Ann Devroy Memorial Fund, Forum, and Fellows
Honoring One of Journalism's "Toughest and Fairest"
The Ann Devroy Memorial Fund supports an event and student fellowship dedicated to the memory of Ann Devroy, a UW-Eau Claire journalism graduate and respected journalist often described as one of the best reporters ever to cover the White House.
History of the Devroy Fund
The fund was started by Devroy's family and colleagues at The Washington Post after she died of cancer in 1997 at the age of 49. Their generosity supports the Devroy Fellowship, which provides a scholarship and a three-week stint at The Washington Post, as well as eligibility to apply for a paid summer internship at a Wisconsin daily newspaper. It also supports the Devroy Forum, which annually brings journalists of national prominence to UW-Eau Claire.
History of The Devroy Forum
With the incredible opportunities given to journalism students through the Ann Devroy Memorial Fund, our faculty is proud to house the Ann Devroy Memorial Forum and Fellowship.
Shortly after Devroy's death, Doug Kaiser, a 1968 UW-Eau Claire alumnus and friend of Devroy, contacted UW-Eau Claire with a suggestion of establishing an internship program with The Washington Post in Devroy's name. Coleman, a Wisconsin native and a graduate of the UW-Milwaukee himself, helped UW-Eau Claire design the fellowship, won a commitment from The Washington Post for an annual winter fellowship in the newsroom and raised tens of thousands of dollars. He recruited prominent Post journalists to speak at the Devroy Forum.
When the fund was established, Mark Matthews, Devroy's husband, said it was important to him that those benefiting from the dollars have an interest in journalism —the career that meant so much to Devroy. But, he said, recipients should also have the same spirit and love of life that Devroy possessed.
While still an undergraduate student, Devroy worked full time at the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. She was eager to start her career but also needed the money for school, Matthews said, adding that he hopes the fund will ease the financial burden on others with similar backgrounds.
In 2003, the UW-Eau Claire Foundation received a challenge grant of $20,000 from the Philip Graham Fund to encourage additional giving to the Ann Devroy Memorial Fund.
The challenge grant resulted in several gifts, the largest of which was a $25,000 gift from George Stephanopoulos, who was senior adviser to President Clinton when Ann Devroy was The Washington Post's top White House correspondent. The gift was Stephanopoulos' second contribution to the Devroy Fund. He also was among the initial contributors when the fund was created and praised Devroy's contributions to journalism.
In testament to Devroy's impact on journalism and outstanding life, her friends and colleagues continue to honor her memory through contributions to this fund 10 years after her death. The fund has a current balance of more than $127,000 and benefits from consistent and generous support. The goal is to increase the endowment to $250,000.
Forum Presenters
Each year we bring some of the most remarkable journalists to present the Ann Devroy Memorial Fellowship to one of our most promising journalism students. Our presenters come to campus, meet in classrooms, chat with journalism students, and present on what they're most passionate about. Past presenters have discussed politics, social media, and beyond.
Devroy Fellows
Each year we give out the Ann Devroy Memorial fellowship to our most promising journalism student. Through this the student gets the chance to intern at the Washington Post, as well as a local Wisconsin newspaper. When the fellow returns after their summer internships, they reflect on their experience.
Words do not do justice to the significance the Ann Devroy Fellowship has had on my life. It sent me on a journey very few can walk this early in their careers, and it's provided me with a perspective I will never forget.
Ann Devroy set a high, yet brilliant standard in journalism, and I'm humbled to have been honored with the award named for her. With the Devroy Fellowship, I've been able to make impressive strides in my young career. No matter how far I advance, I will always remember the lessons from this honor.
Devroy made a lasting impression in the field because she always stayed determined and worked beyond the limitations of her abilities. I hope to leave a similar impression as I walk in the footsteps of Ann Devroy, and possibly, leave a few of my own along the way.
I am still amazed at how much knowledge and confidence I gained in such a short time during my internships. The Devroy Fellowship offered many opportunities - from reporting at President Bush's second inauguration for The Washington Post to writing lead stories for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
My experiences cemented my passion for reporting and gave me a solid foundation as I entered the profession. Topped with inspiring stories about Ann Devroy's talent and determination, her career has been the perfect example as I begin my own as a reporter at the Janesville Gazette.
My experience as a Devroy fellow has served me well in my early career as a journalist. Spending time at The Washington Post, I was able to learn from the best reporters in the business, gaining from not only their wealth of experience, but also from their stories about the legendary Ann Devroy. My time in Washington - the people I met, places I saw and what I experienced - was positively indescribable.
In addition to three wonderful weeks at The Post, the summer internship I earned literally helped launch my career. I spent three months as an intern at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, where I am currently employed as the paper's education reporter. It's given me a great start.
Excitement and anxiety filled me on my way to D.C. I was a small-town, southern Minnesotan heading to a three-week venture in a major U.S. city to work at one of the nation's biggest newspapers.
My fellowship was amazing and unforgettable thanks to my hosts and The Post staff. It was a journalism and history geek's dream come true, seeing famous D.C. sites, big-wig reporters and journalists and President Bush at the White House.
I think about my time there quite often. With snow and frigid temps, though, you could say I'm still bitter I didn't have the so-called mild D.C. winter for my walk to the subway and work. But, in seriousness, I always will be grateful to UW-Eau Claire, The Post and Ann Devroy's family for the opportunity.
During my fellowship at The Washington Post, I got my first taste of reporting on crime. I spent several days with two talented criminal justice reporters who not only let me tag along with them, but who took the time to talk about their work and answer my questions. It made me realize that this was the kind of reporting that I wanted to do. My seven months at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, also part of the Ann Devroy Fellowship program, further cemented that notion.
Today I cover 16 police departments and a bustling criminal courts system as a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. I'm grateful for the experience the Ann Devroy Fellowship gave me.
I got the letter junior year. Congratulations, it said. You've won the Ann Devroy Fellowship. And I remember standing there, my hands shaking, thinking: How will I ever prove I'm worthy of this? Well, here I am, seven years later, still trying.
What the Devroy award meant to me was a chance to learn more about a great journalist, to explore the power and impact of newspapers, to sit amid the energy and cluttered desks of a professional newsroom and understand what this business of digesting and sharing information was all about.
It got me hooked. I left for Washington with a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. I came back without a doubt in my mind. My time at my internship in Madison only reinforced it: Yeah, journalism was definitely for me.
In the time since, I've written hundreds of stories at three different newspapers, covering the big issues and the small ones, always looking for what's important, always trying to tell it in a way that matters. This journalism bug - what I picked up at the Spectator and what became inflamed in Washington and Madison - has stubbornly failed to respond to treatment. I sit at a cluttered desk in the Cincinnati Enquirer newsroom just loving this. But am I worthy yet of the Ann Devroy Fellowship? No way. Check back in another seven years.
Winning the Devroy Fellowship was sort of like being asked to tour with The Beatles. Every single reporter and editor at The Washington Post was like a rock star to me. I sat next to Howard Kurtz in the newsroom. I ate in the lunchroom with David Broder. I talked shop with Len Downie. To call it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity doesn't go far enough - most journalists will live their whole lives and never get the chance to be part of one of the world's great news organizations, if only for a month.
The Ann Devroy Fellowship has had the impact on me and on my journalism career that I hoped it would, if not more. It's a treat now to look back and think about the fellowship. What journalism student at UW-Eau Claire would not dream of being invited to start his post- college newspaper career at The Washington Post? Who would not want to receive the fellowship carrying the name of one of his school's most respected professionals? It didn't seem real then, but it's easy to see now what a gift the fellowship was to me and continues to be for our journalism department. The fellowship was more than a once-in-a-career opportunity - it was motivation, it was the good kind of pressure, and it was a career head start unlike any other in journalism.
I arrived in Washington ready to be a sponge and a workaholic and with a strong desire to live up to the expectations of Devroy's former coworkers. I left with a much better understanding of how a daily newspaper operation works and a good idea about how the best in the business got to be just that. My experiences in Washington and later in Milwaukee prepared me well for a career in print journalism. Today, nine years later, I have a job I love for the paper where I always wanted to work. Would I have arrived at this place without the Ann Devroy Fellowship experience? It's a question I've raised to myself plenty of times, and the only conclusion I come up with is thank goodness I didn't have to find out.