MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: JOURNALISM POWER HOUSE

BY KEITH HARRISTON

“So the global piece was sort of a natural because we wanted that to be the focus of the program, we wanted students to have that broader perspective. It was an instant way to stand out and also expand the idea of putting a variety of perspectives on the news, domestically as well as internationally.”

That focus led the school to establish a partnership with a university in Havana, Cuba, and several trips for students to travel and learn close-up about that country’s culture and produce journalism about it. Students also have traveled to France, Greece and South Africa. In addition, the school has partnerships with West Virginia, North Carolina A&T and Brigham Young universities—where journalism students from each institution work together to tell stories on various topics.

The SGJC follows a Teaching Hospital model, Jones said, which exposes students both to classroom learning and hands-on, real-world experience. Each of three majors--multimedia journalism, multiplatform production and strategic communication—offer students centers where they can put what they learn in the classroom to use in the Digital Newsroom, BEAR-TV (MPPD) and The Strategy Shop.

“We put a lot of emphasis on internships, boot camps, workshops, training programs and partnerships with other schools and professional media organizations,” Jones said.

In 2020, the school was awarded accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication—the second program in the state of Maryland to receive that status and the seventh among HBCUs nationally. That distinction “assures students, parents and the public that SGJC’s programs are of very high caliber and provide students with the skills and experiences they need to succeed in a highly competitive field,” according to the Accrediting Council.

Two recent SGJC graduates—Cierra Queen and Jalynn Moffat-Mowatt— were members of The New York Times team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Other graduates work as account executives for companies such as public relations and marketing consulting firm, Edelman and JP Morgan. Still others work at local television stations in cities such as Washington, D.C., Baltimore, M.D., Raleigh, N.C., Tampa, Fla., and Buffalo, N.Y.

Donethe Cyprien, who graduated in 2020, is a producer of a morning news program at WGRZ-TV in Buffalo. She transferred to SGJC after less than a year at a predominantly white institution in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. “I was there for a semester, and I hated it,” Cyprien said of her previous school. She applied to Morgan State simply because of a memory from high school. “I remembered somebody from Morgan had come to our school to tell us about Morgan and its journalism program,” she said. “I didn’t really know that much about HBCUs. I grew up in an immigrant household, and my parents weren’t really like hip like that. So, they really didn’t know."

“I got to Morgan, and I loved that it was so many Black people,” Cyprien said. “At my PWI, it just felt hard, like harder than it had to be. Not only were we competing for spots in our TV station— and it definitely had the resources, very fancy studio, very fancy equipment. It had all of that, but I just didn’t feel recognized. When I got to Morgan, I met people who looked like me, who had the same experiences as me and who all also wanted to be journalists.”

Jordan Brown, the editor-in-chief of the student news website, The Spokesman, said that she would tell potential students that the biggest benefit of the SGJC program is its faculty. “It’s because of professors and faculty members like Dean Jones, Professor Milton Kent, our news website advisor, and former Dean DeWayne Wickham,” Brown said. “Professors like them and others really pave the way for students who want to get into journalism and push for us to get that experience both in the classroom and outside.”

Brown has worked on The Spokesman for three years and has been a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund intern. In summer 2022, she had an internship with USA Today. Brown and Cyprien both point to the huge support the school gives to students, including funding their participation in journalism conferences and conventions.

Jones said the SGJC has “started picking up stronger students who going out and coming in are world beaters. They are not playing. They are here for it. And, and I just love it. The goal is to make sure that you don’t just walk across the stage with the diploma, but that you also have a job waiting for you when you get to the other side. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that.”

Looking ahead, Jones said, her aim “is to take us from partner to player in reporting projects and finding ways to get news and information to local news deserts across a variety of platforms. One major goal is developing platforms that could create or improve delivery systems.”

Tennessee State University alum and award-winning smooth jazz saxophonist, André Ward, has released his fifth album, “Africa Rising.”

The project consists of originals and remakes, each with their own undeniable sound. From the silkysmooth single “Planet Earth,” to the soulful remake of Sade’s “Kiss of Life,” André covers several musical tastes.

In 2013, André’s fourth album, “Caution” ranked #1 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart, remaining in that position for four weeks.

The Chicago native developed his love for instruments at the young age of 8,