UA’s Multicultural Journalism Workshop Celebrates its Silver Anniversary

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Each summer, about 25 high school students are selected to participate in an intensive nine-day journalism workshop on The University of Alabama campus. This year’s Multicultural Journalism Workshop marks a special occasion – its 25th anniversary.

The students arrived July 11 and met with some of the program’s more than 500 alumni for a silver anniversary reunion. The 25th Multicultural Journalism Workshop concludes Saturday, July 19.

At the opening dinner for the reunion, the department of journalism announced the creation of a new endowment fund for the program, which will guarantee the continuation of MJW for years to come.

MJW has given students the opportunity to “study and practice journalism under UA faculty and top journalists from across the nation, learning how professionals report, write and present the news in print, online and by broadcasting,” said Dr. Ed Mullins, a retired journalism professor and dean who has worked with all 25 workshops and is directing his fourth.

Each year, MJW students, with the help of faculty and journalism professionals, publish a newspaper and complete multimedia projects in a hands on, intensive environment. In 1982, then-graduate student Marie Parsons and professor Marian Huttenstine came up with the idea to recruit and develop minority students toward careers in journalism.

A year later, Parsons became the director of the Minority Journalism Program, and in 1984, the first Minority Journalism Workshop (later changed to Multicultural Journalism Workshop to reflect the idea that the workshop was open to all races and ethnicities) began with the inaugural class consisting of eight students.

“I stumbled through the first MJW with just a few months to plan, trying to figure out how to pull off this new project,” Parsons said. “The second year, I knew exactly what Year One could have been, and we spent 12 months in preparation. It was a resounding success. A highlight was an hour-long meeting with then-Governor George Wallace, in his office in the Capitol.”

The workshop started, and continues to strive, with donations from the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as well as funds from the Alabama Press Association, the Alabama Broadcasters Association, and individual newspapers and broadcast operations. This year, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation made a sizable contribution for the program’s 25th year.

The donations help cover the costs of students, who attend free of charge. MJW also flourishes “through the dedication of a few faculty members and a corps of undergraduate and graduate assistants,” Parsons said. “The power that has sustained the program comes from the reporters and editors who are MJW’s Visiting Professionals.”

Mullins recognized many of those who have returned year after year at the Friday night banquet with the “MJW Distinguished Professional Award,” in recognition of both service to MJW and a successful career. Those who have given “above and beyond” were honored with the MJW Founders Award, named for the program’s three founders, Parsons, Huttenstine and Mullins.

Mullins also was honored for his long service to MJW by Dean Loy Singleton of the College of Communication and Information Sciences. Meredith Cummings, community news editor at The Tuscaloosa News, will be joining the UA journalism faculty in August and will take over the directorship of the MJW program.

“If there is one factor most critical in MJW’s success, it’s professionals returning to the Capstone year after year to help the new class acquire their skills, graduate, take their place in the profession, then come back and help the next class,” Mullins said.

Jannell McGrew, a MJW class of ’94 alum, is a testament to this dynamic trend. McGrew, who is an award-winning journalist and freelance writer in Montgomery, has made it a point to give back to the program that helped start her career.

“It is my pleasure to be a part of a program I participated in as a student and one that has helped shape my career over the years,” McGrew said. “The MJW program has done more than rally dozens of news-thirsty, would-be pros each year and give them an intense sneak peek at the real world of news coverage. It has ushered hundreds of those same potential journalists into the communications field, and it is often credited as the turning point of many award-winning reporters’ and other professional communicators’ lives.”