After her freshman year at USC, Joelle Ferguson was well on her way to a stellar academic career. After focusing on life sciences and graduating from Los Alamitos High School in Orange County, Ferguson was admitted to USC and was determined to earn her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry for a very personal reason: Her mother died of cancer during her senior year in high school, and her...
Twin sisters Nila and Emila Tavangarian were headed toward an exciting, if rather typical, spring. Born and raised in Pacific Palisades, the sisters attended USC together, and were both on track to earn their bachelor’s degrees in communication from USC Annenberg. Both had internships — Nila with a PR company,...
The Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg is bringing together 19 California journalists this week for its annual California Fellowship. Because of the COVID-19 crisis, the meeting is being held virtually, with Fellows, speakers and editors taking part via an internet platform....
In 2017, longtime journalist Wendi C. Thomas set up a nonprofit digital newsroom in Memphis called MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, dedicated to reporting on economic justice. She began investigating what kept people in poverty in Memphis, America’s second-poorest large city. This led to a series of stories that exposed the rapacious debt collection...
When a student schedules an appointment with USC librarian Chiméne Tucker, they usually meet in her office in the Doheny Memorial Library. Along with the expected bookshelves, the room welcomes students with herbal tea, coffee, and a light scent of orange and lavender from an aromatherapy oil infuser — all signs that Tucker realizes there’s more to her job than books, databases and citations. “I call it research therapy,” she said.
Stephen D. O’Leary, a former associate professor of communication at USC Annenberg known for his scholarship on religion and media, as well as his love of choral music, has died. Suffering from liver cancer, he passed away on Jan. 24, according to his family. He was 60 years old.
From the moment he first saw the University Park campus as a prospective undergraduate student in the mid-’90s, JaBari Brown knew he wanted to be part of the USC culture. “It was just one of those things where, I could see myself here,” he said.
The Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg has awarded $25,000 in reporting grants from its Impact Fund to help California journalists undertake ambitious explanatory or investigative reporting about health issues in underserved communities in the state. The grants will go to journalists at eight news outlets, including a podcast, two public radio stations, one Spanish-language radio station, one online-only outlet and three newspapers. Grantees also receive six months of mentoring from veteran journalists.