Joel Kaplan welcomes graduate students on the first day of boot camp (Photo by Molly Irland)

The biggest misconception about boot camp is that the rigor and intensity are meant to discourage students, says , associate dean of . “We’re not trying to wash anyone out like they would in the military,” says Kaplan. “We’re really trying to imbue them with those skills that they’re going to need for the rest of their program.”

The typical boot camp structure consists of six weeks of classes, Monday through Friday, from about 9 a.m.-5 p.m., with the schedule fluctuating depending on the program. Some cohorts might have a night class or classes Monday through Thursday, with Friday reserved as a time to shoot, write, report or complete a project. “Almost every day, I was exposed to new knowledge,” says Jiaqi Jin, an master’s student. “It was a fascinating experience to feel my brain racing and thinking, understanding more about the media industry and thinking about the possibilities unseen before.”

Boot camp was the brainchild of the late Nancy Weatherly Sharp, a professor emerita of newspaper journalism and the school’s first assistant dean for graduate and professional studies. Observing the beautiful but empty Syracuse University summers, she had the idea to bring graduate students in when faculty could have their complete attention and the campus is quiet, Kaplan says.

Graduate students introduce themselves on the first day of boot camp. (Photo by Karen Z Velardi)

The Newhouse School’s graduate programs draw students from different universities with myriad skill sets and educational backgrounds, so the main purpose of boot camp is leveling the academic playing field and preparing students for the year to come. “This is the evening out process, right? We’re going to assume that you don’t really know anything, even though some of you do and those who do will be in good shape at the beginning,” Kaplan said. “But we have this intense six weeks in their topic areas so that when [the students] come out, they’re all pretty much on the same level,” he added. “So now we can go into the heavier academic courses in the fall and the spring and no one’s saying ‘I’ve never done that before.’ It’s a building block.”

Every cohort takes different classes tailored to their program.  students might take news writing and data reporting while  students take a production class and the history of television with Professor  the director of the .

Students work while enjoying ice cream outside Newhouse 3. (Photo by Molly Irland)

Boot camp provided  student Gloria Rivera inspiration for the fall semester. “I think it could be a wonderful time to be a journalist, but also challenging,” says Rivera. “I’m hoping to be in an environment that pushes and encourages me to think critically about the type of writer I want to be.”

Even with the academic rigor, Kaplan and his graduate program colleagues make sure there’s time for fun and bonding amongst the students, allowing them to make the types of connections that can help them support each other during the academic year.

James Roberts, a master’s student in the , said the best thing about boot camp was meeting his cohort. “We became great friends very quickly and got even closer throughout the course of the summer,” says Roberts. “We explored the city together and got to know the campus very well.”

The overall boot camp goal: developing poised graduate students who have grown comfortable at Newhouse, looking forward to the upcoming year.

What does Kaplan want future students to know? “There’s a huge support system here to not only make sure you learn a lot, but that you actually have a good time,” says Kaplan.

Keith Giglio

A screenwriter who teaches in the , Giglio will recount his two cancer diagnoses and how they compared to the ups and downs of navigating life in Los Angeles during his talk, “Lights Camera Cancer aka How Hollywood Prepared Me for Cancer,” today at 3:10 p.m. The symposium, sponsored by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication’s , will be held in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3 from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“I remember thinking if I survived the ups and downs of Hollywood, I can survive this,” Giglio said.

Giglio is one of 11 presenters at the symposium, which will showcase the school’s wide range of student and faculty research and creative activities, creating awareness and encouraging communications and collaboration at Newhouse and across campus.

Giglio’s most recent produced credits include “Reba McEntire’s Christmas in Tune,” “Christmas Reservations” and “A Very Nutty Christmas,” the latter of which was produced with his wife, Juliet Aires Giglio. Previous credits include “A Cinderella Story” (producer) and its sequels, as well as “Pizza My Heart,” “Joshua” and “Tarzan.”

In addition, he has written three academic books, “Writing the Comedy Blockbuster,” “Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Video Games,” with Robert Denton Bryant and “Proof of Concept, Writing the Short Script,” along with the romantic comedy novel, “The Summer of Christmas.” A second romantic comedy book, “The Trouble with Tinsel,” comes out this year.

Below, Giglio answers more questions about his work.

What is your research about?

My presentation is titled “How Hollywood Prepared Me for Cancer.” It is an excerpt from a book of the same name I am writing.  I lived in Hollywood—aka L.A.—for 20 years writing and producing movies. I never thought that such an uncertain experience would prepare me for cancer.

Where did you come up with the idea?

On a gurney in Upstate Hospital. I remember thinking if I survived the ups and downs of Hollywood, I can survive this. I also wondered what happened to my hair. And then along the way, I started comparing so many aspects of what goes on in making a movie to treating cancer.

What kind of cancer did you have?

First, I had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had a 13-millimeter mass growing at the base of my spine. And I thought that was just back pain. And then following six rounds of chemo, 25 consecutive days of radiation, I got through it. But then a few months later, I couldn’t play my guitar. I couldn’t hold a glass. And I couldn’t touch my giant nose. I basically had a mini stroke because now I had brain cancer. So then, I did 10 days straight of whole brain radiation. And that seemed to wipe everything out.

When you learned you had cancer, what was that moment like?

It was kind of like a smoking gun. I was in so much pain from what I thought was just a benign tumor or back pain as I had had back problems before. But at that moment I just immediately thought of my two daughters and how I’m going to tell them and tell my parents. But also, I was oddly confident. I said “Okay, whatever it is, I’ll get through it.”

During your cancer journey, what stood out as something that you would experience in Hollywood or movies?

After I got through the initial lymphoma, after six rounds of chemo and 25 days of radiation, most people think, okay, you’re done. But in Hollywood or in any movie, you always have a “whammo.” Like every 10 pages, something happens. Some big, emotional thing. It’s the midpoint. So, when that brain cancer came, I said, “OK, I was expecting this.” I was expecting the whammo. Here we go again.

How are you doing now?

I’m doing well. I’ve been cancer free for eight years now, so that’s good. So far no flare ups, and I’m happy about that.

Why was this important for you to share as research?

I wanted to talk about how you have to always believe in yourself and that your ambition always has to exceed your ability. When my back was against the wall during my L.A. writing days, I always believed that something good would come about and I will get through and come out better for the experience. I felt the same way during my cancer journey.

When is your book coming out?

I have no idea when it’s coming out. I’m stacked with a couple of projects that are ahead of it. It’s kind of like landing a plane.

What do you hope people will take away from your presentation?

Positivity. We need more of it.

The finalists, selected by a group of journalists and journalism educators, are:

Best Single Article/Story

• Jon Allsop, “” – Columbia Journalism Review
• Paul Farhi, “” – The Washington Post
• Reniqua Allen-Lamphere, “” (PDF) – Esquire and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project
• Layla A. Jones, “” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Best Profile

• Timothy McLaughlin, “” (PDF) – The Atlantic
• Sam Adler-Bell, “” (PDF) – New York Magazine
• Joe Pompeo, “” (PDF) – Vanity Fair

Best Commentary

• Gregg Gonsalves, “Media Malpractice in Covid Coverage” (PDF) – The Nation
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• Carrie Kaufman, “” (PDF) -You’re Overthinking It
• Michael Hiltzik, “” – Los Angeles Times
• Erik Wemple, “Commentary on media issues” – The Washington Post
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    • Paywall username: wemple
    • Paywall password: wemple

John M. Higgins Award for Best In-Depth/Enterprise Reporting

• Katie Thornton, “The Divided Dial”
  • Episode 1 – “”
  • Episode 3 – “”
  • Episode 4 – “”
• Rob Davis, “” (PDF) – The Oregonian/OregonLive
• Sheelah Kolhatkar, “”- The New Yorker
• Nicholas Confessore and Karen Yourish, “Tucker Carlson’s America” – The New York Times
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Special Topic Category for 2023 – Best Story on Media Coverage of the War in Ukraine

• Masha Gessen, “Masha Gessen on the War in Ukraine” – The New Yorker
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• Paul Mozur, Adam Satariano, Aaron Krolik, Neil MacFarquhar, Steven Lee Myers and Stuart A. Thompson, “Russia’s Disinformation Machine” – The New York Times
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• Molly Schwartz, “Russian TV’s Favorite American Pundit” – On the Media
  • “”
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• Elahe Izadi, Sarah Ellison and Travis M. Andrews, “How Russia and the West covered the war in Ukraine” (PDF) – The Washington Post
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About the Mirror Awards

The Mirror Awards are the most important awards for recognizing excellence in media industry reporting. Established by the Newhouse School in 2006, the awards honor the reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public’s benefit. For information about the awards, visit  or email mirrorawards@syr.edu.

Martina Santia

The Computational Social Science Advisory Council recently elected to approve and fund the development of the weeklong institute, which will be hosted at the Newhouse School and co-led by , an assistant professor in the School of Information Studies. This is the first time that a summer institute of this kind will take place at the University.

SICSS-Syracuse will bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty interested in computational social science and the humanities. The program aims to advance knowledge and develop research ideas to address societal challenges through computational methods. It will also introduce a number of potential applications of social justice informatics as a way of connecting data, technology, computational literacy and social justice in the social sciences.

“[Jasmina and I] are excited to work with graduate and Ph.D. students and early career scholars from diverse cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds, as well as scholars with varying levels of computational social science skills,” Santia says. “Sometimes numbers and data can be very scary, but the objective is to really make these tools available to them so they can then gain the skills and apply them, whether they are in the social sciences or in the humanities.”

SICSS-Syracuse aims to empower prospective participants who are traditionally underrepresented in the field of computational social science and seeks to discuss and foster ideas about how to make the field more equitable, inclusive, diverse and accessible.

Jasmina Tacheva

This instructional program will involve lectures, group problem sets and participant-led research projects, as well as outside speakers who conduct computational social science research in academia and industry. The institute will investigate issues of race, gender and systemic social and economic inequality through computational approaches such as data justice, ethics, textual analysis and machine learning. Participants will discuss their ideas amongst each other and develop a community that will last beyond the institute.

Recruitment efforts have already started, with the goal being to accept around 10-15 participants (graduate students and junior faculty) from the Central New York area.

“I’m very excited about sharing knowledge and the fact that this entire institute takes place at SU,” Santia says. “All the materials and resources are open access. So anybody with an internet connection can access the website, download all the materials and lectures and use them to develop their own projects. That’s the most exciting part. It’s shareable, open and replicable.”