MARFA, PRESIDIO — Sterry Butcher, senior reporter for The Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa and The International in Presidio, is in a class all her own.

She is the only weekly journalist nationwide awarded one of 12 John S. Knight Fellowships at Stanford University for the 2004-05 academic year.

Butcher’s peer fellows all come from major newspapers and national broadcast outlets including National Public Radio, The Washington Post, PBS Frontline, the Miami Herald and Boston Globe.

“I’ve been in a daze since I got the phone call,” Butcher said. “I’m really pleased to have been given this opportunity to readjust my perspectives and find out how other journalists do their jobs.”

The 2004-05 program marks the 39th year that Stanford has offered fellowships for professional journalists. Admittance to the program is highly competitive. Nearly 130 print, television, radio and online journalists, many of whom are nationally recognized, vied for the 12 available spots in an application process that took into account essays, published work, recommendations and personal interviews. Twelve international fellows will be announced this month.

During their stay at Stanford, the Knight Fellows are given one academic year to pursue independent courses of study and participate in special seminars. Butcher’s study plan will examine how residents of the Texas-Mexico borderlands can make their social and political voices heard. She and her husband Michael Roch, who is a painter, and their son Huck will leave for the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, Calif., in late August and return to Marfa in the early summer of 2005. Butcher will resume her position at the Sentinel and the International upon her return.

“This is just amazing and exciting news,” said editor and publisher Robert Halpern. “Sterry has earned this honor with her hard work, exceptional reporting and clear and concise writing.”

Butcher has been on the Sentinel and International staff for seven years and has worked every beat and covered every story imaginable, from local bee swarms and junior high volleyball games to water issues and congressional redistricting.

Butcher also was offered a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and earlier this month she was named the 2003 environmental reporter by the Sierra Club of Texas for her “exceptional coverage” of the Rio Nuevo-Texas General Land Office water lease issue. In October 2003, she broke the story and has followed it ever since.

She also is the recipient of Texas Press Association news writing, feature writing and headline writing awards.

“The successes I’ve had in journalism are not mine alone,” she said. “I had never thought about being a reporter until I submitted a letter to the editor to the Sentinel and was unexpectedly hired on. Everything I’ve learned about journalism and much that I’ve learned about community and commitment and hard work has come from my time with the Halpern-Salgado family.

“Publishing the newspapers each week is an ensemble effort and I’m just one member of that extraordinary ensemble. The acknowledgement that I’ve received should be extended to them as well.”

Said Halpern: “Sterry is not just a respected colleague. She and her family have become lifelong friends.”

“We are also honored that Stanford and Michigan would look beyond the national and international media organizations and offer Sterry fellowships,” said Rosario Salgado Halpern, co-owner of the newspapers.

“Just because our readership is small doesn’t mean our work isn’t as important and compelling as publications that dwarf us in size. Thanks to Stanford and Michigan for noticing Sterry’s work.”

Butcher has a bachelor’s degree in English from Reed College in Portland, Ore., and a master’s degree in English from the University of North Texas in Denton.

She is active in the community as a Marfa Public Library board member and a Child Advocacy Center board member. She and her husband deliver Meals on Wheels on Thursdays.

Financial support for the U.S. fellows comes primarily from an endowment provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Other 2004-05 U.S. Knight Fellowship recipients and their areas of study are:

Colleen Barry, news editor/Germany, Associated Press, the role of memory and sense of justice in establishing viable post-war/post-conflict societies.; Jody Berger, sports reporter, Rocky Mountain News, the economic, political and social impact of sports on U.S. culture; Denise Clifton, lead news designer, Seattle Times, storytelling through art, film, literature and history; Phillip Davis, Miami correspondent, National Public Radio, impact of globalization on knowledge workers; Tomasz Deptula, executive editor, Nowy Dziennik (Polish Daily News), New York, history and sociology of immigration to the United States; Susan Ferriss, Mexico correspondent, Cox Newspapers, economic globalization: success, failure and the U.S. role; John Jeter, South America bureau chief, Washington Post, international development, narrative writing; Geri Migielicz, director of photography, San Jose Mercury News, multi-media narratives; Sacha Pfeiffer, Spotlight team staff reporter, Boston Globe, legal principles, the courts and the law; Julia Powell, producer, PBS Frontline, U.S. defense policy and emerging security threats post September 11; and Frances Robles, Bogota bureau chief, Miami Herald, the role of amnesty in conflict resolution.