(February 23, 2021) - "It's still taking shape," said Jacqueline Jones, Assistant Dean for Programs and Chairman of the Department of Multimedia Journalism for Morgan State University's School of Global Journalism and Communications, about the ½ million dollars donated to the university to finance a NBCU Academy. "This semester we're mapping out the strategy to start in the Fall."

The grant came from NBCUniversal, which donated an overall $6.5 million to 17 academic institutions of which Morgan received $500,000. The grant will help to offer scholarships to the NBCU Academy that provides professional mentoring, new equipment, seminar course development and guest lecturers. The NBCU Academy will provide journalism training on multiple platforms to provide hands-on learning experiences.

"They genuinely want to help us improve student success so they can hit the ground with practical experience," Assistant Dean Jones added. "We've developed a partnership with Wall Street Journal. Journalists visit the Journal with internships."

Jackie, a veteran newswoman (Baltimore Evening Sun, Detroit Free Press, New York Newsday, The Philadelphia Daily News, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Washington Post), named several other impressive partnerships by the School of Global Journalism and Communication. When I attended Morgan for my Bachelors in Telecommunications the School had partnerships with local television and radio stations that donated entire studios, provided internships and on-site visits by the whole class. I graduated with on-site experiences at an advertising agency (Grey, Kirk & Vansaint), a radio station (WEBB Radio, paid internship), a newspaper (The Baltimore Times, paid internship) and a television production company named Vanita Productions that was owned by DeWayne Wickham - current Dean of Morgan's School of Global Journalism and Communication. I can not put into words how those experiences impacted my confidence as a scholarly person, my career as a journalist and as a media executive.

"Dean Wickham got a phone call from NBCUniversal to see if he might be interested in a program with them. They had talks. I was invited with other folks....to be the point person from different schools," she explained. "They asked, ‘If you had money what would you do?' They named a list of things, I said, ‘All the above!' Soon after that we were on the list (that included 17 academic institutions)."

Jackie and DeWayne knew each other from a former affiliation. Wickham was president and one of the founders of the National Association of Black Journalists, which Jackie is a member. NBCUniversal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies that focuses on development, production and marketing of entertainment and news on a global level. It owns television networks; a motion picture company; television production operations; a group of television stations; theme parks, and a streaming service. It is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

"I arrived with the Dean. He put together a team of facility and industry professionals...and other support," Jackie said on how she joined the staff at MSU. "In less than a year he developed a plan for Maryland's Higher Education Commission and it was approved in March, 2013."

Their School is looking at offering permanent on-line classes. As with most academic institutions during the "pandemic" their classes were forced online. Online teaching is my personal goal. I want to share at the graduate level all that I have learned in media (my career), communications (my Navy experiences) and academia (BA, MS, MBA, MPhil) - online while still working in the industry.

"The University is looking at all the different ways to reach students. We are doing multiple portals to access students," the Assistant Dean replied. "Some students want that face-to-face experience, some hybrid...and some strictly online. So we are doing a lot of that. It depends on the demand. In undergrad school students want that socialization. As you get older that need changes - online makes sense." www.Morgan.edu www.NBCUniversal.com www.NBCUAcademy.com