Journalism Alums Return to UK for Alumni Symposium Tuesday Night

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 28, 2016) — Launching into your future is the theme of the 13th annual Richard G. Wilson Journalism Alumni Symposium set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29.

The program will feature six graduates of the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications who share their experiences finding jobs right of out of UK. 

The symposium honors Wilson, a longtime reporter for the Courier-Journal who was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame. He served as interim director of the school in 2002-2003, and started the symposium that year as a way to reconnect alums to the school and to help students learn about the success of prior graduates.

Here are the members of the 2016 symposium panel:

Britney Howard is a staff photographer for UK Athletics. She travels full time with the women's basketball team and covers all home events for the other sports. She graduated from UK in 2011 with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a minor in Arabic and Islamic studies. She was a staff photographer for the Kentucky Kernel. She spends her free time with her husband, Christopher, and their 9-month-old daughter, Willow. 

Born in Kentucky and raised in New Orleans, Lillie Ruschell returned to Kentucky to attend UK. She graduated in 2015. Before graduating, Ruschell had secured two part-time jobs in her field of choice. The first was as a web content producer for LEX 18 and the second was as an associate producer for KET. Not long after she graduated, she was hired full time at KET as the public affairs division’s associate producer. She works primarily with policy makers and top officials, although connecting with the community on a more personal basis is also a part of her job.

David Schuh graduated with a double major in journalism and communications in 2014. He spent more than three years working for the Kentucky Kernel. He was the managing editor for two years while covering the men's basketball team. After graduation, he took a job at WDRB Media in Louisville, Kentucky, working as a nightside assignment editor and web producer. While regularly writing for newscasts throughout the day, Schuh also helped coordinate crews, write and copy edit content for www.wdrb.com and manage multiple social media platforms. He was recently promoted to digital producer.  

Former Kentucky Kernel editor-in-chief Adam Sichko is senior reporter for the Nashville Business Journal, covering the city's booming real estate development. Before that, he reported for the Albany (N.Y.) Business Review for six years. Both are part of American City Business Journals, one of the nation's biggest employers of business journalists. He has twice won national awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Sichko graduated from UK in 2006. The Kernel staff won a Pacemaker, the highest honor in college journalism, for the year he was editor.

Garrett Wymer joined WKYT as a multimedia journalist in September 2014. He returned to Lexington from WHSV in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Wymer is originally from West Virginia, but says his heart is here in the Bluegrass. He graduated in May 2013 from UK, where he studied journalism and political science. He loves baseball, reading and politics. He also loves being outside,­ unless it’s winter.

The panel discussion will be moderated by 1991 journalism graduate Duane Bonifer. Since 1995, Bonifer has been director of public relations at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Kentucky, where he was responsible for the college’s external communications and marketing. Next month, Bonifer becomes executive director of communications and marketing for Monmouth College in western Illinois. After graduation from UK, Bonifer, who had been active on the Kernel staff, also worked at the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Indiana, where he served on the copy desk and wrote a weekly column. He’s president of the UK Journalism Alumni Association and chair of the board of Kentucky Kernel Press Inc.   

The program will be held in the UK Athletics Auditorium of the William T. Young Library.

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how you can support continued investment in your university and the Commonwealth, go to: uky.edu/uk4ky. #uk4ky #seeblue

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Harder, 859-323-2396, whitney.harder@uky.edu