West Virginia University P.I. Reed School of Journalism student Ivy Smith-Guiler will travel to Vietnam in late March to cover the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, when U.S. forces pulled out of the country and ended the U.S. participation in the countrys civil war.
Smith-Guiler, of Keyser, will travel to the country as the recipient of the Frank M. Kearns Fellowship, which each year sends students to a foreign country to cover a major international event. The fellowship honors the late Frank M. Kearns, a former CBS foreign correspondent and School of Journalism professor from 1971-1983.
During her 11-day trip to Vietnam, Smith-Guiler she will be covering the 30th reunion of Vietnam war correspondents, many of whom witnessed the fall of Saigon first-hand. She will focus her story on SOJ Ogden Newspapers Visiting Professor George Esper, who covered the war from 1965-1975 for the Associated Press.
“I will be retracing his footsteps,”Smith said.
When the evacuation of Saigon began, the AP asked Esper if he wanted to take his leave along with others. He decided to stay despite the doomsayer prediction of a bloodbath once the North Vietnamese marched into the city. After the Communists took over on April 30, 1975, Esper remained in Saigon for five weeks until he was expelled and the AP Bureau shut down.
In December 1984, Esper returned on a temporary visa for the first time since he was expelled to reopen the AP bureau there. In his more than 40 years with the AP, Esper earned himself the esteemed title of AP Special Correspondent for his work.
“We are so very proud to have such an outstanding student as Ivy,”said Maryanne Reed, acting dean.”She is a truly exceptional student, a dedicated journalist and a student that every teacher loves to have in the classroom.”
Among her various achievements, Smith-Guiler was one of only 10 students chosen nationwide in spring 2004 for the$10,000 Scripps Howard Foundation Top Ten scholarship, and the first in SOJ history to win the award. Scripps Howard also chose her to spend the fall semester in Washington, D.C., to cover politics for the organization.
Smith-Guiler has worked as a reporter at The Dominion Post in Morgantown, the News-Tribune in Keyser and the Cumberland Times-News.