The Department of Journalism, UW-Oshkosh, received a Thanksgiving gift from alumnus Bill Flitter and his wife when they returned to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Nov. 25-two new scholarships.
Flitter, who graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1996, and his wife Chris established the Interactive Advertising Scholarship and the Multicultural Media Award for students majoring in journalism. They said they want to encourage journalism students to challenge themselves with the scholarships and to become role models someday.
Flitter is the founder of National Identity Protection, a
company based in San Francisco that helps consumers regain control of their online privacy. Prior to founding the company he was co-founder of the Email Shopping Network, a direct marketing and catalog business. Earlier in his career he was advertising manager at Zing.com, where he was responsible for its phenomenal growth of more than a million members in just four months. He also has held positions at Bernard Hodes Advertising, J. Walter Thompson, and Schneider Logistics.
"It is exciting to see our alumni make remarkable achievements after graduation," said James Tsao, chair of the journalism department. "We are very proud and appreciative for the alumni contributions to the department. Their support is one of the reasons why our program continues to grow."
Bill and Chris Flitter were extremely impressed with all of the entries to the Interactive Advertising Scholarship. After many hours of interviews with candidates and application evaluations, they selected James
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Morrison, a senior from Kohler, to be the recipient of the award of the scholarship which is $1,000. Morrison designed a multimedia presentation to tackle the challenges required by the scholarship. "It's a great opportunity for students to understand what interactive advertising is about," Morrison said. "I plan to pursue a career in interactive advertising after graduation. The scholarship pushes me to the right direction that I have always dreamed about."
The Multicultural Media Award, which will be open for competition in spring 2003, was the second scholarship created by the Flitters. They said, "as the world around gets smaller, it is becoming critical for success to understand how different races and cultures intersect, and the issues resulting from this interaction. As students enter the work force, this
understanding is even more important."
They set up the $500 multicultural award to encourage journalism students to complete a project that focuses on diversity issues in mass media. The project can be completed in different formats, including a poster, a public relations campaign, an in-depth essay, photos, or a multimedia presentation. This scholarship is also open to other alumni who might be willing to contribute their donations to the fund.
Mike Cowling, a journalism professor administering the multicultural award, thanked Flitter for remembering his academic roots. "Alumni can be great assets for a department," Cowling said. "Bill has encouraged our students to excel now so they can have more productive careers when they graduate." |
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