Two degrees of separation

I arrived in Nashville for my Chips Quinn Scholars Program orientation weekend this afternoon and already I've learned one important thing: Don't screw up!

These were the words from John C. Quinn, founder of the CQS program. He gave them tonight while addressing the 2007 CQS class at the opening dinner.

When he said these words, I first felt a bit tense, but then wondered why he was telling us not to screw up. I soon found out from colleagues at my table.

It turns out that for any veteran journalist, life does not consist of six degrees of separation.

"I think it might be just two degrees," said Kristen Go, action-team leader for The Arizona Republic and CQS alum.

Besides Kristen, I sat at a table with Mary Ann Hogan, CQS career coach, and Robbie Morganfield, executive director of the Diversity Institute. Two other new Chips Quinn Scholars also were at the table. What startled me was how connected all of us are.

For starters, Hogan knows my UC-Berkeley graduate school adviser, Paul Grabowicz. They worked together during the late 1980s at The Oakland Tribune. Meanwhile, Morganfield knows some previous colleagues of Hogan’s; he met them when he worked at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. And, of course, everyone at the table knew some of the 1,033 Scholars who are now working at media publications throughout the country (one of them introduced me to the program).

The people at my table made Quinn's lesson very clear to me: If you screw up, everyone will know about it.

-- Brian Aguilar, Summer 2007 Scholar, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif., and University of California-Berkeley (He is one of two Summer Scholars joining the Spring class for orientation.)