By: Professor Bob Rucker, Director, School of Journalism and Mass Communications

Monday, Sept.17th, Ms. Ganim is scheduled to speak and take questions in Morris Dailey Auditorium from 2:30 pm to 4 pm.

Sara Ganim, the 24 year-old-reporter from the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, PA, who broke the Jerry Sandusky story at Penn State University, and won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, will be the special guest of the SJSU School of Journalism and Mass Communications September 15th through 17th. She has agreed to fly in early, interact with our JMC student media over that weekend, then meet classes, the local media and the campus community. Click here to learn more about her, see national media coverage and the reporter winning the Pulitzer Prize.

JMC’s own Pulitzer winner, Prof. Kim Komenich, has agreed to join Professor Rucker in introducing the 2012 Pulitzer winner for local reporting.

Special thanks to Dr. D. Michael Cheers, JMC’s Photojournalism Coordinator, who came up with the idea of inviting Ms. Ganim after she won the Pulitzer last spring. He pursued this idea quietly all summer, in consultation with Bob Rucker and Mack Lundstrum, and personally persuaded her to make this visit to SJSU.

JMC’s Goal: Clearly it is our hope that Ms. Ganim will inspire our young media students to be as determined, thorough and persistent in pursuing their assignments and career goals. Her personal experience and knowledge as a Penn State student proved instrumental in driving her to reveal the sexual abuse problems in the athletic program. Despite tremendous university and public pressure in a state where Joe Paterno was considered a god-like figure, Ms. Ganim refused to relent, and the shocking truths she uncovered rocked the collegiate sports world, the nation, forcing law enforcement to take decisive historic action.

We are honored and proud to welcome Ms. Sara Ganim as the special guest of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications.