2021 in Review: Service & Partnerships

Editor’s Note: This is part of our  five-part series highlighting stories produced by Grady College in 2021. The features includes three stories in each of the following subjects:

• Student Successes

• Faculty Honors

• College Headlines

• Research & Grants

• Service & Partnerships

This is not intended to be a comprehensive list, but instead highlight a sample of just a few of the more than 210 stories about accomplishments by our students, faculty/staff and alumni.

We invite you to visit our Grady College News page for a full list of features posted in 2021. 

Concluding our Year in Review is a look at the incredible community partners we have connected with this year. Community service and outreach is a pillar of our education and we are delighted to help so many in our community through news coverage of Northeast Georgia through Grady NewSource reporting, helping business message and market themselves through TalkingDog Agency and campaigns classes and providing our skills through these new partners:

Kaiser Health News Southern Bureau: The Health and Medical Journalism graduate program at Grady College joined forces with Kaiser Health News on a new initiative this fall to boost health care coverage in the south. Kaiser Health News received $2.3 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support the creation of a Southern Bureau, and our students will be provided experiential learning opportunities like assistantships and fellowships, real-time feedback on stories and assignments and the chance to publish in a national newsroom. The goal of the new bureau is to produce more journalism focusing on health, race, equity and poverty in the region.

Bitter Southerner: In August we announced that we were forming a partnership with the Bitter Southerner, one of the most well-respected narrative journalism platforms in the southeast. In this pairing to promote great storytelling, Bitter Southerner editorial staff will enroll in our low-residency MFA program in Narrative Nonfiction, while undergraduate students will team with Bitter Southerner staff on podcast productions and exclusive internships. Stories from MFA students will be shared in online and print editions of The Bitter Southerner. Valerie Boyd, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence at Grady College, directs the MFA Narrative Nonfiction program and serves as a senior consulting editor at The Bitter Southerner.

The Oglethorpe Echo: When alumnus Dink NeSmith (ABJ ’70) heard the community newspaper was closing its doors, he jumped into action. His first call was to Dean Charles Davis to see if he could help. A few weeks later, a new non-profit organization, The Oglethorpe Echo Legacy Inc., was created and seven student journalists under the guidance of managing editor Andy Johnston, were covering the crime, sports, education and government beats. This new model of collaboration between community news organizations and journalism schools holds a lot of hope for preventing news desserts while providing valuable experience for students, according to write-ups about the program by media outlets like Poynter and Editor & Publisher.