Former OHIO and WOUB student Doug Drew establishes fund to support professional development for current WOUB students

Former Ohio University and WOUB student Doug Drew is paying his WOUB experience forward with a $125,000 gift commitment to establish an endowment and provide immediate-use funding to help current WOUB students enhance their skills and take their careers to the next level. The Doug Drew WOUB Student Professional Development Fund will be used to provide general support for professional development experiences for students involved with WOUB to prepare them for careers in media.

“Thanks to two professional journalists who were supervisors at WOUB, I learned so much about the news business during my college years, I was well prepared to launch my broadcast career when I graduated. It was those two professionals, John Chalfant and Bruce Cuthbertson, who taught me the realities of being a broadcast journalist in a working newsroom,” said Drew. “After 20 years working in TV news as a reporter, anchor, executive producer and news director, I became a television news consultant. And for another 20 years I traveled the world, visiting newsrooms and networks, teaching working journalists better storytelling and introducing them to new trends in the industry, much like those two professionals who helped me at WOUB many years before.”

Drew grew up in Cincinnati and started at Ohio University in the mid-1970s. The radio and television major fell in love with Athens and was excited to gain hands-on, real-world experience at WOUB.

“I walked into an orientation meeting in a WOUB TV studio in 1974 to learn about student volunteer opportunities at the station, interested in becoming a sports broadcaster. As the session concluded, the coordinator suggested the students who wanted a sports career go to the other side of the room and those who wanted to be in news stay where we were. Three quarters of the room walked to the other side,” said Drew. “Whether frozen in fear or actually realizing my opportunities would be greater with less competition, I stayed where I was, and my news career was launched. It was the best decision I ever made.”

As a dedicated former WOUB student, Drew has been a member of the WOUB Alumni Engagement Group for nearly two years. The group has helped create the WOUB Mentoring Program, the WOUB Job Connection Program and WOUB Wednesdays, which all connect current and former WOUB students and leverage the professional connections alumni have to help current students with their careers in the media industry.

“I have established this fund to continue my passion for professional mentorship, to bring working professionals to WOUB for workshops, and to allow WOUB students to attend conferences and meetings that will help prepare them for a career in television news.”

To learn more about WOUB, visit woub.org.