SoJ Web Report | Sept. 30, 2011
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| Photo by Lauren Kastner |
| About a dozen students, including Charnay Pickett, left, and LeAnna Level,attended the first meeting of the IU chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists Tuesday. The group is planning events and fundraisers for fall. |
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Members of the IU chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists ended the spring semester by obtaining official chapter status for their organization.
Now, they’re back—and full of new plans.
At the group's call-out meeting Tuesday night, pizza boxes and sodas greeted the 12 students who attended. Senior India Jackson, chapter president, introduced the organization to newcomers.
“We are here to connect you to professional journalists. We’re here to hopefully get you published,” Jackson said. “We’re here to be the liaison between students and a professional career.”
The NABJ members aspire to host two events every month. In October, they will invite a guest speaker to come teach a workshop in public relations. They also plan on having a pizza sale for a fundraiser.
Senior Gabrielle Miller, chapter treasurer, said the money they raise will be used to send more members to the NABJ convention in New Orleans next year.
In addition to these goals, the organization is planning two big projects this semester. The first will be maintaining the blog, the Grapevine.
Junior Latonya Yarbro, the editor-in-chief of the Grapevine, said she is looking forward to getting it started.
“I want to keep it upbeat and more ongoing than last year,” she said.
She wants members to write articles for the blog at least once a week. Jackson encouraged them to commit to the blog.
“The Grapevine actually got recognition from the national organization,” she said. “They noticed us and wrote a feature story about us.”
Their second project involves making a documentary about what it’s like to be an African American student at IU.
“I want to reach out to all black organizations,” senior Jatiya Exposé said. “If we produce this video, it will make the black community more cohesive.”
The rest of the meeting was spent in brainstorming and assigning story ideas to members.
“I think there was a nice turnout,” Jackson said. “There were four or five new members and that’s a lot, especially when you consider that there are not many African Americans who study journalism at IU.”
She said she is excited to see where it all goes.
“We’re new, so we don’t really have anything to fall back on,” Jackson said. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s fun, too. We’re working toward a goal together, and I really like that.”
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