/news-archive/tag/katv/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Fri, 16 Dec 2022 16:20:09 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2022/12/16/gene-thompson-graduation/ Fri, 16 Dec 2022 16:20:09 +0000 /news/?p=84110 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Graduate Finishes College Education 50 Years After Starting]]> By all measures, Ellis 鈥淕ene鈥� Thompson of Little Rock has led a very successful life. He has a loving family and had a very successful career in media sales spanning more than four decades. 鈥淎fter leaving KATV as the local sales manager here, I finished that career and was faced with what I want to do,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淪omething that had always been nagging me was to get my degree. Life had taken that opportunity away from me earlier when I was in Washington, D.C.鈥� A native of Joliet, Illinois, Thompson joined the U.S. Navy and worked in an experimental surgery unit and then enrolled at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1973. 鈥淭here I really started to mature and find my sea legs, as you will,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he doctors were very supportive of me going to college. That is why I went to Georgetown, but I was married and had a child and work. I couldn鈥檛 sustain a decent lifestyle and go to Georgetown, which was very demanding.鈥� In 1975, Thompson left Georgetown with an associate degree and a strong desire to one day finish his college education. His career took him from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, to Dayton, Ohio, to Orlando and New York City. His final stop brought him to Little Rock in 2010 to work at KATV. 鈥淚 had a great run in TV, but I鈥檓 done,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淚 had a deep love of history, and I got that while I was at Georgetown. One of my instructors was the department head, and I fell in love with history after taking her class. I decided to come to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock as a history major.鈥� Thompson joined 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock in 2017 and graduated with his bachelor鈥檚 degree in history in 2019. He will graduate this semester with a master鈥檚 degree in public history, which brings his journey to complete his college education to an end 50 years after he started. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something that I feel I should have done a long time ago,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 basically been unfinished business as far as my life is concerned. So, getting this degree is a culmination of a lifelong search for my own comfort with myself. It鈥檚 a culmination of something that I felt I should have done a long time ago and should have been determined earlier in my life. However, it feels just as good now. This is who I should have been all my life, a person with a master鈥檚 degree.鈥� One of his favorite experiences in graduate school was participating in a class taught by Dr. John Kirk, George W. Donaghey Distinguished Professor of History, which examined the criminal cases of Robert Bell and Grady Swain, two African American teenagers who were convicted of the first-degree murder of Julius McCollum and sentenced to death. Bell and Swain confessed to the crime, but later said their confessions were forced. The class wrote a paper about the case that received the Lucille Westbrook Award from the Arkansas Historical Association for the best article manuscript on an aspect of local history. 鈥淭hat class really grabbed me, and I learned so much about going through archives and dusty, old records,鈥� he said. Thompson wrote his thesis, 鈥淭he Fight for Freedmen鈥檚 Minds in Arkansas,鈥� about the development of educational programs for African Americans in the state in the 1860s and 1870s. 鈥淎rkansas was one of the last states to develop a public primary and secondary school system for African American students,鈥� Thompson wrote. 鈥淲hile education was for the most part privatized, an important philosophy for educating African Americans was developed early by the Free African Society and the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church that influenced Arkansas public and private Freedman education.鈥� In the 1860s and 70s, there were millions of newly freed formerly enslaved people who needed an education with competing methods of how that should work. Samuel Armstrong, founder of the Hampton Institute, created an educational model called the Hampton-Tuskegee Model, which emphasized character building through manual labor and learning occupational skills. The AME church strongly contested the Hampton-Tuskegee Model. 鈥淭he AME church put forth the philosophy that they wanted Freedman taught in the classical manner, emphasizing subjects like English, literature, and algebra,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淭hey wanted to train a middle-class population with doctors, teachers, and lawyers. The Hampton model emphasized teaching people manual labor skills 鈥� how to be a blacksmith, how to sew. They taught young girls how to work in houses as maids. It was being put out there that this was necessary because industrialists needed a large workforce.鈥� Thompson dedicated his thesis to his mother, who was the daughter of an AME preacher and an inspiration for him to complete college. 鈥淚 also did this for my mom who always believed in me when I didn鈥檛 believe in myself,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淪he used to sit in the kitchen with me to do my homework when I was a child. She instilled in me that desire to get it done, and that was one of the real drivers in writing my thesis.鈥� With graduation approaching, Thompson is thankful to history professors James Ross, Barclay Key, Jess Porter, Edward Anson, Carl Moneyhon, and Marta Cieslak for inspiring him to succeed. 鈥淢y experience here has been absolutely magnificent,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 say enough good things about the history department and the professors. These people are first rate, and I know because I came from one of those fancy east schools. I had a very successful career, but this is something different that I needed to do and I鈥檓 so glad I did it. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought that I would end up living in Arkansas and getting a master鈥檚 degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I believe it鈥檚 a top-rate education.鈥漖]> /news-archive/2019/12/09/janelle-lilley-cline-law-reporter/ Mon, 09 Dec 2019 17:20:07 +0000 /news/?p=75873 ... KATV Reporter Uses Law Degree to Advocate for Arkansans]]> A KATV reporter is using the skills and knowledge she learned at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law to serve as a better advocate for Arkansans.听 Janelle Lilley Cline, a 34-year-old weekend anchor who lives in Little Rock, will graduate with a Juris Doctor during 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 fall commencement ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, at Jack Stephens Center.听 As a journalist who covers the Arkansas legislature, Cline feared her gap in legal knowledge was impacting her ability to accurately report complex issues to the public.听 鈥淚鈥檇 ask different legislators about a bill, and I would get completely different answers about how the law would affect Arkansans,鈥� she said. 鈥淎s a journalist, you want to fact check what people are telling you, but I couldn鈥檛 do that with the law. I wanted to understand the law better and how proposed laws would affect Arkansans.鈥� On Nov. 7, 2014, Cline searched the internet on 鈥渉ow to go to law school鈥� and learned she needed to take the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) to apply. She took the test four weeks later and entered Bowen鈥檚 part-time law school program, the only program of its kind in the state, on a full ride in August 2015. 鈥淏owen is the only law school I applied to, and they offered me a full scholarship,鈥� Cline recalled. 鈥淚 love my job, and I didn鈥檛 want to leave it. I decided to go to law school even if it meant working and going to school at the same time. It was worth it.鈥� During law school, Cline had some life-changing experiences; she got engaged and married fellow Bowen law student, Jason Cline, a member of the Arkansas National Guard, in January 2017. The birth of their son, Luke, caused Cline to miss a final exam. 鈥淚 had my son during the first day of exams in April 2018,鈥� Cline said. 鈥淚 missed my insurance law exam because I was having a baby. I had to call my professor and tell her I wouldn鈥檛 make it, but I was able to take the exam the next week. I have a funny picture of me in the hospital studying insurance law in between contractions.鈥� Cline counts Bowen professors Lindsey Gustafson, Andr茅 Douglas Pond Cummings, and Michael Flannery as her mentors. Gustafson recalls Cline as an active student who made class discussions interesting. 鈥淒espite her busy life and the demands on her time, Janelle was always prepared to engage in and raise the level of discussion in class,鈥� Gustafson said. 鈥淪he is incredibly hard working, curious, and detailed in her learning. Beyond that, she is a kind, generous human being. She was a joy and will do great things in the world, and by that I mean great things for the world.鈥� Cummings described Cline as a gifted law student and talented news anchor who inspired his own son to study broadcast journalism in college. 鈥淚 fully expect that Janelle will become an important and consequential legal reporter and news anchor that could very well successfully practice entertainment law or First Amendment law if she so chooses,鈥� Cummings said. 鈥淲hen I mentioned to Janelle that my teenage son was interested in a career in broadcast journalism, she immediately set him up with a two-week internship at KATV, which my son completed this summer. My son loved the experience.鈥� At Bowen, Cline was able to gain practical legal knowledge through work opportunities. She served as a law clerk for Steel, Wright, & Collier and completed externships with Chief Judge Rita Gruber in the Arkansas Court of Appeals, Judge Carlton Jones in the Eighth South Judicial Circuit, and the Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney鈥檚 Office. She鈥檚 especially grateful for the experience she gained working for Judge Gruber.听 鈥淚 will cherish my externship with Judge Rita Gruber for as long as I live,鈥� Cline said. 鈥淛udge Gruber is everything I hoped a judge would be. She is thoughtful and serious about her job and was open to my recommendations in the memoranda I would write for her. It was memorable and so rewarding. I learned so much working in the actual court. It鈥檚 completely different than covering it as a reporter.鈥�听 Cline says she fell in love with journalism completely by accident while attending the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 鈥淎s an undergrad, I was a double major in political science and communication studies,鈥� Cline said. 鈥淚 had to do an internship that satisfied the requirements for both, and I thought, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 better than NPR?鈥� That鈥檚 communication and politics all in one.鈥� On her first day at NPR, Cline hit the ground running. Her new boss handed her a sheet with directions from MapQuest, a press release, and an audio recorder with instruction to complete her first assignment. 鈥淚 called my mom and cried because I didn鈥檛 know how to be a journalist,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was never planning on being a journalist. I overreported, but they helped me craft a story. That night, I heard my story on the radio, and I knew I had to do this for the rest of my life. From then on out, it was journalism forever.鈥� As for her goal of being a better journalist, Cline鈥檚 legal knowledge has been especially helpful in reporting complex issues including legislation, court cases, and crimes. She recalls broadcasting for 10 hours straight in 2017 when reporting on the eight executions originally scheduled in Arkansas for April 2017, four of which were carried out. 鈥淒uring the executions, you had dozens of court cases making their way through the system with appeal after appeal,鈥� Cline said. 鈥淚 was able to explain to viewers why each appeal was happening, who was making the decision, and condense the legal arguments for the viewers. I never would have been able to do that without going to law school.鈥� Earlier this year, Cline was part of a group of KATV journalists who won a Mid-America Emmy for their news special, 鈥淎rkansas Growing: The Journey from Legalization to Cultivation,鈥� covering Arkansas鈥檚 legalization of medical marijuana and its impact on employment law. 鈥淚 came to Bowen because I saw this deficiency in myself and my reporting, and I鈥檓 walking away feeling so much more confident in my ability to understand the law,鈥� Cline said. 鈥淏eing in law school has made me a better reporter. The questions I ask are sharper, and I know more going into interviews. I鈥檓 a little sad to graduate because it was such a good experience. I love learning, and I鈥檒l be sad not to engage in my legal education every day.鈥� ]]> /news-archive/2017/01/12/ualr-day-katv/ Thu, 12 Jan 2017 17:58:14 +0000 /news/?p=66080 ... 糖心Vlog传媒LR Day on KATV]]> You can learn just about everything you need to know about enrolling in college at 糖心Vlog传媒LR if you tune in to KATV Channel 7 on Tuesday, Jan. 17.听 糖心Vlog传媒LR and KATV will host 糖心Vlog传媒LR Day to help inform Arkansans about higher educational opportunities. Five guests from 糖心Vlog传媒LR will be on the Good Morning Arkansas show from 9 to 10 a.m. Tuesday to discuss everything from how to get a four-year degree with little or no debt to scholarships and financial aid and special programs for military service members to fully online degrees. 鈥淭his is something new for 糖心Vlog传媒LR and for KATV,鈥� said Judy Williams, associate vice chancellor of communications for the university. 鈥淲e thought it would be a great service to Arkansans who want to start college for the first time, return to college to complete a degree, or get a graduate degree or certificate that will enhance their career goals.鈥� As a metropolitan university, 糖心Vlog传媒LR has more than 120 majors and programs offering degrees from associate鈥檚, bachelor鈥檚, master鈥檚, doctoral, and certificates. The university last year awarded more than $17 million in scholarships. Guests on the 糖心Vlog传媒LR Day Good Morning Arkansas show will include 糖心Vlog传媒LR Chancellor Andrew Rogerson, Student Government Association President Connor Donovan, Military Student Success Director Kathy Oliverio, E-Learning Director Dr. David Montague, and Admissions Director Katie Young. 糖心Vlog传媒LR representatives will staff a call-in program at the station from 5 to 7 p.m. to answer questions about any topic concerning enrolling at 糖心Vlog传媒LR, including how to pay for college, scholarships, transferring to 糖心Vlog传媒LR, campus living, degree options, and more. The phone number will be 501.324.4357. If you are unable to watch the Good Morning Arkansas 糖心Vlog传媒LR Day live, you can record the show, or watch it . For more information about 糖心Vlog传媒LR programs, visit听 or ualr.edu.]]>