Cox Institute Announces 2020 Cox-SABEW Fellows

Twelve journalism students were selected during the Fall semester as Cox-SABEW Fellows, a financial journalism training program offered through the University of Georgia’s James M. Cox Jr. Institute for Journalism Innovation, Management and Leadership in partnership with the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW).

The Cox-SABEW Fellows for 2020 are: Alexis Brock, Allison Caso, Emily Garcia, Jessica Green,  Jayla Johnson, Caroline Kurzawa, Katherine Lewis, Jamie Miller, Caroline Odom, Aleeza Rasheed, Savannah Sicurella and Tyler Wilkins.

The Cox-SABEW Fellowships were created to recognize students who have engaged in financial journalism and business education through class assignments, student media and professional internships, or for those looking to launch their financial journalism journey, said Dr. Keith Herndon, director of the Cox Institute.

“Before I served as a Cox-SABEW fellow, the idea of covering news from within the business and financial sectors felt daunting,” said Savannah Sicurella.

Herndon, a former business journalist, said the objectives of the program are to explain financial journalism and introduce students to career opportunities in the field.

“Writing for the SABEW website helped me realize that financial journalism is not just stocks and bonds. It’s merely reporting on issues that affect the livelihood of others,” Sicurella said.

“This serves the fundamental goal of journalism — delivering information on complex issues to an audience in a manner that is accessible and comprehensible — and it is why I am drawn to this avenue in the first place.”

The 2020 Fellows are participating in the College Connect program, a personal finance writing workshop, which will pay them for producing and publishing personal finance stories for the SABEW website. SABEW operates the College Connect program through a sponsorship of the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).

Additionally, the Fellows are participating in virtual networking sessions with previous students in the program who are now professional financial journalists.  The Fellows also will attend SABEW’s virtual conference held this year November 17-20.

This year’s group marks the eighth year of the Cox-SABEW Fellowships. The program started in 2013 and has recognized 43 participants.

“We are so appreciative of SABEW’s willingness to engage with our students and of the financial support provided by NEFE,” said Herndon. “This is a great example of an industry-academic partnership helping to prepare the next generation of journalists.”