Athens, Ga. – Twelve undergraduate and graduate students have been named McGill Fellows by the University of Georgia Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The students were selected by a faculty committee “for their strengths in academics, practical experience and leadership,” said John F. Greenman, professor and Carter Chair in Journalism, who chaired the committee.
The McGill Fellows, their years, majors and hometowns are:
• Brenna Beech, senior, digital and broadcast journalism, Conyers
• Aashka Dave, senior, journalism, Athens
• Khadija Dukes, senior, journalism, Conyers
• Hyacinth Empinado, graduate student, health and medical journalism, Inverness, Florida
• Hayden Field, senior, journalism, Atlanta
• Michael Foo, senior, digital and broadcast journalism, Marietta
• Jake Leber, senior, digital and broadcast journalism, Mentor, Ohio
• Wallace Morgan, senior, journalism, Nashville, Tennessee
• Brittini Ray, senior, journalism, Marietta
• Katy Roberts, senior, journalism, Johns Creek
• Erin Smith, senior, journalism, Carrollton
• Ben Wolk, senior, journalism, Suwanee
The McGill Fellows will participate in the McGill Symposium, which brings together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how it is exemplified by reporters and editors. The McGill Symposium will be held Oct. 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries.
Later that day, the McGill Fellows will attend and be introduced at the McGill Lecture, which will be presented by Antonio Mora, host of “Consider This” on Al Jazeera America. The lecture will be held at 4 p.m. in Room 250 of the Miller Learning Center.
The McGill Fellows also will help select the seventh recipient of the McGill Medal, awarded annually to a U.S. journalist whose career has exemplified journalistic courage.
Finally, the McGill Fellows have first priority to enroll in a one-hour, spring semester, independent study on journalistic courage, to be taught by Greenman.
This is the eighth class of McGill Fellows. The first class was selected in 2007.
Joining Greenman on the selection committee were Grady faculty Janice Hume, Chris Shumway, Mark Johnson, Valerie Boyd and Patricia Thomas.
For more than 30 years, the McGill Lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to the University of Georgia to help honor Ralph McGill’s courage as an editor.
McGill, while editor and publisher of The Atlanta Constitution, was regarded as the “conscience of the south,” using the newspaper’s editorial pages to challenge segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. McGill was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for “long, courageous and effective leadership.”
Established in 1978, this University of Georgia annual lecture series addresses major issues impacting the American press.
The McGill Symposium is funded by the McGill Lecture Endowment.
About Grady College
Established in 1915, the UGA Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers undergraduate majors in journalism, advertising, public relations, digital and broadcast journalism and mass media arts. The college offers two graduate degrees and is home to the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu or follow @UGAGrady on Twitter.
