NEWSPAPER EXECUTIVE TO SPEAK AT HONORS CONVOCATION
OSWEGO -- Michelle K. Rea, the executive director of
the New York Press Association, will speak at Honors Convocation at
10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 21, in the Hewitt Union ballroom on campus.
The annual Honors Convocation is sponsored by Vega,
the women's honor society, and takes place during Quest, a daylong
symposium dedicated to the scholarly pursuits of faculty, staff and
students.
The ceremony recognizes academic excellence
throughout campus. Outstanding students are chosen from each department
based on specific criteria. This year, about 100 students will be
recognized for their achievements.
The New York Press Association is the trade
association representing more than 750 weekly community, ethnic,
business, religious and alternative newspapers, both paid and free, in
New York state. NYPA's newspapers have a combined readership of more
than 11 million adults each week. As executive director of the
association, Rea also heads its advertising subsidiary, the New York
Press Service, and its foundation, the New York Press Association
Foundation.
NYPA's foundation provides paid summer internships
for college students, fellowships for working members of the press, and
on-site and regional training opportunities for newspaper employees.
Last year, two SUNY Oswego journalism students, Dawn
Lawrence and Cortney McMahon, earned NYPA paid summer internships. In
1997, the NYPA Foundation provided seed money to establish the Center
for Community Journalism at SUNY Oswego.
The Foundation also sponsors annual contests and
training programs for high school and college newspaper staffs and
their advisers.
Before joining NYPA in 1992, Rea worked for daily
newspapers, including eight years as director of promotion and
marketing research, and later, seven years as director of advertising
and marketing. She spent two years with the American Red Cross as
director of resource development and communications.
Rea is a director of New York State's Committee on
Open Government and as a trustee of the Louis Henry Morgan Foundation
at Union College.
She is a graduate of Russell Sage College in Troy.