Master Lecturer Mike Foley, JM 1970, MAMC 2004, receives a customized T-shirt from Dean Terry Hynes during the spring commencement.

PERFECT FIT: Master Lecturer Mike Foley, JM 1970, MAMC 2004, receives a customized T-shirt from Dean Terry Hynes during the spring commencement.

One degree of separation

When asked which classes made grad school worthwhile, Master Lecturer Mike Foley, JM 1970, MAMC 2004, cited Literary Journalism, because “I got to read the books I love,” and History of Journalism, “until I realized I lived through the second half of it.”

The former St. Petersburg Times executive editor enrolled in the journalism master ’ s program three years ago for basically one reason: to secure a “license to teach.”

But Foley, who spent 30 years at one of the country’s best newspapers, gained more than a piece of paper. This semester, he started using his professional project (in lieu of a thesis), which features six former Hearst writing competitors, in his Reporting classes.

He hopes the stories the former students submitted to Hearst inspire his current students.  

“Almost always, stories students are given to read were written by experienced professionals,” Foley said. “But now they can see what students their age did and have no excuses.”

–Boaz Dvir

Boston Globe Photographer Essdras Suarez, JM 1993, recently shot this picture in Russia's far-eastern Chukotka Province.

ICE MAN: Boston Globe Photographer Essdras Suarez, JM 1993, recently shot this picture in Russia's far-eastern Chukotka Province.

Chasing a ghost in Alaska

Boston Globe Staff Photographer Essdras Suarez, JM 1993, recently received a call instructing him to prepare to fly to an undisclosed location in two hours.

“They said, ‘It might be a little bit cool,’” Suarez recalled. “It ended up being Alaska.”

Suarez flew to Homer Spit to look for alleged South Boston crime boss James J. “Whitey” Bulger, one of the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted who was supposedly sighted there.

Suarez spent eight days with bounty hunters “chasing a ghost,” he said. They found no trace of Bulger, who disappeared 10 years ago.

Suarez, who says he has been “mellowing” in recent months, has traveled extensively since covering the Iraq war in 2002. Besides training photojournalists in El Salvador in July, he photographed the riots in Haiti last year, the tsunami recovery efforts in Indonesia in January and the Israeli pullout from Gaza in August.

All this experience has led Suarez to develop a new philosophy on shooting dangerous assignments, he said: “No picture is worth my life.”

–Boaz Dvir

Mov(ie)ing up

At the rate she’s going, Erin Fruchtman, TEL 2003, will soon run a movie studio. Since she started last year at Britt Allcroft Productions in Santa Monica, Calif., she’s been promoted twice.

Ironically, she has no job title. It’s no reflection on her abilities, it’s just how Britt Allcroft works – as a team.

“I’m involved in pretty much everything,” Fruchtman said.

Together with her two colleagues, one of whom is the company’s owner, Fruchtman is working on an independent film, two children’s book series and a children’s live-action TV show that’s being shot in Florida.

“I never have a normal day,” she said. “I feel that this is the best place for me. I would never have found such an opportunity in a big company.”

This experience has led her to redefine her goals: Originally, she set out to become a TV producer, now she leans toward feature films.

“In TV, you can’t do it on your own, and there are only so many channels,” she said. “In film, you can always create it and make sure someone can see it.”

–Boaz Dvir