Indiana University School of Journalism

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Photo by Jessica Birthisel

Kaylyn Easton is headed to Berlin as a participant in the RIAS program. She’ll meet and work with broadcast professionals and other scholars.

Related Read Easton's blog reports from Berlin. Read about RIAS participants who visited IU in 2007. Read graduate student Rosemary Pennington's reflections on her own RIAS experience. Learn more about the RIAS program. American Student Radio launch party Feb. 21 (Feb. 9) Brubeck places third in Hearst enterprise reporting division (Feb. 9) Students gain experience during Super Bowl week (Feb. 8)

School of Journalism’s Kaylyn Easton just graduated last month, but already she’s going places. Germany, to be specific.

Easton, a broadcast major from Indianapolis, will follow in the footsteps of several other School of Journalism scholars June 14 when she travels to Berlin as part of the Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) journalist exchange program. The two-week program exposes American broadcast professionals and scholars to German history, politics and journalism practices. A similar RIAS exchange program invites German broadcasters to visit America.

“It’s such an amazing experience,” said Easton, who described the application process as extensive. “I’m just so excited and blessed by this opportunity.”

She was one of only 15 Americans selected for this year’s trip, and one of only three student participants. Easton says that she looks forward to every aspect of the program, but that she will especially value the insights into global industry.

“The experience of learning about German culture and history is so important, especially because Europe is such a huge player in the global economy right now,” said Easton, a three-year veteran of Indiana University Student Television (IUSTV). She also received a week-long extension to travel to Munich and document the city’s waste management and sustainability programs.

About RIAS: As assistant professor Mike Conway explained, RIAS was originally a radio station in the American sector of Berlin during the Cold War. The station had a reputation for its critical, non-propagandistic coverage during the East-West Germany debate. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the station was repurposed to promote German-American understanding and the RIAS Berlin Commission was established. According to the official RIAS Web site, the commission was formed to recognize the station’s dedication to truth and democracy, to pass on journalistic heritage to new generations of journalists, and to promote understanding between Germans and Americans through the exchange of broadcast journalists and professionals.

The trip provides fellows with one-on-one time with German professionals, but thanks to IU’s connection to the RIAS program, Easton already has ready-made contacts in the country. Assistant professor Mike Conway, who first experienced the program as a fellow and a host at the University of Texas, has already put Easton in touch with German broadcasters he’s met through the years.

“You become this big RIAS fraternity,” said Conway, who has encouraged student participants and hosted German broadcasters during his time at IU.

It was Conway’s experience with RIAS that led Kevin Grieves, a graduate student with international interests, to apply for the program in 2007. Grieves, who successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on transborder journalism this spring, used the trip as a springboard into his doctoral research, conducting in-depth interviews with foreign journalists.

“It’s about relationships that continue and can become very fruitful,” said Grieves, who remains in touch with people he met during the exchange.

Graduate student Rosemary Pennington, a 2005 RIAS fellow, also emphasized the value of networking through the program, and not only with Germans, but with the other American journalists on the trip, too.

“You rarely get a chance to sit down with your colleagues and to see how other people are maneuvering problems,” said Pennington. “You just get so much out of talking to them. It’s the experience of a life time. It was a luxury that I’m so glad to have had.”

Former participants can attest to the program’s rigorous itinerary. Easton will travel to Berlin, Leipzig, Cologne and Brussels during the two week program before heading to Munich for her extension. Some notable stops on the trip include a former Stasi prison; media entities such as private radio station Radio PSR and the newsroom of RTL Aktuell; a former concentration camp; and NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Both Grieves and Pennington had similar advice for Easton as she prepares for this life-changing trip: be open.

“Try not to compare everything there to how it is here,” said Grieves. “And never turn down an invitation, because you never know what it might turn into, even if it’s just a shopping trip. You can’t get that out of guidebooks.”

Pennington echoed these sentiments.

“Be really open to every experience that comes your way,” she said. “There’s so much to gain from this if you go in there ready to learn.”

Conway said he’s pleased to see Easton getting this opportunity because of the time that she’s put in to broadcasting through IUSTV.

“She deserves it for all her hard work at that station,” said Conway.

Watch the School of Journalism Web site for Easton’s reflections on the experience.