Bowling Green, Ky. - Sam Ford, a graduating senior at Western Kentucky University originally from McHenry, has been accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Comparative Media Studies program for the fall 2005 semester.

Ford will obtain a Master's of Science while taking interdisciplinary classes involving mass media and cultural studies. He will also be working on the M.I.T. Laboratory for Branding Cultures with fellow students and staff members. The program involves studying the convergence of multiple media forms and its effects on businesses across industries.

The two-year program had its first graduating class in 2005 and generally accepts fewer than a dozen students each year.

Ford also has been chosen to receive a Phi Kappa Phi National Graduate Fellowship for use in his studies in graduate school in the fall.

Ford and his wife, Amanda, are both graduating from WKU in May. Both live in Bowling Green but are originally from Ohio County. He is the son of David and Betty Ford from McHenry.

Ford is majoring in English (writing), mass communication, communication studies and news/editorial journalism at WKU with a minor in film studies.

The Phi Kappa Phi National Graduate Fellowship is a competitive award given to only a few students each year. A nominee from each of Phi Kappa Phi's student chapters is sent to a national committee, which selects 60 national fellows and 40 Awards of Excellence.

The fellowship program, established in 1932, gives not only the honor of the award but also some funding for attending graduate school.

Phi Kappa Phi is an interdisciplinary honors fraternity that has chapters across the nation. Students are selected by meeting grade point average requirements and are rewarded both for academic achievement and community service.

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For information, contact Sam Ford at (270) 779-3903.