Eric Von was a longtime trusted voice and journalist in Milwaukee. His work in radio spanned over 25 years, which included podcasts, reporting and moderating pressing community conversations, specifically those around Black Milwaukee.
When he passed away in 2016, WUWM, along with his wife Faithe Colas and donors, started the Eric Von Broadcast Fellowship — a year-long fellowship aimed at early career reporters from marginalized backgrounds. With this year’s fellowship open to new applicants, we check in with Race and Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell, who was the first recipient of the fellowship, and the current, and sixth, Von Fellow Nadya Kelly to hear how the opportunity impacted them.
For Powell, the fellowship was an introduction to a previously unknown space.
"I was not an NPR listener prior to coming to WUWM," Powell said. "Of course, I had heard of it, but yeah, I was not a listener. It definitely got me into more of the Milwaukee community."
Kelly says she was wondering what she would do after graduate school and that the fellowship has provided an opportunity to get valuable experience in the journalism field.
"I felt that I didn't have enough experience to get a reporter job or podcasting job or any sort of job, really, so it was so great to run into a fellowship where it's meant to support early career journalists, specifically to get them that experience, and also to do it with support," Kelly says.
Von's widow, Faithe Colas, reflects on how Von would have reacted to the fellowship.
"He would have been hesitant, but he would have, eventually, been on board because he would have seen the impact," Colas said. "Had it not been for the Black press and Black radio, neither one of us would have gotten into media. We never would have had that opportunity and space to make mistakes and to grow. And to develop careers, and in Eric's case, a legacy career. I'm thrilled, our family is thrilled about the impact that the Eric Von Broadcast Fellowship makes on the lives of young people."
That legacy continues, as WUWM is currently accepting applications for the next Von Fellow until September 4.
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