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January 22, 2009

Presbyterian News Service gets new reporter

Lifelong Presbyterian Bethany Furkin starts Feb. 2

by Presbyterian News Service

Bethany Furkin

LOUISVILLE ― Bethany R. Furkin, a recent honors graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, has been named a reporter for the Presbyterian News Service. She begins work Feb. 2.

Furkin, a lifelong member of Springdale Presbyterian Church here, joins PNS coordinator Jerry Van Marter on the PNS staff, which was reduced to one person by the resignation of Toya Richards Hill last May and the sudden death of Evan Silverstein on Nov. 9.

“Bethany Furkin has everything we’ve looked for in a reporter,” Van Marter said. “She’s a cradle Presbyterian so she knows the church well. She has won awards for her reporting and editing everywhere she’s worked and brings youthful enthusiasm to a job that will greatly benefit from it.”

Furkin won numerous scholarships and awards while at Ohio University. The Society of Professional Journalists named her school paper, The Post, the best college newspaper in Ohio during the time she served as assistant managing editor.

Following her 2008 graduation, Furkin served as a reporting intern last summer for the Chautauquan Daily, the newspaper of the renowned Chautauqua Institution in New York. Since October, she has been serving as a free-lance reporter for Louisville’s Business First weekly newspaper.