Alumni News

“Seize the day”: JEM alum Ryan McGee delivers 2023 commencement address

ESPN writer, broadcaster and School of Journalism and Electronic Media alum Ryan McGee (’93) encouraged the graduating class of 2023 to “seize the day.” Speaking at the 2023 College of Communication and Information commencement ceremony on Friday, May 19, McGee said there are those who put down today’s generation and lament about the future. He…
Broadcasting the Olympics: An Alumna’s Dream Come True

During this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, alumna Courtney Lyle (’12) of ESPN and the SEC Network will deliver NBC’s play-by-play for men’s and women’s field hockey alongside Olympic ice hockey medalist and analyst A. J. Mleczko. When the announcement was made, Lyle tweeted, “Athletes dream of playing in the Olympics. Announcers dream…
JEM science communicator alumni analyze their academic, career experiences

One of the perks about studying Journalism and Electronic Media (JEM) at UT is the amount of local resources that students have access to. From interning at the Knoxville News Sentinel to Discovery, Inc. to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), there are ample opportunities to combine the communications field with other specialties. Here are four…
JEM Sports-Focused Alumni Share Academic, Career Journeys

They trekked across campus sporting their University of Tennessee shirts, hats and even checkered overalls. They also walked the curved halls of the College of Communication and Information [CCI], where they laid the foundations for their careers in sports media. These journalism and electronic media [JEM] alumni are eight of the hundreds who’ve found careers…
Teresa Walker receives JEM 2020 Alumna of the Year award

Teresa Walker, pro football writer for The Associated Press in Tennessee, is the 2020 Alumna of the Year for the School of Journalism and Electronic Media. A three-time Tennessee Sportswriter of the Year recipient, Walker was elected to the Tennessee Sports Writers Association’s Hall of Fame in 2020. Furthermore, Walker won a 2015 APSE award…
Cherokee Stickball Documentary Scheduled for TV, Festival Premiere

Documentary Synopsis Nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina is a tight-knit community of the remaining members of the Cherokee tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. One of the tribes’ cultural traditions still practiced is the game of stickball. In the year 2000, nearly 100 women: mothers, daughters, sisters, cousins, and…
Q&A with News21 Fellow Gabriela Szymanowska

While she was a student in the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, Gabriela Szymanowska (JEM ’20) developed a passion for telling people’s stories that can raise awareness or inspire change on important social issues. She gained more experience telling those critical stories through writing and photography during her eight-month fellowship with the Carnegie-Knight News21…
Lexie Little (JEM ’18) Places in Hearst Awards for Clarence Brown Story

Alumna Lexie Little (JEM ’18) recently placed sixth nationally in the Personality/Profile Writing Competition in the 2019-20 William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program. Her award-winning feature article, “A Roustabout Career: The Forgotten Celebrity of Clarence Brown,” started as a class assignment but eventually appeared in the Torchbearer, the University of Tennessee’s alumni magazine. Little…
John Jackson Miller: From Daily Beacon Editor to Star Fantasy Writer

After graduating from the University of Tennessee where he served as editor of The Daily Beacon, John Jackson Miller (JEM ’90) set his sights on the stars. Specifically, the stars in a galaxy far, far away and the ones in the far-flung future where no man has gone before. Miller turned his lifelong passion for…
Successful Alumni: Sharrie Williams’ goals led her from Tennessee to Philadelphia, the number four broadcast market in America

By Lisa Byerley Gary Instructor, JEM 414, Fall 2014 When Sharrie Williams began her first full-time job in television after graduating from UT, a news job with a small station in Jackson, Tennessee, she also waited tables to make ends meet. “It paid that poorly,” she said. But Williams had goals. She wanted to…