“I was floored. This is an award that usually goes to people with a lot more teaching experience. That made it even more rewarding,” Blevens said.

Blevens was one of only three college journalism professors to receive the Journalism Teacher of the Year Award given by The Freedom Forum, a national organization devoted to free press and newsroom and education related issues.

The award honors professors for outstanding teaching and leadership in journalism instruction and each honoree received a medal and $10,000 at an Aug. 5 awards luncheon at the convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in Washington, D.C.

“The award has made me think deeply about why I left the newsroom for teaching. It also has increased my determination to move from being a good teacher to a great teacher. This is not a business in which one can become comfortable or complacent and I think this honor will serve as a perpetual reminder that the next class is the most important one in my career,” Blevens said.

He said the award “really belongs to a lot of people,” including a junior high school teacher “who gave me my first taste of H.L. Mencken,” and a college professor who “reminded me constantly to reach out and touch at least one student a day.”

Blevens also thanked his students for writing in support of his nomination, words that “made me blush, … made me laugh and … actually made me cry at points.”

“They showed why it’s worth it to do so much for so little,” he said.

Blevens, associate professor of the department of mass communication at SWTSU in San Marcos, was simultaneously a teacher and a journalist until 1995, when he began teaching full time. His journalism career included working for Missouri Magazine, the Houston Chronicle, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and San Antonio Light.

He has taught at several universities, including Texas A&M, the University of Missouri, San Antonio College and Ball State University. Blevens has won many academic honors and awards and was a 2000 fellow for the Institute for Journalism Excellence at the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

“I try to encourage students to think deeply and move their work in new directions,” Blevens said. “Getting some of the story is not acceptable; getting most of the story is the daily responsibility; getting all is the personal goal.”

The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit that focuses on four main priorities — the Newseum, First Amendment freedoms, newsroom diversity and world press freedom.

“Young journalists are fortunate to have gifted teachers like these as inspiration,” said Charles L. Overby, chairman and chief executive officer of The Freedom Forum. “The Freedom Forum is proud to honor them.”

The other two winners Jean Folkerts, professor and director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and A.J. “Jack” Langguth, professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The first female student reporter to cover the Vietnam War, Folkerts has worked in and around the news media for her entire career. She was a reporter at the Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal and an assistant press secretary to the governor of Kansas in the late 1970s. Folkerts turned to teaching journalism at universities in Kansas, Texas and Washington, D.C. She has served on the editorial boards of several media-related journals and has received many professional grants.

“Students need solid knowledge of the history of the profession and an understanding that being a journalist in an open society is a great privilege,” Folkerts said. “This knowledge should guard against arrogance, a characteristic I warn students against because I consider it a great danger to the profession itself.”

Langguth has taught journalism for more than 40 years. His journalism career including reporting for The New York Times on a number of historic events, including the civil rights movement, the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War. He also was a political correspondent at the Valley Times in San Fernando Valley, Calif., during the 1960 presidential election.

“I tell students to write each story as though the people involved are watching over their shoulder,” Langguth said. “Reporters have immense capacity to wound feelings and destroy reputations, and they must wield their power responsibly.”

The awards recognize excellence in teaching and leadership in the core areas of print and broadcast journalism: reporting, editing, journalism history, media law and ethics. The recipients are selected from nominations submitted to The Freedom Forum by journalism-school administrators, alumni and students across the country. This is the fifth year the awards have been presented.

For more information about the Freedom Forum, log onto www.freedomforum.org.