The Southeast Missouri State University Department of Mass Media has a new scholarship for students to celebrate the work of a long-time faculty member.
The Dr. Jim Dufek Visual Storytelling Endowed Scholarship will go to a student who is admitted to the mass media program and demonstrates a strong work ethic and creative vision in producing a visual story. Preferences will go to students pursuing television or film degrees.
Friends and family of Dr. Dufek helped create the scholarship and presented it as a surprise for his retirement from the University.
Dufek spent 39 years with Southeast. He was a founding member of what was then the Department of Mass Communication. Dufek eventually became a professor of mass media, a television and film operations manager and the SETV production director, Rose Theatre Facilities Coordinator, and the ESPN Operations Manager for the ACEJMC-accredited Department of Mass Media. He was recognized by students for his commitment to student success and for going above and beyond classroom teaching with the Southeast Student Government Excellence in Teaching Award in 2018.
Outside of his work on campus, Dufek also worked on several film projects. He helped to bring filming for “Killshot” and “Gone Girl” to Cape Girardeau in 2006 and 2013. He was named a Silver Medal recipient from the American Advertising Federation in 2019.