(Downloadable photo available: /ziblukphoto.htm)

When Dr. Jack Zibluk's photojournalism students at Arkansas State University talk about their "dream job," they often talk about working at National Geographic magazine. This summer, Dr. Zibluk will be living that dream.

Zibluk has been named National Geographic's Faculty Fellow for 2002. For nine weeks he will be involved in all aspects of the magazine's production, from story selection, writing and editing, to layout and design. He will be based in Washington, D.C., at National Geographic's headquarters.

"This is one of the highest honors in photojournalism education," Zibluk said. "And it's fun and exciting, too."

Susan Smith, National Geographic's assistant photography editor, said the fellowship is really "what you make out of it." She said that Zibluk will have opportunities to become actively involved in the magazine or be more of a casual observer.

Smith also pointed out that the purpose of the fellowship is to allow educators to bring the latest innovations in magazine journalism back to the classroom.

Zibluk, coordinator of Arkansas State University's photojournalism sequence since 1993, said he hopes that the fellowship will help him inspire his students.

"Many of my students think that only people in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles get the big media jobs. I want to show them that if I can work at National Geographic, they can. I want to give my students hope."

"They don't often send their scholars in residence out into the field," Zibluk said. "But it has happened before. You never know what may come up."

Stepping from the academic world to the professional world is nothing new to Zibluk. He worked in nearby Memphis at The Commercial Appeal, the Mid-South's largest circulation newspaper, for a summer as a photojournalist and editor under the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Excellence in Journalism program in 2000.

"I guess I did pretty well, because they asked me to stay on," he said. Zibluk currently works as a part-time copy editor and page designer for The Commercial Appeal.

Zibluk continues to be a working journalist as a writer and photographer. He has written articles for News Photographer and Journalism Education Today magazines. His columns have appeared in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, The Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is also a freelance photographer whose work has appeared in American Portrait magazine and several smaller, regional publications.

Zibluk’s art photography has been featured in galleries in Jonesboro, Little Rock and Hot Springs, Arkansas, and in Memphis. "I also photograph a lot of weddings," Zibluk said. "It's often my gift to current and former students."

Zibluk, the son of John and Joan Zibluk of Bethany, Conn., graduated from Southern Connecticut State University in 1983. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. At SCSU, he was class president and editor of the student newspaper for three semesters. He earned an master’s degree in urban studies from SCSU in 1984.

Prior to his teaching career, Zibluk has been a writer, editor and photographer for the Evening Sentinel of Ansonia; editor of the Bethany-Woodbridge and Orange Bulletin newspapers; sports photo and city editor of the Milford Citizen, editor and bureau chief for the Record-Journal of Meriden; and copy editor with the Danbury News-Times.

Zibluk earned his doctoral degree in mass communications from Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 1998. At Bowling Green, he won the Fisher Scholarship as the top Ph.D. student in Mass Communications in 1992. He also won two consecutive Scripps-Howard scholarships in 1991 and 1992.

He and his wife, Sara E. McNeil, a writer, editor and educator, have been married since 1998. Their daughter, Kate, was born in 1999.