MHCC LANDS CREATIVE MEDIA PARTNERSHIP

Mt. Hood Community College has secured a promising new partnership with NBCU Academy, a journalism training and development program serving select universities and colleges across the United States, focused on increasing diversity in journalism, content creation, and storytelling in all forms.

MHCC was selected to become one of NBCU Academy’s 45 academic partners, one of very few two-year colleges to join the likes of celebrated four-year institutions such as Syracuse University and University of California, Berkeley.

The relationship will give Mt. Hood’s Integrated Media Department additional resources, training, and development intended to help the success of students majoring in Integrated Media (IM) at MHCC. It also will provide special workshops and expert access to the general student population at Mt. Hood, regardless of their chosen studies.

Additionally, NBCU Academy will provide $100,000 worth of scholarships to IM majors (through the MHCC Foundation fund) over the next two academic years, awarding nine full scholarships to new students.

NBCU Academy was founded in January of 2021 by mass media and entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal. A mega-merger of NBC television, Comcast and Universal Studios won federal approval years before with the explicit requirement to promote and grow diversity, equity, and inclusion in the media and entertainment industry. The long-term goal of NBCU Academy is to diversify the conglomerate’s workforce so that at least 50% of employees are women, and 50% are people of color.

To achieve this goal, the program provides a range of resources to underrepresented students of “diverse racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability, economic, and geographic backgrounds,” according to the NBCU Academy’s mission statement.

These resources include scholarships, mentoring, training workshops, and access to “world-class journalists” – not just for IM students, but any Mt. Hood students who are interested. The Academy already offers many free educational resources, open to all, on their website, nbcuacademy.com. For instance, there’s a free course, “Fundamentals of Journalism,” but many more topics are explored. There are videos about other fields of media and storytelling including editing, videography, and production.

In fact, the Academy is hosting a virtual event teaching storytelling later this month: “NBCU Academy Next Level Summit: We Are All Storytellers,” will be held from 7 to 11 a.m., Pacific Time, on Wednesday, March 22.

[To register, go to: https://nbcuacademy.com/event/next-level-summit-storytellers/]

In the Academy’s own description of the virtual summit is the recognition of students who want to reach their audience, in any situation:

“Masterful storytelling is critical to success in journalism, entertainment, sports broadcasting and creative careers. Your ability to weave a narrative for the audience is a key skill whether you are building a website, writing a press release, engineering a live news broadcast or even designing a theme park attraction. Attend this virtual summit to hear from industry leaders and innovators about the power of storytelling and how to take your talents to the next level to succeed in the new media, tech and digital landscape.”