Collegiate congratulations: Call for submissions

We’re in the last week of holiday break for my college-aged daughter, and I’m wondering how it went so quickly. We’ve gone over her grades from her first semester as a full-time college student, and she’s looking ahead to her spring semester schedule.

Over the past three weeks, she’s visited friends and family, helped me with a couple of projects at work, and done a fair amount of cooking and cleaning at home. Man, I’m going to miss that as soon as she’s gone again!

By the time many of you read this, she will have already gone back to Bottineau. As she turns the page on a new semester, I’m reflecting on proud parent moments.

In fact, it was a proud parent that first brought me the idea of publishing a college student feature in the newspaper. Kelly McKnight, owner of Bakers Dozen in New Rockford, approached the subject with me as we engaged in one of our regular conversations during one of my visits to the bakery five years ago. She wondered if there was a way we could combine all those “college clips” we published sporadically all at the same time, to showcase the collective successes of area students. It would take coordination and effort, I replied, and noted that colleges have their own schedules for sending news releases.

Then, one day it all came together. We launched “Collegiate Congratulations” in the January 19, 2019, issue of the New Rockford Transcript. That time, we led with a front page feature story on McKnight’s son Josh, who was playing football for Valley City State University, and another full page inside the paper with several other college news briefs, sponsored by 15 local businesses. We declared then our intention to publish a similar feature twice yearly, in January and June.

We have come a long way in the past four years. Each time we got more submissions, more support, and more positive comments from readers. We published a 20-page special section this summer, which came as a supplement to the June 27, 2022, edition of both the “Foster County Independent” and “New Rockford Transcript.” That time it was sponsored by over 100 businesses and even a few colleges.

It has been our honor and privilege to share stories of local college student successes, and it’s time to do so again. Readers, the next issue of “Collegiate Congratulations” is a mere month away.

Calling all college scholars, athletes, performers and graduates! We plan to publish our biannual “Collegiate Congratulations” special section in the Feb. 7 edition of the “Foster County Independent” and “New Rockford Transcript.” If you or a student you know has been accepted into a program, made the dean’s list, received a scholarship, earned a certificate or degree or been recognized for his or her collegiate performance during the Fall 2022 semester, we want to hear about it.

We will feature news from any student who graduated from high schools in Foster, Eddy and Wells counties, as well as neighboring communities covered by either newspaper, such as Pingree-Buchanan, Four Winds, Minnewaukan, and Dakota Prairie. We will also consider news about current residents and their immediate family members, whether or not they graduated from the above area schools.

Submit your student news by email to [email protected] or [email protected]. Mail submissions to the Foster County Independent, P.O. Box 138, Carrington, ND 58421. Press releases and photographs submitted by colleges and universities are both welcome and encouraged. The deadline for inclusion is Monday, January 23.

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RIP Barbara Walters

Legendary newswoman Barbara Walters passed away on December 30. I remember watching her on ABC’s “20/20” when I was a kid. I didn’t know I was going to be a journalist then, but I was glued as she interviewed celebrities and dignitaries with such skill. Of particular note was her interview with Monica Lewinsky when I was a senior in high school. In my teen years, I was a Clinton supporter, and that story, and Clinton’s impeachment, piqued my interest in national politics. She blazed a trail for generations of women to follow (and drew the road map so they can blaze their own).