Congratulations to the nine students selected for the ONA21 Student Newsroom and Innovation Lab.
Since 2009, the student newsroom has provided undergraduate and graduate students the unique opportunity to work with experienced mentors in an immersive digital media environment during and before the annual Online News Association Conference.
The ONA21 Student Newsroom and Innovation Lab is generously sponsored by Microsoft, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and News Break.
This year’s newsroom includes:
- Alaysja Clark, Seattle Pacific University
- Allison Hageman, Georgetown University
- Cat Wang, UCLA
- Gabriel Pietrorazio, University of Maryland-College Park
- Jade Campos, Penn State
- Maaisha Osman, Northeastern University
- Michelle Ailport, Arizona State University
- Skylar Williams, Texas State University
- Tamia Fowlkes, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Students will build digital storytelling skills in the fast-paced newsroom as they produce multimedia content, experiment with a variety of tools and create their own news products. Students also receive scholarships that cover their conference registration. They will gain valuable insight into the digital journalism industry through the conference programming and networking with attendees.
“Microsoft is proud to support the next generation of upcoming journalists through our student newsroom sponsorship and post-conference data visualization training. Through MSN and Power BI, our data journalism program has helped journalists in their goals to deliver more transparent, data-driven, interactive stories for their audiences and is grounded in our larger mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more,” said Vera Chan, Microsoft’s Sr. Manager, Worldwide Journalist Relations.
Meet the newsroom mentors
We are thrilled to have a talented group of volunteers mentors guiding the newsroom.
- Lead mentor: Michelle Johnson, Associate Professor of Practice, Multimedia Journalism at Boston University
- Lead mentor: Katia Hetter, Senior Editor at CNN
- Curt Chandler, Associate Teaching Professor, Pennsylvania State University
- Matt Sheehan, Director, Stories and Emerging Platforms, University of Florida
- Peg Achterman, Assistant Professor of Communication & Journalism, Seattle Pacific University
- Philip Tenser, Digital Media Manager, WCVB-TV
Digital journalism’s favorite annual reunion is online June 22–25. Register now for ONA21 to experience an inspiring global festival of innovation in audience engagement, product, trends forecasting and digital revenue strategy.