Giving Voice to the Voiceless names 2021 grant recipients

Giving Voice to the Voiceless, a program awarding grants to UGA students for projects amplifying marginalized voices, has named its 2021 recipients.

The program is created and supported by journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault (ABJ ’63) and her husband, Ron Gault, with contributions from others.

Among the seven projects that were awarded this year are funds to support an international group of writers sharing stories about youth engagement, human rights and sustainability; development of a community advisory board to hear stories from transgender and gender nonconforming Latinx individuals; and funds helping students produce and promote a podcast telling the story of Preston Cobb and his unjust execution in 1961.

This marks the third year that GVV funds were awarded, and Hunter-Gault is pleased with the growth of the program.

“What has become so clear to me is that UGA is a microcosm of society and UGA can do some creative things that can help the entire country,” Hunter-Gault said. “What I noticed going through the applications is that the voices are people of color. They are Black people. They are Latin people. They are gay people. They are people of every representation of our humanity.”

Valerie Boyd, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Writer in Residence at Grady College, administers the GVV program.

“We had a difficult job because we had so many great projects to select from,” Boyd said. “They were all well thought out and articulated.”

This year’s applicants represent undergraduate and graduate student projects from majors across the university including the following:

• Luis R. Alvarez-Hernandez, Amplifying the Voices of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Latinx Communities — aid to gather testimonies and create a community advisory board to provide feedback on research and findings for addressing social justice issues.

• Aron Hall, Brooklyn Cemetery reinternment project research — funds to help with research and development of a master plan to move Black residents buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery to Brooklyn Cemetery, the final resting place for hundreds of Black Athens, Georgia, residents.

• Genevieve Guzmán, From Dark, Silent Rooms: Giving Voice to Patients of Severe ME/CFS — funding to write and publish profiles about individuals suffering from this debilitating disease.

• Nipuna Ambanpola, IVolunteer International Writers’ Council Program — support for ten international writers to share stories about topics like advocacy, human rights and sustainable development goals on the website of this tech-nonprofit.

• Kevin Nwogu, Servant Leader Scholars Program — support a summer retreat providing academic and professional development to incoming and current college students from Stephenson High School through the Servant Leader Scholars Program.

• Teresa Espallargas, Laura Vieira and Jean Costa, Voices from the Global South — publication of a special online magazine that provides a platform of self-expression for people from marginalized and formerly colonized communities including Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

• Steve Armour, faculty contact from UGA Libraries who will hire student to work on the Black Alumni Oral History Project, Phase II — interviewing Black UGA alumni from the 1960s and early 1970s.

• Stephen Berry and Barbara McCaskill, faculty contacts from the Department of History and Department of English who will hire two students to work on InQuest Season One: The Curious Case of Preston Cobb. Funds will go toward student contributions to produce and promote the six-episode podcast series about a Black teenager unjustly executed in 1961.

Most of these projects are expected to take place in 2021.

More information can be found on the Giving Voice to the Voiceless webpage.

Giving Voice to the Voiceless grants rely on support from contributors. With a gift to the Giving Voice to the Voiceless Fund, you can help students engage in meaningful work in the world while they are students, sharing the voices they discover with others through experiential learning, a top academic priority of the University and the College.

Donate here through March 31, 2021.