John Foren who donated the Foren Communications Scholarship pictured with first annual recipient, Alaina Schnell, April 14, 2025, Dearborn, MI. Photo courtesy of The Mirror News

This past month, Henry Ford College alum John Foren set up The Foren Communications Scholarship, which awards $500 to a student pursuing a degree in journalism or media communication arts each year. This year, I was fortunate enough to be the first recipient of the scholarship and had the pleasure of meeting with Foren over lunch to discuss his career in journalism and communications.

Foren is currently the regional director of Public Relations, executive communications and social media for University of Michigan - Health. and has been teaching public relations writing at Michigan State University since last year.

Foren grew up in Dearborn and graduated from Edsel Ford High School before beginning his journey at Henry Ford Community College in the fall of 1979, freelance writing for The Ford Estate, HFC’s student-run newspaper, which has been under the name The Mirror News since 1997.

Foren instantly fell in love with the high-energy environment of the newsroom and the people in it, spending more time there than in class. “They were an interesting group of people. All creative individuals with strong personalities and diversified backgrounds,” Foren stated, calling the newsroom a group of “cool anti-authority misfits” who idolized Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein, the journalists who broke the Watergate scandal.

While freelancing, Foren wrote on various topics, ranging from entertainment to local crimes. Faculty advisor for The Ford Estate, Jim Reppke, picking up on Foren’s talent, quickly recruited Foren, promoting him to News Editor the following semester and to Editor-in-Chief in the fall of 1980. “While I was editor of The Ford Estate, I would always joke that being an editor ‘is like herding cats,’” Foren laughed, “They all had such strong-willed personalities and would walk over you if you let them.” Nevertheless, Foren enjoyed working with his fellow students on the newspaper. “They were really funny. We would trash talk and get on each other’s cases, making sure no one got too arrogant; I really enjoyed that work environment,” Foren laughed. After obtaining his associate’s degree, Foren transferred to Michigan State University, writing for its student publication, State News; then going on to earn his bachelor’s degree in journalism.

In 1983, Foren began his work writing for the Dearborn Heights Weekly Newspaper, then the Dearborn Newspaper, until 1985 when he landed a job with Booth Newspapers in 1990. He worked as a political reporter in the Washington D.C Bureau until 1995, and then he was hired by The Flint Journal and went to the paper’s Lansing Bureau. Foren worked as the local news editor, eventually working his way up to Editor-in-Chief for his last year with The Flint Journal, before taking a buyout in August of 2009.

In his early years at The Flint Journal, Foren and his colleagues would receive printed news updates from an AP teletype machine that sat at the center of the newsroom. “Whenever there was breaking news, the bells (on the teletype machine) would go off,” Foren said, still vividly remembering being in the newsroom at midnight when the bells went off, and the machine printed out a report of a bombing at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Foren set up the scholarship as a way to “express my gratitude for everything Henry Ford College has done for me, and to promote the school’s great communications program.” Foren credits HFC for preparing him for a four year university and a career in journalism. Foren also wants to support students who come from diverse economic and social backgrounds who share his passion for reporting.

Inquiries about the Foren Communications Scholarship can be sent to The Mirror News faculty advisor, Peter Kim: pkim@hfcc.edu.