CO-CURRICULAR PROGRAM OPPORTUNITIES

Annenberg Honors Program
Underwritten by an endowment from the Annenberg Foundation, the Annenberg Honors Program is a supplemental academic and extracurricular program designed to expand and enrich the total learning and growth experiences of students throughout the School. Entry into the program is open to all freshmen and first semester sophomores. A GPA of 3.5 or better is required.

Annual Communications Job Fair
Hosted by the School of Communications, the Fair is designed to serve as a forum for School students to meet and interview with industry-wide organizations for the purpose of securing internships and job placement. The Fair has attracted approximately 800 participants (students and professionals) from across the nation. Recruiters and exhibitors represent a diverse group of more than 90 nationally-recognized broadcast, public relations, advertising and print industry organizations.

Annual Paul Robeson Competition and Awards
The Paul Robeson Competition is designed to award outstanding creative work in audio, video and film produced by students at the University and a noteworthy media professional from the industry. The Competition focuses on screenplay writing, as well as aspects of production (i.e., directing, sound and cinematography/videography). One prominent media professional is selected for his or her contribution to Excellence in Production and is invited to screen a work and deliver a workshop to students and faculty. The most recent professional awardees are Harry Belafonte (2003), Spike Lee (2002), Haile Gerima (2001), Orlando Bagwell (2000), Euzhan Palzy (1999) and Gordon Parks (1998).

BlackCollegeView.Com
The BlackCollegeView.Com site is designed for a national, African-American collegiate readership. It is operated and maintained by School of Communications’ students. Through a partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), students also work as reporters for the NNPA news service and its BlackPressUSA.com web site. This outlet provides news editorial students with practical curricular opportunities for developing their reporting, writing, editing and visual graphics skills.

District Chronicles
Built on the foundation laid by the 20-year-old Community News weekly laboratory newspaper, the District Chronicles was created in 2001. This weekly newspaper trains students who desire a career in journalism, providing them with opportunities to enhance their understanding of and involvement in the total newspaper operation. Its goals are to: (1) serve as a catalyst to ensure that the voices of the city’s under-served and under-represented residents are heard, and (2) expose students to entrepreneurship in the news industry. The District Chronicles has created an advertising sales program that identifies students who can become sales trainees. Selected students are subsequently trained in advertising and sales and ultimately sell advertising to support the newspaper.

Glasshouseradio.com
To keep pace with rapidly evolving technological advancements in Internet media production, glasshouseradio.com, Howard University Internet Talk Radio, was established. As the first student-run, all-talk, Internet radio station operated on a University campus, Glasshouseradio.com opened a new world for media programming and ownership in which students serve as interns and media professionals. A marketing plan has been established to identify advertising dollars to help the station in its growth and development.

The Illtop Journal
The Illtop Journal, is a humor magazine created in collaboration with renowned comedian, entertainer and director, Chris Rock. The magazine provides a training ground where students can develop comedy-writing techniques and increase their understanding of how humor works. They then use humor to create social commentary on world issues that is both entertaining and enlightening.

Institute for Media and Diversity
The Institute for Media and Diversity strives to educate the nation’s newsrooms about the complex texture of the nation by working to eliminate the culture of stereotypes that pervades the news media. By expanding the intellectual skills and cultural understanding of mid-career journalists, the Institute provides counterbalancing views to those in the nation’s newsrooms. In addition, the Institute has a direct impact on retaining and expanding the number of African American and other minority journalists in the nation’s newsrooms.

Magazine Publishing Program
Designed by the Department of Journalism, this program teaches students about all aspects of magazine publishing (editorial, advertising, circulation, public relations, production and design). Additionally, this program supports the redesign of existing courses; the development of new courses; and the establishment of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary modules for incorporation throughout the curriculum. From this program, the Department of Journalism plans to launch a general interest student magazine.

NAB Media Sales Institute
The Media Sales Institute, sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation (NABEF), introduces graduating seniors to the fundamentals of media sales careers through a ten-day, intensive seminar during the summer months. Recognized as an industry model, this program prepares students of color to work in broadcast, print and other media industries. Institute faculty consists of top media managers from around the country who present sessions on media sales case encounters, research and total sales immersion.

National High School Forensics Academy
The National High School Forensics Academy is the premier revenue generating summer debate institute for high school students across the nation. Howard University holds the 2003 Mock Trial National Championship. The team is currently undefeated (8-0) this mock trial tournament season and the University is ranked 4th in exhibiting best campus activism in the nation. Two primary functions are in place to sustain the Academy. First, prepare and sponsor a ten (10) day debate institute and second, conduct sales and sponsorship marketing through the creation of a compact disc compilation of evidence, arguments and case outlines and a quarterly newsletter of current developments in the topic area.

Speech and Hearing Clinic
The Speech and Hearing Clinic is an integral part of Howard University’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The Clinic’s primary mission is to prepare graduate students to assume professional roles in Speech-Language Pathology and/or Audiology in a variety of occupational settings. Clients receive diagnosis and treatment for all types of communication disorders and dissimilarities. All faculty members are certified in Clinical Competence by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). The Clinic offers assessments and treatment in the following areas: Articulation/Speech; Auditory Processing; Emerging Language; Fluency/Stuttering; Language and Literacy; Oral Motor; Phonemic Awareness; and Voice.

WHBC-AM 830
WHBC-AM is a student managed and operated carrier-current radio station supported by the Division of Mass Communication/Media Studies. It is fortunate to have WHUR-FM, a commercial station on campus that is licensed to the University. Through this collaboration, WHBC students receive mentoring, workshops, audio and surveillance equipment and financial support for other technology-related necessities. The Department of Journalism also offers students the opportunity to prepare journalistic packages that air periodically.

Youth Journalism Academy
The Youth Journalism Academy has offered summer programs for youth in grades nine through twelve for more than 25 years. Designed to introduce them to careers in the media, students are enrolled in two, two-week workshops in newspaper journalism and advertising. During the school year, the Academy provides communications speakers to high schools; sponsorship assistance for the Washington Association of Black Journalists’ Saturday Seminars; and career-counseling to Washington-area teenagers. Academy sponsors have included: The Washington Post, USA Today, Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, National Press Foundation, American Advertising Federation, District Two and the Michael L. Trilling Foundation.