About
AYA GROUP PIC

Annenberg Youth Academy for Media and Civic Engagement

The Annenberg Youth Academy for Media and Civic Engagement is a four-week summer intensive academy for 26 talented high school students from the communities surrounding the USC University Park and Health Science Campuses. Students are exposed to the equivalent of first-year college-level courses and develop a rich conceptual understanding and practice of the necessary role that media communications and journalism play in fashioning civic-minded thought leaders and innovators.

AYA strengthens students’ skills in writing, critical thought, public speech and debate, multimedia production, interviewing and ethnography — all essential competencies required for excellence in and out of the classroom in the 21st century. The students are introduced to USC Annenberg’s undergraduate programs and services and possible careers in media and journalism. They have opportunities to meet the school’s innovative scholars who are advancing issues of race, gender, and ethnicity in communication and journalism communities of practice.

Students must reside and attend high school in Los Angeles County to be eligible to apply. Summer 2024 applications are now closed. Please check back in early 2025 for the summer 2025 application. 

Program Dates: Monday, June 17 –Friday, July 19, 2024 (no class on Thursday, July 4 and Friday, July 5 for the Independence Day Holiday).

AYA 2024 includes:

  • Free breakfast and lunch daily
  • AYA swag
  • One TAP card with a $50 value (if needed)
  • Educational field trips
  • Three periods per day
  • College advising and college essay preparation from the USC Annenberg Admissions Team.
  • Ability to meet new peers and engage with our faculty, students and staff
  • Sessions with award-winning journalist, author and professor Miki Turner, and with scholar, media maker and adjunct lecturer Rogelio Lopez.

Read about two former AYA students’ experiences in the program — and their stories as current USC Annenberg students: Abraham Flores and Kymia Freeman.

View the 2023 AYA Student Journalism Projects.

View the 2023 AYA Student Communication Projects.

For more information about Annenberg Youth Academy, please contact:

Annenberg Youth Academy
ascjaya@usc.edu

JaBari Brown
Director
Advisement and Academic Services & Civic Engagement
jabari.brown@usc.edu
(213) 740-0900

Brittany Hart Scholten
Civic Engagement Coordinator
Annenberg Youth Academy Director
brittadh@usc.edu
(213) 740-7879