Outgoing FAMUAN Editors Credit Development as Multimedia Leaders to SJGC Programs
Micah Barkley and Cynthia Frage, spring 2025 graduates of the Florida A&M University School of Journalism & Graphic Communication (FAMU SJGC), left “The Hill” not only as accomplished student media leaders but also with specialized training from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. The duo recently attended the Christopher J. Georges Conference on College Journalism, held April 4–5 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Barkley, the 2024–25 editor-in-chief of The FAMUAN, and Frage, the 2024–25 assistant news editor of The FAMUAN, represented a cohort of some of the top student journalists from around the country as conference attendees on Harvard’s campus. Together, they also delivered a special presentation to their peers on how student engagement can boost interest in news writing.
The event is part of the Nieman Foundation’s mission to mentor young journalists as they prepare for careers in professional media. The conference was designed to support and develop college newspaper staffs nationwide through two days of specialized training, workshops, expert lectures, lightning talks, and networking with Nieman fellows and nationally recognized news professionals from platforms such as ProPublica, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Conference sessions included:
- Reporting From the Front Lines of Conflict at Home and Abroad
- Know Your Rights as a Student Journalist
- Using Social Media to Reach Students With News
- Write and Edit Like the Pros
- How to Navigate a Difficult Interview
- How to Think Like an Investigative Journalist
Recently retired professor Douglas Blackburn, who taught upper-level news writing courses and served as faculty adviser for The FAMUAN, is credited with introducing student media leaders to the Georges Conference. He said he was overjoyed to hear about this year’s experience and takeaways for Barkley and Frage.
“I always wanted our student leaders to get exposed to other colleges and universities and how their publications operate. It was a chance for them to really get a taste of what it was like in student newsrooms across the country,” Blackburn said. “I thought the conference would help them expand their horizons for how they wanted to approach what we did at FAMU, and I think it was successful in doing that.”
According to Blackburn, at least three other cohorts of FAMU SJGC students have attended the conference in recent years. After his initial outreach to Nieman to recommend FAMU students be considered for the conference, the organization began to consistently invite SJGC representatives on an annual basis, helping to grow the historically Black college and university (HBCU) presence, which now also includes student media leaders from Howard, Morgan State, North Carolina A&T, and Spelman.
The 21-year-old conference has traditionally hosted Ivy League, Top 20 and Northeast region schools such as Brown, Columbia, Davidson, Dartmouth, Duke, Fordham, New York University, Northwestern, Penn State, Stanford, Tufts, Vanderbilt, and Yale.
The conference is named for the late Christopher J. Georges, a Harvard alumnus and Wall Street Journal reporter who covered politics, economics and the federal budget until his death at age 33 in 1998. Student journalists from The Harvard Crimson, where Georges served as executive editor, co-sponsored the event in his honor and served as ambassadors to the visiting student journalists.
Barkley said she was proud to represent FAMU SJGC and the HBCU community at such a prestigious gathering.
“I was very appreciative of the opportunity. We learned strategies for reporting on stories from multiple lenses and how to transition our collegiate writing into professional writing as we prepare for our future careers,” she said. “I was also able to converse with many other students from various universities and experienced Harvard in a way that I never had before.”
Frage said attending the conference allowed her to reflect on the lessons she learned at SJGC and how the journalism program prepared her and her classmates in multimedia storytelling.
“Attending the conference reminded me how much FAMU has truly prepared me for greatness,” she said. “We were the only school there with a newspaper, magazine, radio station, and live newscast, and that made us stand out. I was already covering local and national politics while at SJGC. Now, with the notes I took from the conference sessions, which align with my long-term goal of getting into politics, I feel more equipped to dig for the bigger story.”
Before crossing the commencement stage in early May, Barkley and Frage passed on the knowledge they gained from the conference and their time as newsroom leaders to the next class of student editors.
The tips they shared included:
- Leverage the tools you have already been given.
- Let no excuse stop you from owning your greatness.
- Engage with the FAMU network to lead you to opportunities.
Now, they’re headed to opposite sides of the East Coast to take their talents and training into the professional arena.
Barkley, who earned a broadcast journalism degree, will showcase her skills this summer as a Bloomberg News intern on the consumer team in New York. Frage, who also earned a broadcast journalism degree, will serve as a producer intern for WESH 2 in Central Florida.
