By the time this edition of College Topics is online, the Cavalier Daily Alumni Association will have held its bi-annual Board meeting on April 16. For those of you who could not join us at the meeting, I am pleased to report a great deal of progress on all fronts over the past year.

We are most pleased to inform you that this summer a CD staffer will be the first-ever recipient of the Endowed Scholarship for Community Journalism, a joint venture between the CDAA and the Virginia Press Association. This scholarship, which provides a paid summer internship at a VPA newspaper for a CD staffer, is the culmination of years of planning, during which the CDAA raised a phenomenal $60,000 toward this end. The Community Journalism Scholarship is a wonderful addition to two already successful internship programs supported by the CDAA, the Herring Internship Scholarship and the Kris Pierson Memorial Photography Scholarship. Donations to these internship efforts are always welcome and appreciated.

In addition to helping staffers during the summer, the CDAA has also been continuing our assistance with programming and journalism education during the academic year. CDAA Program Director Sarah Lindenfeld, in conjunction with then Managing Editor Emily Kane, worked hard to pull off last fall’s Journalism Conference. More recently, Sarah and new ME Lindsay Wise coordinated a workshop on March 4 on news writing and another on April 15 on editing and style, reporting, and photography. More of these events are on the horizon, and we are always grateful for volunteers to speak, support or otherwise assist with these events.

Also in our Outreach Plan is our current application for Chartered Affinity Group status with the UVa. Alumni Association, a status that, if approved, will provide the CDAA with quite a bit of assistance from Alumni Hall, including one free annual mailing, a database package, meeting space at Alumni Hall, eligibility for the Awards Banquet, assistance coordinating special events, website server space, and liability insurance for non-alcoholic events. We fully expect that the UVAA Board will approve our application, and we look forward to working with Alumni Hall in this capacity in the future.