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The Kent State School of Media and Journalism (MDJ) welcomed Mizell Stewart III, award winning reporter, corporate news executive and president and CEO of Emerging Leaders LLC, to give the third annual Dix Media Ethics Lecture, “Journalism as a Civic Good,” on March 1, 2023.

Mandy Jenkins began her robust journalism career during a time where the news industry was changing quickly, and faculty who taught her say she was particularly well-suited for this challenge.

“I could see that she thought on a trajectory that was light-years ahead of other people when it came to holding people close and saying, ‘What is it you really want to do? What should this thing really look like?’" said Emerita Associate Professor Barbara Hipsman Springer. That was important in the mid-2000s when newsrooms were adapting to the emerging digital landscape; they needed people like Jenkins who were fast learners and didn’t feel bound by rules.

Walking down the streets of Manhattan, surrounded by 49 college students of diverse backgrounds, Kent State student Rafael Guedes Bonacin, ’23, felt at home, even though he was far from his native Brazil.

Before he graduated in December 2022, digital media production alumnus Sam Teyssier had already racked up some impressive credits: He’d worked on television shows including “American Rust” and “A League of Their Own” (among others), as well as Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award winner “Cha Cha Real Smooth.” These experiences — which he began seeking out in his hometown of Pittsburgh during the summer of 2021 — have prepared him for post-graduation life.

In March 2021, Lacy Starling, '02, got a call from a community organization in northern Kentucky looking for a CEO for a start-up news organization. They knew Starling only for her business background; after earning her Bachelor of Science in journalism from ������, she went on to earn her M.B.A. For 20 years, she had been an entrepreneur.