From the (Oneonta, N.Y.) Daily Star
Tuesday, July 22,
2003
By Melissa Scram
Staff Writer
This summer,
Bainbridge native Jeremy Dibbell will jump from covering campus affairs to
foreign affairs.
A senior at Union College in Schenectady and editor-in-chief
of the student newspaper, Concordiensis,
Dibbell is one of a dozen college journalists from around the country
participating in the 11th annual Anti-Defamation League Albert Finkelstein
Memorial Study Mission to Israel, Poland and Bulgaria.
“Everybody keeps
saying, `Aren't you scared to go to Israel?' But I say it's a
chance, it's an opportunity and you can't turn down opportunities when they
come to you,” Dibbell, 21, said. “So I see it as an adventure.”
The students, who all
hold leadership positions at their college papers, will visit several sites and
meet with
government officials,
historians, journalists and others to learn about the Israeli-Palestinian
situation and the history of Jewish communities in Europe and the Holocaust,
according to information provided by the ADL.
“These students
are the future journalists of tomorrow,” Sara Ladenheim, an ADL
spokeswoman, said. “It provides them with an interesting perspective that
they otherwise wouldn't be able to get just by reading other media.”
The Anti-Defamation
League, which fights anti-Semitism, was founded in 1913. The study mission was
established by a gift from philanthropist Bidi Finkelstein, in memory of her
late husband.
Dibbell said he plans
to keep an extensive journal while on the trip, parts of which he'll publish,
in addition to other pieces he'll write for the student newspaper.
“It's a lot more
than covering events on campus, which are important and exciting to
cover,” he said. “This is a whole new ball game.”
Concordiensishas
a world news section, Dibbell said, but “it's hard to report world news in
a college newspaper 'cause … you're a weekly, and you can only get what you
find in other places.”
He said some
discussion panels stemming from the trip will probably be held on campus.
Dibbell said he's
excited to see everything on the trip.
“It all, to me,
is going to be a new world,” he said. “I've been to Spain, France and England before, but never
ventured forth to Poland and Bulgaria.”
One of the issues he
hopes to examine is Israel's national service
program, as Concordiensisand Union College have been very active
in pushing for a national service program for high school and college students.
The students, who return
Aug. 15, were chosen from between 80 and 100 applicants, through interviews and
essays, said Ladenheim, who described Dibbell as a “dynamic kid.”
“He exemplifies
leadership. He's an excellent writer,” she said. “He's coming to the
mission with a very open mind.”
Dibbell graduated from
Gilbertsville-Mount Upton Central School in 2000. While a
senior in high school, he was active in campaigning for Sen. John McCain's bid
for president.
“I've left
organized politics,” the self-described moderate Republican said.
“I'm still active in terms of advocacy. I tend to fire off letters to the
editor every once in the while.”
On campus, he's a
resident assistant and a member of several college committees, he said.
A political science
major, Dibbell said he hasn't decided what he will do after he graduates next
spring. Though he enjoys working at the college newspaper, he said, he doesn't
plan a career as a reporter. His interests are history and politics, he said,
and he's considered eventually teaching at the college level.
But, he said,
“it's too far down the road.”