Ashley Soriano named fall 2018 Yarbrough-Grady Fellow
Grady College has named Ashley Soriano from McDonough, Georgia, its fall 2018 Yarbrough-Grady Fellow.
The fellowship — which is funded through support from Grady College alumnus Dick Yarbrough (ABJ ’59) — is an experiential work program in which Grady College students work with the office of communications to produce materials for the college website, social media messages and public relations strategy for the semester.
Soriano, a junior journalism major, has been involved in newspaper writing since high school. She served as Editor-in-Chief her senior year at Ola High School, Class of 2016, and joined The Red & Black, an independent student-run newspaper in Athens, Georgia, her freshman year of college.
Soriano is the fall news editor at The Red & Black after being a staff writer for two years. She is also a member of the Georgia News Lab, an investigative reporting collaborative initiative with the Atlanta-Journal Constitution and WSB-TV. She also studied abroad in Dublin, Ireland, in the summer of 2017 to learn about travel writing journalism.
One day, she plans to write for a major news outlet, such as The New York Times, the Washington Post or National Public Radio. She also plans to attend graduate school to earn her master’s degree in journalism and law school to earn her J.D. In addition to being a journalist and lawyer, she plans to be a journalism professor.
“Grady College has offered me so many opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise,” Soriano said. “I’m in awe every day of how amazing this institution is.”
Yarbrough has funded the fellowship since 2010, offering students a chance to get hands-on experience in the journalism and public relations field.
“I can never repay my alma mater for what it has meant to me,” Yarbrough said. “I am so impressed with the quality of the students there today and hope that perhaps the fellowship will give the recipients a learning opportunity they might not have been able to receive otherwise.”
In return, Yarbrough asks the fellows to “give back to the next generation that will succeed them.”
Date: October 15, 2018Contact: Sarah Freeman, freemans@uga.edu