Millennium Park, popular with locals and tourists, is also the home of the McDonald's Cycle Center.

By ARELIS HERNANDEZ
The UNITY News Online

Trading in their car keys for bike helmets, more Chicagoans are heading to McDonald’s Cycle Center, a one-stop shop for biking around the city.

The 300-bike parking facility, located in Millennium Park, comes complete with showers, lockers, a repair shop and a bike rental system.

“I commute 17 miles each way – there is no question about the money I save,” said local commuter Peter Mitchell, who was leaving the cycle center after a meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Bicycles have become an alternate mode of transportation for hundreds of health-conscious, economical “green” residents who say the solution to soaring gas costs revolves around two wheels.

“We are continuing to have a variety of pressures placed on our cities and communities due to gas prices and global climate change,” said Rob Sadowski, executive director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. “The more we can move people from cars to bikes and walking, the better our city can be.”

The group, founded in 1985, promotes using bicycles as an energy-efficient and healthy mode of transportation. And Chicago boasts of a 315-mile bikeway network.

While not providing exact numbers, McDonald’s Cycle Center officials said they have seen a yearly increase in memberships. This summer the center has already filled to capacity.

Commuter Joe Behen said he used to take public transportation to work, but since the opening of the center in 2005 he now jumps on his 18-speed bike and rides 10 miles to downtown.

After the 20-minute ride, Behen hits the showers at the bike center –­ beads of sweat on his neck aren’t exactly office attire, he said.

The 17,000-square foot center opened with a grant from federal and local entities to help relieve congestion on city streets and promote healthier lifestyles, said Josh Squire, owner of Bike & Roll, the company operating the building.

McDonald’s Corporation bought naming rights and donated $5 million for building maintenance as part of a campaign to promote fitness, Squire said.

Chicago Mayor Daley has also been a big proponent for bicycling.

A bicycle enthusiast himself, Daley led a city-wide initiative to create a more bike-friendly community – devoting an entire city agency to promoting bicycle use, said Brian Steele, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Transportation.

“Finding alternatives to the automobile has been a priority for Chicago for almost 20 years,” Steele said.

Reach Arelis Hernandez at americua21@comcast.net

Student Campus Mentor Teresa Puente instructs students on how to use video equipment before a field trip. (Photo by Charly Edsitty/The UNITY News)

By Charly Edsitty
The UNITY News Online

Forget your sleeping bag and teddy bear, because journalism camp is in session.

The Asian American Journalists Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists are heading up two intensive journalism programs this week in hopes of cultivating journalists of tomorrow.

“J Camp,” the AAJA-sponsored program, encourages high school students to consider careers in journalism. NAHJ’s “Student Campus,” nurtures college students who may already be studying journalism. Both programs aim to maintain student interest in the craft, as well as emphasizing the need for diversity. These two student programs precede The UNITY Convention.

Every year AAJA receives hundreds of applications, but only 42 multicultural high school students were selected for this year’s J Camp at Loyola University in Chicago.

“The original idea was to give young people exposure to journalism at a time when they are just starting to figure out what their career direction is,” said Janice Lee, AAJA deputy executive director.

J Camp Director, Neal Justin, explained that there was a need to cultivate journalism interest early in order to build a strong foundation of basic skills.

“I was getting a sense of need to help kids feed their interests early on,” Justin said. “Where is the proper point? Maybe it’s high school. And it grew from there.”

A total of eight media professionals volunteered to mentor students for six days, July 18-23.

The students attended discussions, learned the basics of professionalism and were lectured by media professionals from various publications.

Gordon Ruan, 16, of Champaign, Ill., heard about the program from his teacher and decided to apply.

“The program is trying to prepare you and let you know about the challenges,” Ruan said. “It taught me that diversity is really important because it broadens your view of the world.”

On Tuesday, AAJA released the results of a survey of 293 alumni of J Camp and 78 percent are reported to have continued their studies in journalism or communications.

The survey also revealed that 32 percent of the alumni said that their top reason for choosing journalism as a career was “to positively change the world.”

“We’re thrilled,” Justin said. “ This is a week they will remember and the first step in a long-term effort.”

College students are also getting realistic doses of journalism this week.

Student Campus hosted 41 college students at Columbia College Chicago, in its third appearance during The UNITY Convention. The program is aimed at freshman and sophomores and was funded this year by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Although similar to the UNITY Student Projects, the two programs are very different.

UNITY Student Projects is a week-long program which brings together journalism students from across the country to cover daily convention events. The project, which is embarking on a convergence experiment, is producing a newspaper, website and radio and TV broadcasts.

NAHJ had a different idea in mind in creating Student Campus. The difference is less of a focus on the publication process and more emphasis on exploration and networking. Students have more time to attend panels and network with media professionals.

Ray Chavez is a Student Campus mentor and Director of the Oklahoma Institute for Diversity in Journalism at the University of Oklahoma.

Chavez explained that Student Campus allows for more involvement in the UNITY Convention by getting an early start and ending before the convention begins.

“We wanted to create a program that was going to address the needs and provide information to the younger students that were not ready for Student Projects,” Chavez said.

Chavez said younger college students get to experience what a career in journalism has in store, and based upon their experience, it allows them to decide if journalism is the right career choice.

During the three-day session, students worked on writing resumes, listened to advice from a panel of recruiters, visited City Hall and covered a mock press conference.

Genesis Samayoa, 20, a Denver resident, said the press conference was “really interesting.”

“The pressure of having to take good notes was very overwhelming,” she said.

Chavez explained that some students end up discovering that journalism isn’t the career for them, but that doesn’t spoil the knowledge gained.

“Here is the chance for a multicultural experience,” Chavez said. “That’s the whole idea, students will learn from each other.”

Registration at the UNITY 08 convention.

By Venus Lee
The UNITY News Staff

As newsrooms across the nation struggle to survive through a sluggish economy, thousands of media professionals will blow into the Windy City this week for the largest gathering of journalists in U.S. history.

Officials estimate approximately 10,000 attendees will converge in Chicago for UNITY: A New Journalism for a Changing World - five days of events, speakers, workshops and discussions that are relevant to current issues in the media industry. Planning a convention this big was no easy task. It required cooperation, dedication and hard work from an overarching organization and numerous volunteers for nearly four years.

The backbone of planning the convention was UNITY: Journalists of Color, a strategic alliance of four national journalism organizations: Asian American Journalists Association, National Association of Black Journalists, National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association.

Barbara Ciara, NABJ president and UNITY board member, said she couldn’t come up with an adjective that effectively describes what it’s like to pull all these forces together and make it smooth.

“Securing the speakers, finding the moderators, juggling the sea of recruiters and pulling together the alliance partners to have them agree is a mammoth process,” she said.

For months, representatives from the four organizations debated the best location for the convention. They considered several major cities including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C.

UNITY ’08 Convention Chair Bryan Monroe said each of the cities were strong candidates, but board members were ultimately impressed by Chicago’s offerings along the Magnificent Mile, a downtown restaurant and nightlife district along Michigan Avenue diverse communities, and a friendly, welcoming urban feel.

A committee of more than 100 staff members and volunteers handled production, promotion, programming and logistics.

“A lot of them have day jobs as working journalists at major news stations,” said Monroe, a vice president and editorial director for Ebony and Jet magazines in Chicago. “The fact that folks are squeezing this in between their day jobs is all the more a tribute to their character and dedication to this profession.”

Monroe and his committee filled the schedule of the conference distributing invitations to distinguished speakers and professionals. They whittled down a pool of 500 workshop proposals to approximately 100 of the most relevant and non-overlapping workshops. They also organized various discussion panels, the presidential candidates’ forum and a media showcase and career expo of more than 400 recruiters and exhibitors.

Hosting a convention of this magnitude is no cheap feat. Monroe estimates the price tag totaled more than $4 million.

“What we have to do is put on a terrific convention, but we have to keep in mind the cost,” said Ciara, managing editor at WTKR and a columnist for Mix Magazine. “We do this by being conservative in our approach and relying on sponsorships, fundraising and the alliances.”

To offset expenses, UNITY Executive Director Onica Makwakwa and her committee sought sponsorships, spending hours on the phone persuading companies to sponsor events, receptions and guest panels. Hotels, airlines and rental companies agreed to offer special rates and discounts to attendees.

While the UNITY organization handled the convention’s logistics, the individual journalism associations worked to generate the content and shouldered a large portion of the advertising burden.

In addition to the workshops, the associations organized events such as a speech by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, a fiesta, an evening of karaoke, a film festival and a 5K walk/run.

Ultimately, the associations provided the large number of attendees by promoting the convention on their Web sites, in e-mails and at local chapter gatherings. For example, NAHJ recruited attendees at a “Pre-UNITY Registration Party” earlier this year in Chicago. Makwakwa and UNITY President Karen Lincoln Michel were among the 50 attendees.

“Such events work because they allow journalists on the local level to share what they’ve gotten out of UNITY in the past and what they look forward to getting from UNITY this July in Chicago,” Michel wrote in a recent UNITY column. “It is important simply to connect with each other and build excitement on a regional level.”

Members also contributed to the advertising endeavor. Joe Grimm, a UNITY convention veteran and member of all four participating journalism associations, started a group on the social networking Web site Facebook last year for people attending the convention. The group grew to more than 700 members, who used the forum to network and advertise the event to others.

“It’s a good way to attract people, remind people and encourage people to be there,” said Grimm, a recruiter for Gannett and the Detroit Free Press. “I hope they think, ‘If all those people are going to be there, I definitely want to be there.’”