By Jenny Labalme
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Many are on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Their work is critical, essential and noble.

Among those are countless journalists, who participated in programs run by the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation of which I am the executive director.

They are scattered across the nation. They work long hours. They are essential in these uncertain times when we need accurate, fair and indispensable information.

“This has definitely reminded me why I do what I do,” Emily Cox told me. A 2019 Ball State University graduate, Cox works at The Herald-Times in Bloomington, Indiana.

A Foundation 2019 summer fellow, Cox worked at WFYI, Indianapolis’ public radio and TV station. She was paid by the Foundation, which each year hands out journalism awards, scholarships and summer fellowships.

Cox recently wrote a poignant story about a student whose only access to WiFi is from his school’s parking lot.

“I will be finishing my undergraduate career at home, in front of my computer,” wrote Mary Bernard, a University of Notre Dame senior, in her college’s magazine.  “And I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”

Bernard will work this summer at The Dallas Morning News. She was a finalist for our 2020 scholarship award and a finalist for our annual Thomas R. Keating two-day writing competition in 2019.

Former students who have participated in our programs have worked or work at news outlets across the nation that include the Indianapolis Business Journal, The Indianapolis Star, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg and CNN. One is a morning anchor at an Illinois TV station. Others work for much-needed community newspapers and online publications in numerous states.

Sarah Bahr, a freelance writer and IUPUI graduate student, starts a yearlong fellowship as a culture reporter at The New York Times in June. She was a Foundation 2017 Keating finalist and a 2018 scholarship finalist.

Like others I contacted, Bahr conducts interviews on the phone, by FaceTime and Zoom. She was in New York City just before Broadway shut down. She wrote a piece for The New York Timesabout seeing the last live performance of “Stomp” with only 10 audience members.

“The story [of the pandemic] is everywhere – there’s not a single person who isn’t affected by it, from journalists to the people they cover,” Bahr told me.

The first three months of 2020 have been a huge news year for Franklin College journalism students. The college’s former president was arrested and fired in January for alleged child sex crimes. Recently, he was charged with 12 additional counts of possession of child pornography. Then the pandemic hit Indiana in March.

Erica Irish, a Franklin junior, is co-executive editor of The Franklin, a student-run publication. She won the Foundation’s 2019 Keating writing competition and is a two-time Foundation scholarship winner (2019 and 2020).

“We have two huge narratives to track that are equally important in their own ways,” Irish said in an email. “It’s been a balancing act of sorts for us to ensure that both stories receive the time and attention they deserve so the Franklin College community can stay informed about two issues that have fundamentally changed our way of life in 2020.”

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted Indiana Gov. Holcomb to use his second-ever veto of a controversial landlord bill and Irish wrote about it.

Normally Matthew VanTryon covers sports for The Indianapolis Star. Two weeks ago, he was switched to a news beat. On April 2, the 2017 Butler University graduate, who was a 2016 Keating finalist, wrote three stories on the coronavirus.

“It was stunning to hear some of the raw conversations (healthcare) workers are having with their spouses and loved ones,” VanTryon told me. “A local doctor told his wife he could die from this. ‘But in the same breath, I told her I was made for this.’ ”

Washington Post reporter Samantha Schmidt was the keynote speaker at Foundation’s November 2019 writing competition. She won several Foundation awards and graduated in 2016 from Indiana University.

“We’re all covering the same story right now,” Schmidt emailed me. “And it’s the biggest story of our lifetimes.”

We are indebted to these young, professional and well-trained reporters who deliver vital information to a confused public that is scared and desperate for firm, reliable facts.

FOOTNOTE: Jenny Labalme is the executive director of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation.