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Project Mission: Project 573 will show to our audience who the Nones are, and how they are affecting mid-Missouri at a time when traditional affiliation with religion is declining.
MEET THE TEAM
Matt Evans
AGE: 22
EMPHASIS AREA: Broadcast
HOMETOWN: Clinton, Mo.
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: Political Reporter
CONTACT INFO: (660) 525-1313, mattevansreports@gmail.com, mattevansreports.com
FAITH STATEMENT: I was raised Methodist and Baptist. I went to the Methodist church in my hometown of Clinton, but also went to Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield every other weekend with my dad. I identify now with Methodists and remain a member of the United Methodist Church in Clinton.
Jacqui Banaszynski
Faculty Advisor
AGE: Born six years before John XIII became pope. Enough said.
ROLE: Advisor to Project 573. Former newspaper reporter and editor. Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. Now Knight Chair professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, Faculty Fellow at the Poynter Institute.
CONTACT INFO: banaszynskij@missouri.edu
FAITH STATEMENT: My childhood: Catholic mass and the Litany of the Saints with one grandmother, who gave me crystal rosary beads, and ham sandwiches on homemade buns after services in the Methodist church with my other grandmother, who was the organist there. Me now: a journalist, teacher and student of life with a fascination about religion – how it can heal and how it can divide, and always a view to the force it is in our lives.
James Ayello
AGE: 24
EMPHASIS AREA: Print and Digital News
HOMETOWN: West Dundee, Ill.
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: This summer, I will be working as a copy editor at the Indianapolis Star on a Dow Jones News Fund Internship. After, I will be looking to get back to where my journalistic passion lies: sports reporting.
CONTACT INFO: jamesayello@yahoo.com, @jamesayello
FAITH STATEMENT: I was raised Catholic. I was baptized, confirmed, the whole deal. I wouldn't consider myself Catholic today, but I am proud of my upbringing and wouldn't change a thing about it. I'd say I'm in the questioning phase of my spirituality. Honestly, after this project, I'm not sure of anything. Everyone we talked to made thought-provoking arguments, and I can see the merit in all of them. The only thing I can say with certainty about my faith is that I will continue to question and explore it, and I'll just see where that takes me.
Made up of seniors at the Missouri School of Journalism, the capstone course brings together students from the school’s different sequences (print and digital news, radio/TV journalism, magazine, photojournalism, convergence journalism and strategic communication) for an experiment in cross-platform storytelling.
Matthew Patane
AGE: 21
EMPHASIS AREA: Print and Digital News
HOMETOWN: St. Louis, Mo.
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: Foreign correspondent.
CONTACT INFO: patane.mf@gmail.com, @mattpatane
FAITH STATEMENT: I'm not religious. I don't affiliate with any religious institution or follow any traditional religious beliefs. Even so, I'm still interested in why people are attracted to certain beliefs, religious or otherwise, and how these beliefs affect how they think and act. The idea of an increasingly nonreligious population is particularly interesting because a rise in this section of the population has the potential to impact every aspect of society, from politics to religion itself.
Derek Hamm
AGE: 21
EMPHASIS AREA: Magazine Writing
HOMETOWN: Belleville, Ill.
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: Dream job is to write for Rolling Stone. After graduation, I am moving to Austin, TX to play music and write for a city magazine.
CONTACT INFO: (618) 920-8267 or drh347@mail.missouri.edu
FAITH STATEMENT: I was raised going to a non-denominational Christian church, but since I reached the age of independent thinking (roughly 6th or 7th grade), I have been an atheist.
Jian Chung, Lee
AGE: 24
EMPHASIS AREA: Convergence- Radio Reporting and Producing
HOMETOWN: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: Interning at WBEZ 91.5 Chicago as part of the Linda Yu Broadcast Scholarship. He hopes to be a producer or an arts and culture reporter in New York, Seattle or Chicago in the future.
CONTACT INFO: jianchunglee@gmail.com, @JCLEE89
FAITH STATEMENT:
“Taoist statues decorate my childhood home, and I would wake up to Muslim prayers every morning coming from the neighboring mosques. You can’t walk in any direction in Malaysia without hitting a Hindu temple, a Catholic church or some other religious institution. Yet I am an agnostic. I cannot be certain of gods, bodhisattvas or ancestral spirits. But when my Grandparents passed away, I desperately wanted to believe that they continue to exist somewhere else. I still talk to them sometimes. My interaction with them is not something I can ground in reality or evidence, but which faith can?
Hannah Spaar
AGE: 22
EMPHASIS AREA: Print and Digital News
HOMETOWN: Odessa, Mo.
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: My dream job is to be able to report on exciting, interesting people. The plans for my next adventure are still in development.
CONTACT INFO: www.thehannahprogress.tumblr.com
FAITH STATEMENT: For the past few years I've alternated between considering myself a Presbyterian and considering myself a deist. My parents are nones but my Granny took my sister and I to a small Presbyterian church in our hometown. I refer to the people there as my church family, no matter what I believe that week.
Elizabeth Pierson
Project Leader
AGE: 22
EMPHASIS AREA: Individually Designed (photo, magazine and strategic communication)
HOMETOWN: Chicago, IL
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: Director of Photography at a national magazine
CONTACT INFO: ejpwgd@mail.missouri.edu, elizabeth-pierson.com
FAITH STATEMENT: I grew up with Ethiopian Orthodox nanny, a Catholic father and a Protestant mother, all of whom, in their own ways, instilled me with cherished Christian values. I sang in the choir, went on summer mission trips and several of my best friends today are the children who tumbled around with me under pews after church and presented the nativity scene with me each Christmas. Religion to me is about that sense of community, and I'll return to a church one day so my children can find that connection.
Melissa Roadman
Project Leader
AGE: 21
EMPHASIS AREA: Convergence- Information Graphic Design
HOMETOWN: San Diego, Calif.
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: Data journalist; working in the graphics department at the LA Times this summer. Eventually I want to open my own bakery.
CONTACT INFO: melissaroadman.com, @melissaroadman
FAITH STATEMENT: I was raised Catholic and still consider myself devout. In middle school and the beginning of high school, I questioned the Church but returned after getting involved in a youth group. I attend Mass regularly and consider religion an essential part of my life.
Lukas Udstuen
AGE: 22
EMPHASIS AREA: Convergence
HOMETOWN: Chanhassen, Minn.
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: I plan to move to Buenos Aires, Argentina to get a master’s and work as a freelance journalist.
CONTACT INFO: http://www.lukasudstuen.com
FAITH STATEMENT: I grew up in a nice Catholic family doing all the things nice Catholic families do. I love the parts of my religion emphasizing love for others and serving the poor. Growing up, I spent loads of time at bible camp and even led the “Students of Christ” group at my high school. Years ago, I began to seriously question my views when I realized, despite years of prayers for change, I was still gay. I’ve looked through a lot of religions, and I’m still not sure what I believe. Deism and the Presbyterian Church seem pretty cool.
Blake Ursch
AGE: 21
EMPHASIS AREA: Print and Digital News
HOMETOWN: Alton, Ill.
DREAM JOB/FUTURE PLANS: Dream job: writer for National Geographic. Backup plan: golf ball water trap retriever at local golf course.
CONTACT INFO: urschb@gmail.com, blakeursch.wordpress.com, @blakeursch
FAITH STATEMENT: I am baptized Catholic, but my parents made it clear that I was free to choose my own beliefs. I'm interested in how religion had affected the course of human history and how belief shapes behavior. Personally, I believe in some sort of higher divine presence, but I don't subscribe to any specific doctrine.
Thank you to...
Contributing photographers Sam Gause and Connie McCollom
Reuben Stern
Reynolds Journalism Institute
Dean Mills, Dean
Our media partners:
ABOUT PROJECT 573
Project 573 began in the fall of 2010 when two MU students, Evan Bush and Adam Falk, asked a question. “What would happen if you got students from each sequence of the Missouri School of Journalism together, without a professor or editor running the show, and told them to make great journalism?” The answer was Project 573.
Made up of seniors at the Missouri School of Journalism, the capstone course brings together students from the school’s different sequences (print and digital news, radio/TV journalism, magazine, photojournalism, convergence journalism and strategic communication) for an experiment in cross-platform storytelling.
Project 573 provides innovative journalism that expands awareness and broadens perspective about a localized issue.
In the first year, the team produced a multimedia website that explained how mid-Missouri was responding to the recession. Last year, Project 573 reported on mental illness issues.
This year, we chose to focus on the rise of the religiously unaffiliated. In 2009, Trinity College released a report profiling the American Nones. Pew Research Center added “none of the above” to their questions regarding religion in 2008. Since then, they report nearly a 5 percent increase in the number of people who affiliated with no particular religion or are atheist or agnostic. These two reports influenced our decision to pursue this story.
We hope you’ll enjoy learning more about this growing population.