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June 22, 2001/Tamuz 1, 5761, Vol. 53, No.38
ASU faculty member to teach in Latvia
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Dan and Amy Fellner have traveled to more than 50 countries, including this visit to the Greek Islands.
Photo courtesy of Dan Fellner |
Dan Fellner loves to travel. He has visited more than 50 different countries, but has never stayed anywhere for more than two weeks.
"I've had largely superficial snapshots of places I've been," he explains.
The desire to visit a country in a more extensive way led Fellner to apply for the Fulbright Scholar Program over a year ago. Each year, the Fulbright Scholar Program allows 800 scholars and professionals from the United States to travel to more than 140 countries to lecture and conduct research.
Fellner, who has been teaching broadcast writing at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication for the past three years, was selected as a Fulbright Scholar for the 2001-2002 academic year. He will teach broadcast journalism and public relations at the University of Latvia's Department of Journalism and Mass Communication in Riga, Latvia, beginning in September.
Fellner has worked in the fields of broadcast journalism and public relations for the past 20 years. After graduating from ASU with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism, he went to work as a reporter and anchor, first in Tucson and then in El Paso, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio. While in Columbus, he earned a master's degree in journalism from Ohio State University.
After teaching at Ohio State for a year, Fellner determined it was time to make a new career move.
"I decided that I didn't want to be covering murders and high school football games and city council meetings for the rest of my life," he explains. "The nature of television news is that you need to move around a lot. It's a very transient business and at that point in my life I was looking to settle down."
Fellner joined Dow Chemical Corporation as the manager of news media relations. He worked as their corporate spokesperson for 10 years before returning to the Valley in 1998 to begin his own business, Fellner Consulting Services. He currently does writing and media training for Dow, along with other corporate clients.
Fellner, 42, lives in Gilbert with his wife Amy, a lawyer. He says that working as a consultant allows him ample time to travel and to pursue his interest in travel writing for newspapers and magazines.
At the age of 12, Fellner moved to the Valley with his parents, Irv and Eileen Fellner, currently of Mesa, and his sister Susan Schanerman, who is now the cantorial soloist at Temple Emanuel of Tempe. Fellner became a bar mitzvah at Temple Beth Sholom in Mesa.
"I feel very strongly about my Jewish identity," he says.
He says he looks forward to exploring the Jewish community and attending services in Latvia during the next year. According to Fellner, there are 11,000 Jews in Latvia, most of them living in Riga. Fellner says there are many opportunities to learn about Judaism in Latvia, with resources such as a museum, a concentration camp and the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Latvia.
Additionally, Fellner's wife has a passion for tracing her genealogy. She discovered that her lineage can be traced to Lithuania, which borders Latvia. He says she is looking forward to discovering her roots in Lithuania during the year they spend abroad. The couple was also motivated to go to Lativia because they wanted to experience living in Europe in a relatively large city - Riga has a population of approximately 850,000.
Fellner looks forward to the opportunities the next year will afford him.
"I really have a chance to gain an in-depth knowledge of a country and its culture. I think it will be a career-broadening experience, as well," he explains. "I'll improve my skills as a teacher and I'll learn more about the fields of journalism and public relations in a different part of the world, which can only help me in practicing the profession back here at home."
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