New Fund Boosts Educational Experiences for Newhouse Journalism Students

A new fund established by the Mildred and Jube Foundation Inc., supports educational experiences for Newhouse School journalism students such as travel to work on reporting projects or attend conferences, and costs related to internships.

The Virginia-based nonprofit is named after the late Mildred and Jube Shiver Sr., the parents of former Los Angeles Times journalist Jube Shiver Jr. ’75. He also worked at USA Today, The Washington Post and The Washington Star. Shiver covered a variety of subjects including healthcare, entertainment, politics and the antitrust case against Microsoft in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Shiver said the foundation sought to provide support to students at a time when many families are grappling with how to pay for college. Shiver’s parents, who were both schoolteachers, helped finance the college educations of dozens of students during their lifetimes through donations to their respective alma maters, the foundation said.

Foundation board members grew up in the segregated South to middle class parents, Shiver said, and foundation president Jacqueline West and her sister were the first Black students to integrate an elementary school in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Arlington, Virginia. Shiver also grew up in northern Virginia during Jim Crow.

“I think the expectation for all of our parents was that we would do better than they did professionally and continue the fight against discrimination and segregation,” Shiver said. “The affordability of higher education a half-century ago was a huge help.”

While attending Syracuse, Shiver worked for a summer at a now-closed Chrysler plant in the area. At one point, he worked overnights on a transmission assembly line until 7 a.m., then would rush back to campus for an 8 a.m. class.

“My sleep was just terrible. I basically ended up staying up all day,” he said. “After two months, it just caught up with me and I just said, ‘I can’t do this.’”

Two other summers, he returned home to work at The Washington Post as a copy messenger. Each time, he earned enough money to cover most of the rest of his tuition on top of what his parents were paying.

“You can’t do that today. The foundation is making this contribution to help surmount the huge financial challenge students face in today’s economic environment,” Shiver said.

“In addition, the reason we made this donation to [enhance experiences for Newhouse student journalists] was to support critical thinking and democracy and honor the legacy of my parents,” he added.

Shiver also cited William Donald Wright, a media consultant and pioneering advocate for expanding access to broadcasting for traditionally underrepresented groups, as an inspiration for the foundation’s donation.

A focus on assisting students with off-campus opportunities was important for Shiver based off his own experiences at Syracuse. One year, he was awarded a $300 grant at Newhouse to travel to Chicago for a writers’ conference. There, he met Samuel Yette, the first Black Washington correspondent for Newsweek and author of the landmark book “The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival in America,” which documented the effects of federal government policies on African Americans. 

“It was really a growth experience for me,” Shiver said. “The other thing about travel is that you get to challenge yourself in a lot of different ways … which I think contributes to making people better journalists.”

A key pillar of the Newhouse academic experience is fostering opportunities for students to apply what they learn in class to real-world opportunities like internships and immersion trips, or semesters spent abroad or at Newhouse centers in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

“This donation by the Mildred and Jube Foundation is so impactful because the funds support our student journalists as they prepare for careers in the newsroom and follow in the footsteps of alumni like Jube Shiver,” Newhouse Dean Mark J. Lodato said. “We are so appreciative of the foundation’s generosity.”

Shiver graduated with a bachelor’s in broadcast journalism and worked at WAER. He spent most of his career after graduation in newspaper newsrooms, having also covered Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and the fiery accident during a Pepsi commercial that led to severe burns for pop superstar Michael Jackson.

Shiver went on to teach writing for communication at American University. He is now retired from his family’s real estate management and investment business, Shiver Management Group, though his time at Syracuse still resonates today. “Just challenge yourself doing different things and do things that you don’t think you’re good at,” Shiver said in offering advice for current students. “Don’t focus on one particular thing but have a variety of experiences.”