San Antonio College Journalism-Photography students are well known for their award-winning weekly newspaper The Ranger and The Fourth Write magazine. Fewer people may know that the city's major daily newspaper, The San Antonio Express-News, employs nearly 20 SAC alumni. Among these are Laura Jesse, Mary Heidbrink, and Clay Reeves.

Like Opening a Christmas Present:
Jesse, Heidbrink, and Reeves are enthusiastic about their careers and are also strong advocates of the education they received from the college's journalism/photography faculty, whose students have gone on to populate newsrooms throughout Texas and beyond.

"I like the variety that a career in journalism offers," says Jesse. After completing her studies at SAC where she was editor of The Ranger, she transferred to Southwest Texas State University and earned a Bachelor's degree. She has been an editorial assistant on the city desk, a writer of the Watchdog column, and a general assignments reporter at the Express-News.

She likes to quote a colleague who says that working at the paper "is like opening a Christmas present every day," and she adds, "I've learned so much about the city, even though I grew up here. I enjoy meeting people all the time and listening to their stories and being able to tell the rest of the city the stories."

Heidbrink, editorial assistant in the Features Department, returned to school in her late 30s with the conviction that journalism was the career path for her and that San Antonio College was the right place to start. She says, "Journalism is like belonging to a special family. I know it sounds corny, but it's true . . . Everyone is well-read, intelligent and fun to talk to."

Clay Reeves, who was also an editor at The Ranger, later transferred to earn a Bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin. "Being hired right out of college for the copy desk of a large-circulation daily felt really good." He finds satisfaction in his work: "In preparing a story for print, copy editors typically get one opportunity to be creative, and that's finding an engaging headline that fits the page designer's specs . . . writing a really good one is the most gratifying part of my job."

Professional Training:
About her training in the SAC Journalism/Photography program, Heidbrink says, "The most important thing I learned at SAC was professionalism," such as meeting deadlines, interviewing etiquette, and understanding that "what you do and how you do it affects everyone you work with."

"Professionalism" also sums up Jesse's experience: "The way The Ranger is structured, as a laboratory project for the various classes, is the closest a college student is going to get to the real thing. The faculty place a high standard on every piece that moves across their desks, and they instill that same standard in the student editors. It's hard to find college newspapers that truly embrace a high level of professionalism . . . but The Ranger is one of them."

She praises the faculty, who "taught me a lot more than just how to write a tight, interesting story or lay out a feature page. They taught me how to think critically and quickly . . . Studying at SAC was the best decision I made. I wouldn't be at the Express-News this early in my career if I had not studied in that department."

Reeves notes the training at SAC "meant that I entered the job market with a stronger work ethic and a more conscientious eye for detail. The program instills respect for the public trust and the desire to protect it." In addition to learning the basics, "you also learn why it's important to be consistent, accurate, and fair."

Compelling Writing and Photography:
Chet Hunt, Chairperson of the Journalism/Photography Department, sums up the faculty's understandable pleasure with their students' many successes.

"I love seeing students do well," says Hunt, whose own recognitions include selection as Advisor of the Year for his work with Robert E. Lee High School students and more recently selection as a Legend in Texas Scholastic Journalism by the University Interscholastic League Press Conference.

SAC journalism students regularly win state and national competitions. The Fourth Write won the National Editorial Leadership Award from the Los Angeles Times and Associate Collegiate Press for their issue on "AIDS 10 Years Later." The Ranger has been inducted into the Collegiate Press Hall of Fame and on nine occasions won the Pacemaker Award, which goes to the top five community college newspapers in the country.

This year the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors selected The Ranger as the Best Non-daily College Newspaper in Texas and the Best Overall Newspaper in Division 2, and ranked The Fourth Write as Fourth in General Magazine. The Texas Intercollegiate Press Association picked The Ranger for Third in Sweepstakes and gave 17 individual awards to students.

One of Hunt's proudest moments was in 1986 when students who worked on The Fourth Write were cited in the Robert F. Kennedy Award competition for their issues on Mexico and Canada funded by the Borderlands Project. "The writing and photography were compelling and worthy of publication in any professional medium,' says Hunt, who adds, "Those students realized the importance of doing well and have gone on to be editors, photojournalists and illustrators at major media."

Former students continue to thrive. Especially notable are Rodolfo Gonzalez and Ron Cortez, who both won the Pulitzer Prize in photography - Gonzalez for breaking news team coverage of the Columbine High School tragedy for the Rocky Mountain News and Cortez for a series on hospices for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In an era when news organizations and reporters are under steady attack, Hunt reaffirms his belief in two sayings: "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," attributed to Peter Finley Dunne (better known as Mr. Dooley) from the early 20th Century, and, "Don't shoot the messenger," dating back to Sophocles in 442 BC. Both ideas sum up the freedom of Hunt's young messengers at San Antonio College to explore the news unfettered.

For more information about the Journalism/Photography program, contact Hunt at 210-733-2870, visit the department website at http://www.accd.edu/sac/j-p/jlsm.html, or The Ranger website at http://www.theranger.org/.