Dialogue Alum Tom Grier: Making His Dream Come True
- June 4th, 2009
- Posted by: Joe Williams
- (0) Comments
Dialogue alum Tom Grier is a professor of mass communication at Winona State University in Minnesota. He conceived a project many moons ago that is now becoming a reality. I wanted to share it with other alums for it shows the power of following your passion. Here is an email I just received from him…be sure to click on his blog site for more of the story.
The 2007 Dialogue Master Class. Tom is on the back row, to the far, far right in the ball cap. Tom attributes many of the ideas he obtained for his project came as a result of Invent-O-Matics from this group of Dialogue alums. But he conceived the idea, stayed with it over the years and is now making it happen…Congratulations, Tom!
Hello fellow Dialogue in the Desert Master-Class-100 colleagues,
On Sunday evening, I arrived in Tsaile, Arizona, at the main campus of Diné College, the Tribal College of the Navajo Nation, with 12 Winona State University students and a faculty colleague. We’re partnering with eight Diné College students and a faculty member to create five Navajo Oral Histories in a documentary journalism program.
You ALL can celebrate this important and meaningful project, because you all had a hand in its creation. Without your Invent-O-Matic ideas and encouragement, it probably would not be happening. I especially thank Joe Williams and Dee St. Cyr, who corresponded with me several times in the early planning stages and who helped refine my thinking (our thinking!) and helped smooth some rough spots in relationship-building.
I have a blog on which you can follow the project:
http://MassCommuniMania.blogspot.com
I started the blog a couple months ago to talk about issues related to mass communication, the media, and higher education in journalism, media, and related topics.
Last week, I turned the blog over totally to this project.
We’ll be here for three weeks, enjoying the beautiful landscape, getting to know the kind and helpful people, learning from the Navajo elders we interview, and visiting some historic places.
Please take a few moments to read and view what we’re doing and let me know what you think.
Again — Thank You All! You are in my mind so often during this adventure.
– Tom Grier
