work at the nation's newspapers, television and radio stations, and press agencies. Our graduates number a host of award-winning journalists, including Deb Singer Peterson, a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Scott Reeder, Statehouse bureau chief for the Small Newspaper Group, winner last fall of the prestigious John Aubuchon Freedom of Information Award from Capitolbeat, the national organization of Statehouse reporters. In fact, PAR alums in the last eight years have won 53 Capitolbeat awards for excellence in state government coverage, including 16 firsts.
Some graduates stay local. The Illinois statehouse press corps in Springfield currently has 13 PAR graduates, including eight bureau chiefs.
