Students from the first MJW class pose for a photo in front of what is now Reese Phifer Hall.

 

UA celebrates 20th anniversary of Minority Journalism Workshop

By Danielle Fortner [Hoover High School]

Walking into the classroom, Joseph Bryant smiles, remembering the very first time he entered Reese Phifer Hall six years ago for the Minority Journalism Workshop. Looking around at the faces of this year’s students, he can remember the exact chair he sat in while listening to the mentors who changed his life
forever.

“I was sitting right there in that chair,” Bryant said, pointing to a beaten seat at the back of the classroom, “when a professor asked us what we were planning to do. When it was my turn I found myself saying that I was going to the University of Alabama to major in journalism. That was the first time I had ever said that.”

Although he had no journalistic experience coming into MJW, Bryant decided to continue in the field. Now, after becoming the first black editor of The Crimson White and a reporter for The Times-Daily in Florence, Bryant looks back on his attendance at MJW as a foundation for everything he has accomplished.

The University of Alabama’s Minority Journalism Workshop is one of the largest and most successful minority programs in the nation with more than 70 to 80 percent of attendees majoring in journalism and two-thirds of those becoming media professionals. With over 315 teens attending the program over the past 19 years, the workshop inspires large numbers of minorities to go into the field of journalism.

“The main goal of the original workshop was to expose students to journalism who might not have thought of it as a possibility. That goal has definitely been accomplished,” said Marie Parsons, a retired Alabama journalism instructor and the founder of the Minority Journalism Workshop. “Many students who have come to MJW enroll in journalism at the university or elsewhere.”

MJW alumni are scattered throughout the nation working at places like Newsweek, WGBH-TV in Boston, Detroit Free Press, Miami Herald and The Birmingham News. Although the students came from different places and have gone separate ways in their adult lives, MJW alumni share the life-changing experience of the two-week program.

“At this point everything that I’ve done for the last few years had to do with the program though I left 12 years ago,” said Alisha Beckwith, a former MJW student and jazz music specialist at the Alabama Public Radio station.

Zelda Oliver-Miles, a freelance writer and editor, was also changed after attending the Minority Journalism Workshop. Although her dream had been to become a pediatrician, her passion for journalism took hold of her and would not let her go.

“I looked at journalism as my gift and my way to change the world,” she said. “I found the program a significant point in my life because while I was fighting becoming a journalist, it gave and strengthened my foundation.”

MJW has been considered a growing experience for almost everyone involved. Even Ed Mullins, chairman of the University of Alabama’s journalism department, has learned life lessons from the short program.

“I’ve learned that the quality of being different helps to increase variety in the mosaic idea,” Mullins said. “When you get the bright colors next to the subdued colors you create a more appealing work rather than having all the bright colors in a separate block. Humans are different and when those differences clash and blend it brings out the best possible result.”

The program has also made large strides in diversifying newsrooms across the nation. When the program began in 1984, three percent of students at UA were minorities. Now, minorities make up 16 percent of the population, and one in five students specializing in a journalism field is a minority.

“Journalists have an obligation to present a representative picture of society. We couldn’t do that if a large percent of its population was excluded from making and telling the stories,” Mullins said. “This movement of special attention has made substantial contributions to journalism.”

The one thing that MJW alumni remembers is the impact new perspectives and lessons had upon them. It is that impact that allows them to fondly reminisce on their days at the workshop and even remember where they sat during the program. As the next generation of aspiring journalists attends the 20th Annual Minority Journalism Workshop, the founder hopes to have past generations keep the spirit of MJW alive.

“We’re looking forward to [this] group to get old enough to come back to be visiting professionals. That’s the strength of the program not what the university or instructors do, but visiting journalists that keep in touch with the students,” Parsons said.

The Minority Journalism Workshop has definitely proved itself over the past 20 years by increasing the number of minorities within universities and newsrooms, as well as touching almost 400 lives.

« Home