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Outstanding Young Alumni 2005

The Outstanding Young Alumni Award is presented to up to two alumni of Stetson University who are 35 years of age or younger. The award recognizes contributions to society, to a profession, or to Stetson University. Recipients must demonstrate significant accomplishment or promise in their fields; leadership; or civic, cultural, or charitable involvement.

Andy A. Dehnart '99

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A journalism major at Stetson, with minors in Religious Studies and Political Science, Andy Dehnart received a Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in 1999. At Stetson, he edited The Reporter for two years and won the Josephine Field Davidson Award for Integrity in Journalism in 1998. He was also chosen to address his fellow seniors at Commencement. He went on to earn an M.F.A. in Nonfiction Writing and Literature from Bennington College in Vermont and has worked as director of communications for a nonprofit organization in Chicago and as producer for an online venture of the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post.

Since 2002, he has taught English, Journalism, and Communication Studies at Stetson, including courses he created in literary journalism, new media and digital journalism, and magazine writing. He also teaches writing during the summer at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth. Two years ago, he brought Fray Day to Stetson, the first time the worldwide true storytelling event had been staged in the southeastern United States.

An expert in reality television and online journalism, he writes and edits reality blurred, a Web site he created in 2000 to chronicle reality television. Read by more than a quarter of a million people internationally each month, his Web site was the first to explore the phenomenon and has been highly praised by Slate and Entertainment Weekly. In 2001, USA TODAY listed him as one of “100 People of the Year” in pop culture. He is currently working on a book exploring the nation’s obsession with reality TV.

His writing and reporting have been published in many forums, including Salon, The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and The Advocate. He contributes regularly to MSNBC.com on popular culture and entertainment, including television criticism and analysis. A frequent guest on radio, from NPR to XM Satellite, he has also appeared on cable news shows and been quoted in many publications, from The New York Times to TV Guide. Featured in a documentary produced by Spain’s Canal+, he also recently filmed a one-minute commentary for a pilot episode of a new reality TV-focused news program.

 

Jane Fleming Kleeb '95

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A religious studies major at Stetson, Jane Erin Fleming received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1995, with minors in Leadership Studies and Women and Gender Studies. During her Stetson years, she helped found Stetson’s first volunteer coalition, Into the Streets. She was honored for her community service with Stetson’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, as well as the Florida Excellence in Service Award. The first appointed Youth Commissioner to the Governor’s Commission on National Service in Florida, she also served as Youth Delegate to the President’s Summit for America’s Future.

Now executive director of the Young Democrats of America, which has more than 50,000 members under the age of 36, she worked extensively within various grassroots organizations, foundations, and corporations for 13 years before assuming that post during the 2004 election cycle. She helped develop the first-ever National Youth Coordinated Campaign, which turned out young voters in record numbers in 2004.

Before entering the political arena, she was a senior executive at the high-profile access strategies consulting firm, Scott+Yandura; executive director of the Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders; and the youngest AmeriCorps Director in Florida.

She earned a master’s degree in International Training and Education at American University, where she started a campus group focusing on political activism as a tool to fight eating disorders. She currently serves on several boards and committees, including the Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy and Action; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; and Dads & Daughters. She is also a member of the Stetson University Alumni Board of Directors representing the greater Washington, D.C., area.

Often consulted as an expert by the news media, she has been interviewed several times on CNN, profiled in national publications such as Rolling Stone and Spin magazine, and has appeared on the Style network. She was also a key advisor for an HBO documentary and was featured in an MTV documentary, both on eating disorders.