Charlie Wheeler, second from left, will obtain the College of Illinois Distinguished Service Award. Pictured with him on the June 2024 Public Affairs Reporting program fiftieth reunion and Corridor of Fame induction in Chicago are alums Chris Wetterich, Lisa Miller and Joe Ryan.
College of Illinois Springfield’s annual alumni gala on Friday, Feb. 21, is honoring two former members of the Public Affairs Reporting program, former PAR director Charles Wheeler III and sophistication of ’85 graduate Cheri Bustos.
Wheeler, recipient of the College of Illinois Distinguished Service Award, was this system’s third director, from 1993 to 2019. His relationship with PAR began throughout his 24 years working for the Chicago Solar-Occasions, the place he labored with this system’s college students. In the course of the mid-’80s, Wheeler served as a part of the PAR’s choice committee, up till then-director Invoice Miller retired, permitting him the chance to tackle the position of director.
Cheri Bustos, retired congresswoman and winner of the College of Illinois Alumni Achievement Award, was a PAR scholar within the class of 1985. She had an early introduction to journalism and the goings on of the Illinois Statehouse by her father, Gene Callahan, who was chief of workers for Lt. Gov. Paul Simon, PAR’s founding director. By way of considered one of her first reporting jobs out of this system at The Quad Metropolis Occasions, she met her now husband, Gerry Bustos.
Picture courtesy of Jason Piscia
The PAR Class of 1998 meets with Gov. Jim Edgar (seated). From left: Kate Clements, Jessica Winski, Rick Fox, director Charlie Wheeler, Cynthia Santiago, Tim Murphy, Jerry Lawrence, Deb Mora, Paige Fumo, Mike Wiser, Kris Kudenholdt, Jason Piscia, Will Buss, Mike Cetera, Jamie Evans, Marc Chase.
“My first beat on the newspaper was overlaying the police beat, which is the place I ended up assembly my husband, who was a rookie cop and I used to be a rookie cop reporter,” Bustos mentioned. “We met six months after I moved to the Quad Cities after which we bought married a yr and a half after I moved to the Quad Cities. So even my private life was fashioned due to UIS and PAR.”
Although Wheeler and Bustos participated in numerous positions inside PAR and at totally different occasions, each converse extremely of the effectiveness the schooling gives. Bustos particularly attributes her ongoing success to the muse PAR offered to her.
“I used to be pleased being a journalist and I ended up being one for 17 years,” mentioned Bustos. “I beloved practically on daily basis of it, and it simply wouldn’t have occurred with out with the ability to undergo the Public Affairs Reporting program at UIS. Our nation wants good, gutsy, robust journalists… now greater than ever, and the coaching {that a} future journalist will get from the Public Affairs Reporting program is sort of second to none.”
Jason Piscia, present director of the Public Affairs Reporting program, was a PAR scholar in 1998, adopted by 21 years employed by the Springfield State Journal-Register, earlier than he assumed his present place in August 2019.
PAR started greater than 50 years in the past at what started as Sangamon State College. Now, on the renamed UIS, PAR continues to be one of the vital profitable journalism applications within the nation, with a 90-100% job placement fee for graduating college students.
“PAR has individuals all around the world,” mentioned Wheeler. “A whole lot of them have gone on to do different issues, however the coaching that they bought in PAR, the sensible expertise of taking difficult topics and describing them in a means that common residents can perceive, it’s a expertise you can carry over into different fields and different actions.”
What separates PAR from most different graduate journalism applications across the nation is the place college students are positioned for his or her internship expertise. Most journalism applications have their college students positioned in positions inside a scholar or faculty newspaper, however PAR pairs college students with actual publications. This enables college students to achieve skilled expertise as precise reporters inside a newsroom.
“I figured the easiest way to arrange individuals to be Statehouse reporters is to not discuss concept…however to inform them this is what occurs, this is why it occurs, this is the principles you must know, this is the background info,” mentioned Wheeler.
Jason Piscia, present director of PAR, spent 21 years as a journalist and editor earlier than he took up the position of coaching the subsequent era of reporters at UIS. His huge expertise in skilled reporting continues a development of scholars’ entry to extremely expert educators, starting on the program’s creation in 1972 by Simon.
Cheri Bustos, PAR graduate, was a reporter at Quad-Metropolis Occasions when this billboard photograph was made within the early Nineteen Nineties. After 17 years as a reporter she served as a member of Congress from 2013 to 2023. Additionally within the photograph, middle, is Scott Reeder, additionally a PAR graduate, who at present is workers author for Illinois Occasions.
PAR started as a response to veteran reporters on the time upset with the dearth of expertise newer journalists had in an actual newsroom. They felt the primarily book-based academic technique largely didn’t adequately put together college students for the expectations of reporting outdoors the classroom. Simon responded by bringing veteran reporters and schooling directors collectively to create a program permitting each academic {and professional} improvement for college kids.
This cooperation between the college and Statehouse reporters, and the insistence of Director Simon, is what led to the half-century of journalists graduating and advancing their careers as reporters.
“When college students come out of PAR, they’ve simply come off of overlaying the Illinois Normal Meeting and state authorities, which is without doubt one of the extra high-profile beats within the state,” mentioned Piscia. “They’re maintaining monitor of what the governor and the legislature are doing, proper in the course of the motion within the Capitol. When these college students go into one other newsroom, they’re in a position to hit the bottom operating, choose up protection of a metropolis corridor or a county board, they usually’re able to cowl that on day one with out a lot hand-holding.”
Logan Bricker is a grasp’s diploma scholar within the UIS Public Affairs Reporting program, working this semester as an intern for Illinois Occasions.
