NBCU Academy Partners with NMSU Colleges of Engineering and Journalism

Hannah Zamora, Staff WriterFebruary 7, 2022Leave a Comment

Xavier Dominguez

Milton Hall housing the Journalism and Media Studies department.

On Jan. 18, it was announced that New Mexico State University would be one of 13 new academic partners to join the NBCU Academy, expanding their reach to 30 universities. The NMSU College of Engineering and NMSU Department of Journalism and Media Studies will receive funding as well as professional opportunities provided by NBCU Academy.

According to the NBCU Academy, “Our continuous learning initiative provides fellowships and other job opportunities, direct funding and course development to our partner universities. These resources are aimed at providing more equitable access to diverse and marginalized communities that have been historically underrepresented in the news industry.”

Additionally, this year amongst the 13 universities in the 2022 cohort, NBCU Academy has introduced STEM programs with the goal of diversifying their program outreach.

“There is no industry that is not impacted positively by engineering. And media, creative media is no exception. They need programmers, they need data scientists. They need all kinds of people,” Dean Lakishimi Reddi of the NMSU College Department said.

NMSU will receive funding as part of the $2 million investment NBCU has with their other academic partners.

Creative Media Institute Department Head and Journalism and Media Studies Interim Department Head Amy Lanasa shared that, “We are really grateful for this support of our program and students, and we hope it will help us strengthen and grow the department moving forward.”

“We are receiving $150,000 for scholarships for students that needs to be given away over the next two years,” she said. “Additionally, we received $25,000 that can be used toward the purchase of new equipment, and we’re planning to replace and upgrade the computers and monitors in one of the Journalism classrooms most used by students.” Lanasa continued.

Within the College of Engineering this funding will allow for scholarships and financial assistance for students as well as out of classroom education support within the NMSU Aggie Innovation Space, hands-on training, and experiential learning opportunities, Reddi mentioned.

“We are really excited about this opportunity, and we are excited that communication from a news firm is interested in making sure that minorities are well represented and that they are successful in Engineering Education,” Reddi said.

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