Gillum Named as USA Today Academic All-American

Gillum Named as USA Today Academic All-American

BY DANA DURBIN
Rice News Staff
May 7, 1998

Jones College senior Jon Gillum applied for a spot on the 1998 USA Today All-American
College Academic Team earlier this year. That was the easy part. The hard part
was the work Gil-lum has done at Rice that earned him a spot on the team.

Gillum is the first Rice student to be named to the USA Today academic team
in more than six years. He was one of 60 students who earned the designation
from a pool of nearly 1,200 applicants and one of only four people on the academic
team selected from a Texas university.

A history and policy studies major, Gillum was recognized by USA Today for
his outstanding academic achievement that has included rigorous historical research
and for his community involvement, leadership ability and internship experience.

The Baytown native was named to a similar team as a high school student, but
said that earning the honor in college is "a much bigger deal." He
cited the work of other members of the academic team, which has focused on topics
such as the Chernobyl disaster and agriculture redevelopment.

"I’m honored to be among people who have done that kind of work. It’s
not like I saved the world or anything," he said.

Gillum’s research projects have included examinations of the historical significance
of the 1928 Democratic National Convention in Houston, the role of the Tennessee
Valley Authority in World War II, and media coverage during World War II.

"What impresses me most about Mr. Gillum is his energy, his range of activities,
the amount of research he is able to complete, and his scope of knowledge,"
said John Boles, the William P. Hobby Professor of History and one of the faculty
who recommended Gillum for the honor.

Researching the impact of the 1928 Democratic Convention in Houston was the
first project Gillum took on as a Rice student. An article on the subject appeared
in the historical journal Touchstone.

He conducted research at the Houston Metropolitan Research Center, an arm of
the Houston Public Library, reviewing minutes of the convention, old photographs,
brochures and editions of the Houston Post.

The project is Gillum’s favorite because it hits on a topic close to his heart–Houston.
The research project on the Tennessee Valley Authority also included extensive
research. Gillum actually started that project when he was in high school and
revised it while at Rice.

A third research project focusing on how the government limited the information
people learned about World War II and how the press cooperated with the release
of information combined archival research and interviews with war correspondents.
Gillum received funding from the Rice Undergraduate Scholars Program and visited
the National Archives in College Park, Md., where he sorted through declassified
documents related to the war.

It was an exhaustive process, Gillum said, because of the bureaucracy involved
in reviewing the documents, which included press guidelines for covering the
war and samples of news stories that censors had approved.

Correspondents he interviewed included Andy Rooney, who worked for Stars and
Stripes newspaper and now of "60 Minutes," and Joe Rosenthal, who
took the famed photograph of the American flag-raising at Iwo Jima.

"Andy Rooney was quite a character," Gillum said, adding that Rooney
often refused to answer questions and requested that Gillum ask him very specific
questions. Rosenthal, meanwhile, was "extraordinarily bitter."

At Rice,Gillum has served as president of the Young Democrats, founder and
president of the Rice Undergraduate History Majors Society, executive vice president
of Jones College and co-founder of the Rice Policy Studies Society–all while
maintaining a 4.12 GPA. He received the Department of History’s Barbara Field
Kennedy Prize in American History and was a recipient of the Mary Hayes Ewing
Publication Prize in Southern History and the Charles A. Garside Jr. Travel
Scholarship.

He also served as a mentor and adviser to high school students participating
in National History Day, a national competition of which Gillum twice earned
first place.

After graduating on May 9, Gillum will attend the University of Texas at Austin
on two full scholarships and will pursue a joint advanced degree from the UT
School of Law and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.