Meet Your Peers: Ann Fleischli

Imagine a Baptist church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1968, a few weeks after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Memphis. His widow is speaking at night to an overflow crowd of striking hospital workers and their sympathizers. At least ten thousand union supporters from throughout the United States are in Charleston, marching for these workers. The streets are cordoned off by armed South Carolina National Guard troops standing next to their troop carriers.

I am one of the few white faces in the church crowd. I am here to witness this historical event. I am a poverty lawyer, representing the poor of Charleston for free. I am part of President Johnson's War on Poverty during the civil rights/Vietnam War era of U.S. history.

This lengthy Charleston struggle was never reported by the local paper. When I returned to my hometown in the Midwest, I looked up this time period in the New York Times. That paper had covered the union struggle, marches and the arrests, in full.

The failure of the local media to fully report the events of our times has occurred over and over in my forty-some years of law practice. I have decided to try to contribute to a better coverage of these events, especially as the environmental stresses grow. That is why I have enrolled in this environmental journalism program.

(I wish I had a photo from South Carolina. As a substitute, I do have the Missoula photo above, with Honey, an Austrian Haflinger.)

Meet Your Peers: Kevin Radley

Until the age of 18, I lived in Sammamish, Wash. Twenty-five minutes from Seattle and an hour from the mountains, I spent most of my childhood outdoors, partaking in various activities from snow skiing to water sports.

After high school, I followed my brother’s advice and moved to Missoula, Mont., for college. The University of Montana brought out my passion for the surrounding natural environment and for capturing it through photography. My education focused on international resource conservation, with a minor in Media Arts.

Fresh out of college and only 22 years old, I chose environmental journalism because I believe it is the next step to advance my knowledge about society and conservation while simultaneously furthering my creative skills with different media. Also, I am not ready for a real-life job just yet.

I am excited to expand my knowledge of the field of journalism. My current interests are the climate change debate and the sustainable development movement. Whether it’s making environmental documentaries or photo stories, I want to visually share captivating stories from around the globe.

Currently, I live at Flathead Lake Lodge, where I work on the waterfront, taking guests sailing and waterskiing. It could be the best summer job in Montana or even the country. I also enjoy Karaoke and moonlight bike rides in Glacier National Park.

Meet Your Peers: Montana Hodges

My name is Montana Hodges (ironic, I know), but I was born that way, and couldn’t be happier with the decision from my hippy parents. I always say, if they had named me Virginia, things would have turned out so differently. The Appalachians were once as high as the Himalayas, but that billion years sure has worn them down! I am honored to be named after the mountainous 41st state and her admittedly more humbling peaks.

I am originally from Northern California where the Sierra Nevada Mountains make a decent playground for the outdoor junkies. My time in the natural world led me into my two biggest passions—rocks and writing. With a double bachelor’s in journalism and geology from CSU Sacramento, I found my niche writing outdoor travel guides after college.

I’ve spent the last several years penning books between Alaska, Montana and my hometown of Sloughhouse, California. I am deeply enthralled with the geology of the west and the great writers and scientists that have been influenced by the University of Montana. I look forward to the time with my classmates and professors and hope that through this program I can help humanity to appear as more than just a brief oil slick in the geologic record. When I’m not busy researching my thesis, I also plan to unravel the mystery of why hay bales are rolled in some states and packed squarely in others.

Meet Your Peers: Breeana Laughlin

As a child, I loved to explore, swim and play, and today, you can find me doing much of the same.

I still revel in the simple things in life and want to explore and learn as much as I can.

Journalism is the ideal career to feed my curiosity because it puts me in new situations. It inspires me when I meet people from all walks of life and challenges me to present each story with the care it deserves.

I got my undergrad degrees at the University of Washington, where I majored in journalism and Community and Environmental Planning. Since then, I've worked at weekly and daily newspapers in Washington and California. I also worked at an Internet company, Care2.com, writing campaigns for nonprofit organizations. Right now, I have a weekly article with the Missoulian, and I'm an intern at the Outdoor Writers Association of America. I'm thrilled to be part of the Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism program and excited for all of the opportunities that come with it.

I was born in Montana, and although I've spent most of my life away from the state, I've always considered it home. Now that I'm back, I'm happy to be close to my grandparents in Polson. Besides outdoor activities, I like going out to dance and finding the places that give Missoula its charm. I also spend a lot of time being entertained by my dog Boomer.

Meet Your Peers: Taryn Chuter

Hello. I'm Taryn Chuter and I am a 22 year-old native of Corvallis Montana.

Unlike many others, I cannot say that I have always had a desire to be a writer, nor have I ever particularly enjoyed sitting down to "just write". On top of that, I'm a bad speller. For me, journalism is an art, and that is something I have been attracted to for most of my life. Everything from the poetic flow of a beautiful lead, to the crisp design of a page, to the dramatic pop of color in a well organized photo attracts me, and I cannot wait to peruse it further.

Being possibly the youngest member of my program, I am thrilled to be surrounded by peers that I can learn from (and try to keep up with).

I recently graduated from Gonzaga University with a BA in Journalism and am excited to be back in my home state. I began my college career in 2006 at the University of Montana, running track and studying biology. I started dipping into journalism classes when I decided to follow a childhood dream of attending a Jesuit school. While I did miss my friends and teammates at UM, I am grateful for the inspiration and support I received as a member of the GU community. I applied for this program because I wanted to fuse my old passion for biology and nature with my new found love of journalism, particularly editing and photography. I am also interested in learning some more about broadcast, as soon as my public speaking skills improve (fingers crossed).

As is typical of my generation, here are a few things about me:
- I enjoy snowboarding, rock climbing, ballet, Griz football, 30 Rock, country music, pageants, watercolor, the Bitterroot River, roasted red pepper, and becoming the most well-rounded person I possibly can.
- I do not enjoy cilantro. But that's about it.
- About once a month I debate dropping out and going to culinary school. Then I order a pizza.
- I'm working on developing an inside voice.
- This summer, I may have discovered a new species of insect. More on that later.
- I firmly believe that if you work hard enough, you can achieve absolutely anything. On that same note, I'm never without at least 2 backup plans.

Thank you for reading. I can't wait to meet you all this fall.

PS: I have embedded several AP Style mistakes. See if you can find them all.

Meet Your Peers: Jason Kauffman

Hello everyone, my name is Jason Kauffman. I am currently working as a freelance outdoors and environmental writer and photographer here in Missoula. I’m really excited to get started on our program this fall. I’m happy to be a part of a new program that’s attracted people with such varied backgrounds—I’m certain that we’ll learn a lot from each other over the course of the next two years. I chose the University of Montana’s environmental journalism program in large part because of its wonderful location in western Montana. That, as well as the school’s strong forestry, wildlife and environmental science programs, will make for an interesting education.

For the most part, my work as a journalist has focused on topics like endangered wildlife, the management of public lands, the preservation of wildlands, backcountry and adventure travel, food and sustainable living. Until last fall, I was the environmental-public lands reporter for the Idaho Mountain Express, a small mountain town newspaper in Sun Valley. I really enjoyed my work there. It placed me front and center on controversial issues like the recovery of gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains, how we manage wildfires here in the West and salmon and steelhead restoration.

Before becoming an environmental journalist about seven years ago I worked a number of odd jobs, including wildland firefighter, whitewater rafting guide, cannery worker in western Alaska and handyman at a backcountry lodge next to Yellowstone National Park in northwest Wyoming. I like to think that these jobs have influenced my work as an environmental journalist.

My hope is that this program will strengthen my credentials as a freelance environmental writer and photographer. I’ve already done some coverage on environmental issues during my travels both here at home and abroad and hope to do much more in the future.

Beyond my work as a staff writer, I’ve also been published in Backpacker Magazine, Newwest.net, Sun Valley Magazine, The Idaho Statesman, the Twin Falls Times-News and a number of other publications. In my free time, I like to hike, backpack, fly-fish, mountain bike, trail run, grow my own vegetables and cook with my wife, Elizabeth.

Have a great summer and see you all this fall!

Meet Your Peers: Meredith Gibbs

My name is Meredith Gibbs. While I was not born in Whitefish, Montana, I do feel that it is truly my hometown. I was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When I was seven years old, my family moved to a town just outside of Yellowstone National Park, eventually relocating to outside of Glacier National Park. My childhood was spent exploring the fields, forests, and mountains outside my house, playing never ending "Oregon trail" pretend games. Ever since then, I have not truly been comfortable anywhere away from the mountains. Living in northwestern Montana for the greater portion of my life has taught me to love sunshine when I see it, to embrace the snowy winters, and to swim in frigid mid-June lakes.

I recently completed my undergraduate career, receiving a degree in English Education. Now, after spending a full year with the crazy kids and their hormones, I am thinking about taking some time until I hop back into the educational pool! I am returning to Missoula for a fresh jump into new and old areas of interest. I am positive by the end of my time in Missoula, I will have much more to teach the kids, whenever it is I am ready to return to them.

In addition to hiking, skiing, and swimming (all things Montana), I also enjoy writing, reading, painting, and sewing silly hats.

Meet Your Peers: Tim Kukes

Well, let's see if I can give some reasonable information about myself without making this sound like a dating profile. I graduated from Central Washington University in the winter of 2008 with a degree in geography. During the last two years of my undergraduate career, I got the opportunity to be on the staff of the Observer – Central's weekly student newspaper. This experience created a love for writing for other people. In addition, I have worked at several jobs over the course of the last ten years that have involved natural resources.

I believe there is a magic in what we call the environment or nature. No hocus-pocus; just a pervading sense of rightness with the world. Nature is balance. It goes with the flow and it works with what is has. It doesn't surprise me that people feel a calmness or sense of being at one with themselves when in the woods or mountains. Nature provides an example of being.

You can even see it driving across Eastern Washington on I-90. A landscape that many would describe as desolate still catches my eye. Large expanses of land dotted by sagebrush or farm fields, broken by a periodic outcropping of basalt is the theme of this area. Yet you can't help but be drawn into the solidness of it all. There is a feeling of permanence to it that I find grounding.

And that is what has drawn me to pursue a graduate degree in journalism. It is a way to do something I love while paying homage to the natural environment we live in. I keep having the recurring idea that the health of a society is reflected in the health of the environment it lives in – both natural and cultural. That is what I want to talk about.

So if the above three paragraphs don't tell you I am something of a romantic, then I do not know what will. In addition to writing and being outdoors I enjoy reading, eating out, traveling, and exploring new places. I am also an avid gamer, mostly rpg's – both computer and tabletop – but I also enjoy various tabletop strategy games.

I view this move to Missoula and the University of Montana as an opportunity, not only to further myself academically, but to develop myself as a human being through the experiences I will have there. I am looking forward to it and to meeting you all.