Donation to university creates fellowship
The fellowship will benefit health and science writers.
Published May 2, 2008
A graduate’s gift to the university will create a fellowship and lecture series aimed at helping journalists improve in the fields of health and science reporting.
Russell Smith donated $100,000 to the university to create the Smith/Patterson Science Journalism Fellowship and Lecture Series.
The fellowship will be awarded to graduate journalism students who are interested in either the fields of health or science reporting. Recipients of the fellowship will be given a stipend along with a full-tuition waiver worth $20,000.
The lecture series will take place twice a year on campus and will present speakers who will discuss trends in science journalism, according to a news release.
Smith, who graduated from MU with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 1967 and a master’s degree in science writing in 1971, received a fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation when he was a student. He said he gave his gift to the university because he wanted to give back to the groups that had helped him mature as a writer.
“What really prompted me to make this gift was my desire to give back to the university and give back to the A.P. Sloan Foundation,” Smith said. “Something of what I felt I gained through the years was the ability to take what I can do in the form of writing and be able to translate that into something that the general public could read and understand.”
The fellowship and lecture series were named after former MU professor Joye Patterson. Smith said Patterson, who taught at MU from 1966 to 1988, was the person most responsible for helping him earn his fellowship.
Patterson said she was grateful Smith named the fellowship in her honor.
“I had not seen Russ for about 20 years or so, but I remembered him very well, and I was very pleased and honored for him to do this,” Patterson said.
Associate Journalism Dean Brian Brooks was Patterson’s teaching assistant when he attended MU as a student. He said Patterson was a very influential figure in the journalism school.
“She had a huge impact, and I think the school during her time here was known for training science journalists,” Brooks said. “She was really a national leader at the time.”
Brooks was pleased Smith gave the gift to the university. He said journalists who have backgrounds in health- and science-related issues are useful in today’s media.
“There is a huge demand for people in particularly the health field,” Brooks said. “Understanding health issues is really important and somebody who can take a scientist’s or doctor’s take on things and relate to average people who do not speak their language is really important.”
Smith said he was just happy to give other students the opportunity for a fellowship such as the one he had when he attended MU.
“At MU, I felt like I gained so much out of that opportunity that I just felt like it would be interesting for other students to have the same opportunity today,” Smith said.