DCAA Founding Board Member Passes Away
Jean Sue Johnson Libkind, a founding member of the Daily Cardinal Alumni Association, passed away Saturday, October 17 in Philadelphia. She was 71.
She was born on the 52nd anniversary of the Daily Cardinal: April 4, 1944, in Racine, Wis. She came to UW-Madison on a scholarship from the publishers of Golden Books, where her father was an illustrator. She graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism in 1966.
Jean Sue served as managing editor of the Cardinal under Cliff Behnke.
She was recruited to the DCAA Board before the Association existed in 1997. She was well known and well connected within the Cardinal alumni community. She was a friend, a mentor and force of nature.
Jean Sue left us with this parting thought:
"It is not enough to practice what you preach; you must have the courage to preach what you practice."
I think we should all take that to heart.
UW journalism school to honor Cardinal Alum Naomi Patton
Cardinal alum and DCAA board member Naomi Patton will be one of four honored at the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication's annual awards dinner April 24 at 6pm at the Gordon Dining & Event Center Symphony Room on campus.
Patton, currently a vice president at Weber Shandwick, a global public relations firm, will receive a Distinguished Service Award from the school. Patton was a staff writer at the Wisconsin State Journal for more than three years before joining the Detroit Free Press in 2003. For the next ten years she worked at the Freep, where she was part of a team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for its investigation that led to the resignation of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
After leaving the Free Press, Patton served as press secretary for Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and worked as Senior Director of Public Relations for Palace Sports & Entertainment, which among other properties runs the arena where the NBA's Detroit Pistons play.
Also being honored at the dinner are: Christina Daglas (Ralph O. Nafziger Award); Steve Reese (Harold L. Nelson Award); and Mike McCabe (Distinguished Service Award).
DCAA helps Cardinal students prepare for workforce
Every year since 2008, DCAA board members have visited Cardinal staff at the office to teach students about getting into the job market and dealing with the working world. The topics cover the life cycle of the process, including resume writing, conducting job searches, managing interviews, and working through the first year on the job.
On Nov. 8, the DCAA held its most recent session. Anthony Sansone, with Mike Juley and Herman Baumann, reviewed these topics with Cardinal editorial staff.
New this year, the DCAA asked students to submit resumes for review ahead of the talk to provide immediate feedback and examples for the resume guidelines presented. Another difference this year was that a representative from the university's Letters & Science Career Services attended. The DCAA is looking to offer a modified version of this talk for a broader audience while still leaving part of the talk as special to the Cardinal staff.
Much of the resume talk unpacked how to make the best pitch for what employers seek, not the haggard advice of the past that students still receive — such as emphasizing educational achievements at the expense of practical experience, or providing a mailing address but not online links to their work. The session delved into how to look for jobs and how to approach the interview. So much has changed with these practices that some new advice is necessary. The last piece was how to handle the first year on the job, an often overlooked aspect of gaining employment. Students need to know how different the working world is after college before they enter the workforce.