June 1, 2012 — Patrick Breen is headed to Phoenix Ariz. this summer to take on his next assignment as a photographer for The Arizona Republic newspaper. Breen will shoot daily assignments and video for the newspaper and its community sections.
The position is part of the Pulliam Journalism Fellowship program. The program offers journalism students and recent graduates with a talent for reporting, news design and graphics or photojournalism to work alongside professionals and learn from some of the best minds in journalism.
Breen received multiple honors in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program during the 2011-2012 academic year where he earned a second place finish in the photojournalism semi-finalist category; third in the photojournalism picture story/series category; sixth in the photojournalism news/feature category, ninth in the multimedia III category and tenth in the multimedia category.
Breen grew up in Omaha, Neb., and attended Omaha Central High School. In 2008 he was named Nebraska State Journalist of the Year and National High School Journalist of the Year.
Breen first interned at the Cedar County News in northeast Nebraska before starting at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2008. There he gained a strong interest in community and social journalism.
In 2010, he was awarded Nebraska News Photographer Association’s College Photographer of the Year along with other awards including first in picture story, sports action photo and sports feature photo.
Breen then traveled abroad, first to Kazakhstan to do documentary work on various topics from poverty to the after-effects of nuclear radiation then to Bolivia to do documentary work on the indigenous population.
In his junior year, Breen was photo chief of the Daily Nebraskan, the university’s student-run paper. He headed up a staff of 12 photographers that won various awards across the nation. In his senior year, he was director of multimedia, creating a new multimedia department with an emphasis in long-form visual storytelling. With a staff of six, they produced daily videos, weekly video recaps for sports and audio picture stories for the newspaper.
Breen has held internships at the Lincoln Journal Star for the past three years and was a photo intern with The Arizona Republic last summer. He graduated in May 2012.
The Pulliam Fellowship Program places journalism students at The Arizona Republic, The Indianapolis Star and Gannett Co. newspapers. Pulliam Fellows earn $650/week during the 10-week program.
Patrick Breen