A head start towards Fitzwater Scholarship

By Kyle Maley
Presidency and the Press

Methuen graduate Ian Hayden is one of many students attending The Presidency and the Press conference this summer at Franklin Pierce University to further improve his skills in the media production field of journalism.

Hayden, who is 18 years old, was accepted into Franklin Pierce and will attend the school for the next school year.  His goal is to obtain the Fitzwater Scholarship, named after Marlin Fitzwater, the former Press Secretary for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.  He hopes to use skills learned at The Presidency and the Press conference to give him a head start on the road to the scholarship, which is intended to help students in the media field.  “I’m very excited for college.  The campus is very similar to my mom’s studio so there won’t be any new learning curb.”

A local news studio in Methuen is owned by Hayden’s mother, which gave him an opportunity to work behind the scenes in media production.  When local news was happening, Hayden would often work with the film crew from Channel 22 at the location to get footage of the entire scene.  “A good cameraman gets something more interesting and more relevant.  It’d be boring to have the camera on the face of one person for a while.”  The behind the scenes work is what interests Hayden, as opposed to being the one conducting the actual interview.

The Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University has a well renowned journalism program that Hayden will have a unique chance to experience in the fall.