Los Angeles-area high school students learn about careers in communications, journalism and multimedia during a month-long summer academy.

“There’s a way in which you listen to sounds, conduct interviews and produce stories and podcasts for public media that is different from everything else,” said Doug Mitchell, founder and director of NPR’s Next Generation Radio.

WHEN WOMEN DISRUPT (WWD) (an intersectional feminist artist collective composed of Jessica Sabogal, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and Melinda James), collaborated with students from the “Women: Designing Media for Social Change” class. The event started out with a class discussion, then a panel discussion with the three artists and the greater USC Annenberg community. The following day, the group, along with students worked on an art installation, titled “Dismantle Whiteness and Misogyny on this Campus” which can be found outside of the ASC building on USC’s campus.

There are thousands of panel discussions held on college campuses each year, and most have a well-worn look and feel: chairs arranged on stage, occupied by academics. But when Alison Trope, USC Annenberg clinical professor of communication and director of undergraduate studies, was given the opportunity to curate a series of events on fashion, she began by turning the topic inside out, re-imagining the very presentation of scholarly thought.

“I’ve always had a love affair with the city of L.A. I was born here, and spent most of my life in the area that I grew up,” said Issa Rae, the creator, writer and star of her own HBO series, Insecure.

Growing up, David Simon remembers arguing at the dinner table about the pitfalls of the gerund lede. He caught what he calls the journalism “virus” early from his father Bernard who trained in journalism and later worked in public relations.