Sofia Valdes has been elected president of the student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists at The King’s College for the upcoming 2021-22 academic year. Valdes will replace outgoing president Gabriela Kressley, who graduated this past Saturday.
“It is an honor to serve as SPJ chapter president at The King’s College,” Valdes said. “I am looking forward to working with the newly-elected executive team in helping to grow the chapter’s membership as well as help to grow the journalism community at King’s.”
Members also elected Brianna Jacobs the chapter’s vice president and Hannah Mallard as secretary. All three members of the executive board work for the Empire State Tribune, the award-winning independent student newspaper at King’s.
TKC’s chapter is part of SPJ’s Region 1, which honored EST this past spring for the very first time with two awards: Liza Vandenboom won SPJ’s Mark of Excellence Award in the Online Opinion category for “What a New Yorker in 2020 has in Common with a Sculptor During the Black Death.” EST magazine was a finalist for the Best Student Magazine for its Fall 2020 issue.
In addition to electing a new executive team, the chapter co-sponsored a series of events with MPJI this past school year. Despite the ongoing pandemic, the chapter helped sponsor and promote “Alumni Night” in both the fall and spring semesters, where TKC and NYCJ alums discuss what it’s like to work in the news media.
The highlight of the year was a talk by photojournalist Gary Fong on March 24, an event postponed from 2020, that served as MPJI’s seventh annual lecture and co-sponsored by the chapter.
The campus SPJ chapter was founded by students in 2018. Past chapter presidents have included alums Anastassia Gliadkovskaya (2018-19) and Jillian Cheney (2019-20).
SPJ is the nation’s most broad-based journalism organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior.
Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry through the daily work of its 6,000 members. The organization works to educate current and future journalists through professional development and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of press and speech through its advocacy efforts.
For more information on how to become a member, please visit www.spj.org or fill out the application form here.