[videowaywire video_id=”2QCLZY03GZPWMZV5″]
*Simmons College will honor the late Gwen Ifill by naming its new College of Media, Arts, and Humanities after her. It makes Ifill the first black journalist to be honored on a majority-white campus.
The newly formed Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humanities is scheduled to launch in fall 2018. It’s one of four colleges recently formed to help restructure Simmons College’s range of academic studies.
Simmons made the announcement on the first anniversary of Ifill’s death from cancer at 61, Journal-isms reports. She was the longtime PBS news anchor who had served as a co-host of the “PBS NewsHour” and as moderator of PBS’ “Washington Week.” Before that, she was a journalist at the Washington Post, New York Times and NBC News.
“For over 100 years, our mission at Simmons has been to prepare our students to lead meaningful lives and build successful careers. Gwen’s example stands tall in that mission,” Helen Drinan, president of Simmons, said in a news release. “The kind of unimpeded curiosity Gwen brought to her work, coupled with her warmth, integrity and commitment to truth-telling, is something all of our students aspire to — no matter what field of study they pursue. We are extraordinarily proud of her and so pleased to formalize her legacy at Simmons this way.”
Roberto Ifill, Gwen’s brother, added, “Simmons was a launching pad for Gwen and prepared her well. My sister leveraged her education to excel as a liberally educated, consummate professional. She graduated thoroughly grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, and well-prepared professionally to embark on her journalism career, and it all started at Simmons.”
The Ifill family “has donated a collection of Gwen’s papers, materials, photographs, awards, memorabilia, and clothing to Simmons College,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Sullivan told Journal-isms by email.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: He Won’t Go! Zimbabwe’s Mugabe Refuses to Resign Presidency (Watch Speech)
*Jazmine Hughes, associate editor of New York Times Magazine, listed a couple of expected accomplishments as her biggest moments of 2017: “her first feature for the publication and the Letters of Recommendation column that she edits,” Madeline Berg noted for Forbes magazine, introducing the media section of its latest “30 Under 30” list.
“But Hughes also mentioned something less typical for someone with her title. She had met a woman who had gotten a job through Writers of Color — the database she cofounded to help assigning editors discover more diverse writers. ‘We both cried,’ Hughes says of the meeting.
“Hughes has dedicated her career to diverse storytelling — whether she’s writing and editing the stories of others or helping writers of color tell their stories. She joins those on 2018’s 30 Under 30 Media list who have done the same: Some tell the stories; some have created the outlets that host the storytelling; some make the business decisions that allow those platforms to thrive. All are under age 30 as of December 31, 2017 and have never appeared on a previous 30 Under 30 list. . . .”
Among the trio of judges was Elaine Welteroth, editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue.
The diverse list includes (via journal-isms.com)
- Laila Alawa, 26, co-founder, the Tempest
- Marley Dias, 13, founder, #1000blackgirlbooks
- Aaron Edwards, 26, special projects editor, the Outline
- Jazmine Hughes, 26, associate editor, New York Times Magazine
- Rupi Kaur, 25, author
- Khaled Khatib, 21, cinematographer, “The White Helmets”
- Benny Luo, 29, founder, NextShark
- Brent Chow, 28, and
- Sophia Dominguez, 25, co-founders, SVRF
- Windsor Hanger Western, 29, Annie Wang, 28, and Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, 29, co-founders, Her Campus Media
- Lilly Workneh, 26, senior editor, Black Voices, HuffPost
We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!
