Young
Leaders Scholarship:
Editors excited about winning ASBPE honors
In a tragic note, one recipient is mourned.
Four young Americans and two international
editors will attend ASPBE’s National
Editorial Conference August 2–3 in New
York City as 2007 Young Leaders Scholarship
winners.
This year, the announcement of our
YLS winners was touched with sorrow, as
one YLS recipient — Terrence Nguyen,
Web editor for Fleet Owner — died in a
swimming accident in Florida weeks after
his selection by ASBPE (see below).
“Terry’s contribution to Fleet
Owner’s
online media products was highly deserving
of this recognition,” said Penton CEO
John French in a note to employees.
Intensive selection process
The six
YLS winners in attendance at the
conference will learn about digital media
and how to achieve editorial excellence
and enhance their careers.
ASBPE’s Young Leaders Scholarship
committee selected the 2007 winners based
on their résumés, clips, recommendation
letters from their chief editors, their essays
on how they became involved in the business
press, their biggest challenges as business-
to-business (B2B) editors, and their future career goals.
ASBPE received more entries this year
than last year, and the experience and
professionalism of the applicants was impressive,
said Amy Fischbach, herself a
2002 YLS winner and 2007 YLS committee
chair.
“B2B companies often have tight travel
budgets and can’t afford to send all their
young editors to the national conference,”
she said.
“This scholarship gives the winners the
opportunity to network with B2B editors
nationwide and learn more about what
ASBPE is all about. It’s the experience of a
lifetime.”
Scholarship winners must be 30 years
old or younger, worked for at least two
years as an editor at a business magazine
or associated Web publication, be sponsored
by their chief editor, and plan to
continue in the business press as a career.
ASBPE covers the hotel costs as well
as
the conference fees.Winners also receive a
free one-year membership to ASBPE.
Excited winner Sarah Yaussi said, “This
scholarship is a way for me to think
smarter, get motivated and work harder.”
 Vincent ter Beek, is
editor for Pig Progress,
an international trade
journal (and associated
Web site). The magazine
is a Reed Business
publication, produced
in Doetinchem, the
Netherlands, and is geared toward highly
educated employees in pig production facilitating
companies, animal science researchers,
and larger pig producers.
Ter Beek joined Reed Business in 2005
and has also worked on articles for the
company’s publication Flower Tech.
Prior to that, he worked as a journalist
at several newspapers, including De
Twentsche Courant Tubantia and Provinciale
Zeeuwse Courant, and he continues to
freelance.His assignments included court
reporting, features, political news, interviews,
and sports.He also spent one year as
a college history teacher, and speaks English,
Dutch, German, French, and Spanish.
Vincent graduated from Groningen
University, the Netherlands, and has an
M.A. in history and journalism.
 Deborah Cassell is managing
editor of Stagnito
Communications’ Snack
Food & Wholesale Bakery.
After joining the staff
in January 2006, Cassell
oversaw a redesign of the
monthly. She also contributes
to a weekly e-newsletter.
Prior to joining SF&WB, she was managing
editor of Furniture Style, where she
worked for five years. She also spent a
summer working as a reporter for Medill
News Service in Chicago.
Cassell is a member of the American
Society of Baking, and has served as a
two-time judge of amateur and commercial
entries in the National Pie Championships.
Cassell is a graduate of Wittenberg
University, having studied English and political
science. During college, she also
studied English literature at the University
of York in York, England. She has a masters
degree from Northwestern’s Medill
School of Journalism.
 Vanessa Chris is associate
editor for KMI Publishing’s
Canadian
Mortgage Professional,Canada’s leading independent
publication for
mortgage brokers. She
writes at least five features
for each issue, in addition to hunting
down and editing contributed pieces, hiring
photographers, and searching for artwork
for the magazine.
After graduating from the University
of
Western Ontario in 2003 with an M.A. in
journalism, Chris began her career as a
columnist for Canada’s leading newspaper,
the Toronto Star, before finding her way
into B2B publishing. She has also worked
for CLB Media’s Advanced Manufacturing,
Product Engineering and Maintenance and Canadian
Occupational Safety.
 Marisa Palmieri is
associate editor of GIE Media’s
Lawn & Landscape and its ancillary publications.
She writes and
edits profiles, in-depth
features, and research reports. She
also works on such online projects as producing podcasts
and engaging readers on the online message board. In her
previous job, she helped launch the group's first editorial
Web conference.
Palmieri
was previously associate editor of Paperboard
Packaging and
Official Board Markets and has written for various
trade publications including Interior Business,
Commercial Dealer, Snow Business and Hotel & Motel
Management. She also served as the editor-in-chief
of Southeast
Ohiomagazine and a student writer for Ohio
Today magazine.
She graduated cum laude with a B.A.
in
journalism and a minor in history from
Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of
Journalism.
 Travis Stanton has
worked for the Exhibitor
Magazine Group since
2005 and is editor of Exhibitor.
He is responsible
for planning, selecting,
coordinating, assigning,
writing, and editing the
content of each issue. His work as a writer
and editor has earned him recognition
from the Lambda Literary Foundation,
Minnesota Magazine and Publications Association,
and the Western Publications
Association.
Prior to joining Exhibitor, Stanton
served as interim editor of Corporate
EVENT magazine and managing editor of
Lavender Magazine.
Stanton has a degree in English and
theater. He was named a Regent Scholar
in college and a Presidential Scholar at
Watertown Senior High School in Watertown,
SD.
 Sarah Yaussi has served
as the news editor for
Hanley Wood’s Big
Builder since February
2005. She manages the
content for the news
section, researches and
writes feature-length articles
and analyses of news and trends,
runs the APEX awards competition, and
helps plan the Big Builder conference.
Previously, she was the managing editor
for The Clearing House/Germanic Review/
Monographs for Heldref Publications. Additionally,
Yaussi was a newsgathering assistant
for the BBC in London and an English
editor and news assistant in Paris.
While there, she translated
editorial
content and wrote feature articles for a
monthly tourism magazine, and wrote
news summaries and recorded them in
French for the government television news
station.
She also served as a contributing writer
to a daily newspaper in Syracuse and a
weekly paper in DeWitt, both in New York.
She graduated magna cum laude with
a
B.A. in English from Colgate University,
and an M.A. from the S.I. Newhouse
School at Syracuse University.
Nguyen a ‘kind spirit’
 In his ASBPE Young Leaders essay, Terry
Nguyen described an emotional moment during one reporting
assignment in his years at the University of Connecticut.
“I vividly remember at UConn working
on a story that had moved me more than any other,” Nguyen
wrote. “A music student was performing a practice recital
in front of her classmates when she collapsed onstage and
died shortly thereafter. I learned that she played the trumpet
with a prosthetic arm. I spoke with her friends, her teachers,
university officials, and her father — who at times
fought through tears to speak to me. For obvious reasons,
it was an extremely sensitive topic, and I got no sleep the
night my article was sent to the printer.
“I bring this particular story
up because I learned very early in my career the value of
journalism,” Nguyen continued in his essay. “What
I wrote has an impact on how a deceased person will be remembered,
and that article is most likely sitting in a scrapbook right
now. This example illustrates why I believe journalism is
truly a public service — one that’s worth preserving
with integrity at whatever cost.”
The words of colleagues
Terry Nguyen, who died weeks after
being selected a YLS winner, now is himself remembered in
the words of other journalists.
“As those of us who knew him and
worked with him mourn his loss, we take comfort from the
public recognition [ASBPE] offered him,” said his editor-in-chief,
Jim Mele. Nguyen was “quite honored” by the scholarship
he received from the Society, Mele recalled.
In a letter to Penton employees, Mele
added that Nguyen exhibited “a professionalism that
most journalists only achieve after many years of experience.
Perhaps more importantly, he was constantly looking for ways
to both improve the quality of his work and the level of
his editorial responsibilities.”
Indeed, Nguyen was named a Jesse H.
Neal award finalist in 2005, for coverage of the effect that
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had on trucking.
In the note to employees, Penton CEO
John French also called attention to Nguyen’s talent
and enthusiasm, but added that his “kind spirit will
be greatly missed by all at Penton who had the pleasure of
knowing him.”
Nguyen previously worked as a newspaper
reporter and feature writer. He received a B.S. in journalism
from the University of Connecticut in 2003.
ASBPE offers condolences to his family
and colleagues and will be making a contribution to the Greater
Hartford United Way in Nguyen’s name. |
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