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June 15, 2000 Dear contributor, Good news. I am writing to let you know that the first Class of 1997 Doug Black Scholarship has been awarded. Thanks to your help we not only raised the endowment minimum of $25,000 -- we raised $37,681. The first scholarship was about $1,000. And because the fund has continued to grow, next year's will be about $1,400. "The Doug Black Class of 97 Fund was one of the most successful, and one of the few, class funds to reach the endowment minimum. Its class participation was second only to the Class of '52 fund," says Erin McCarthy, the J-school's development officer. The strong support shows just how deeply Doug touched our lives. The first scholarship recipient was Nathan Hegedus, a talented young journalist who just graduated from the school this May. This spring he took Professor Sam Freedman's book writing seminar and began writing a memoir. "I wrote about my first year of three as a grassroots volunteer in a small war-torn town in eastern Croatia," he says. "That first year I was in a chaotic, 'consensus' peace project with Polish hippies, Slovak punks and English farmers. I was right out of Swarthmore College and didn't know what the hell I was doing. "But I stayed in Croatia for two more years working with youth then monitoring a free legal aid network. I took nine months off before J-school to decompress and readjust to America.... "I loved it here at Columbia. I had Dean [Sandy] Padwe for RW1 and he ranks right up there with a Balkan war in terms of intensity. I was a decent writer before but I loved (and hated many times) learning how to report, hit the streets, make 19 phone calls to the same official, etc... I went to Bosnia and Croatia for my book writing class and managed to get 3 CNS [Columbia News Service] stories and my photojournalism personal essay out of the trip as well. "I have a summer internship at the Wall Street Journal. After that, I want to work in newspapers or a news Website, preferably around New York..... "I also very much appreciate this scholarship and the effort that you and your friends put into it. Doug must have been very special to inspire you all to honor his memory this way. Thanks." As you can see, our contributions have been put to good use. As the fund continues to grow, the annual scholarship awarded will increase. Please make sure any donations you make to Columbia in the future are earmarked for "The Class of 1997 Doug Black Fund." Thank you once again for your contribution. Sincerely,
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