The Annenberg Youth Academy for Media and Civic Engagement is a four-week summer intensive academy for 26 talented high school students from the communities surrounding the USC University Park and Health Science campuses. Students are exposed to the equivalent of first-year college-level courses and develop a rich conceptual understanding and practice of the necessary role that media, communications and journalism play in fashioning civic-minded thought leaders and innovators.

Rebecca Weintraub, director of the Master of Communication Management (MCG) program, partners with top executives from infrastructure giant AECOM to provide graduate students in her strategic corporate communication course with a unique glimpse into how communication drives an organization’s objectives and goals. AECOM’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Heather Rim (MA, MCG, ’03), took this same class while earning her master’s degree and has maintained a close relationship with Weintraub and USC Annenberg since graduating. Together, they paired the various areas covered in Weintraub’s course with experts from across AECOM to provide a real-world perspective on delivering strategic communication programs that meet client expectations.

Students create media for social change — with help from their professors, VICE Media and Gloria Steinem.

Special donor-supported funds at the school became a financial lifeline for senior Savanna Mesch, keeping her on track for graduation.

For doctoral students, presenting their dissertation topics in front of relative strangers is an often nerve-wracking part of the PhD process. The 21 students who gathered in the Sheindlin Forum in Wallis Annenberg Hall the week of June 3-8 faced added wrinkles: Most of their dissertations weren’t finished yet, and their audience included not only their peers from many other top universities, but also several tenured and tenure-track professors.

From the very beginning, student journalists who produce video news segments for The Rundown proved they knew their audience: their fellow students.

For Melissa Dueñas, Father’s Day is a particularly poignant holiday. From the time she was two and a half years old until she turned 20, her father was in and out of prison. From her childhood through her teen years, Dueñas wrote him letters, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly, later only a few times a year, until he died in 2017.

We stood wide-eyed in front of Nike West’s newest building in Culver City. The unmarked office looked like a futuristic airplane hangar from the outside. Inside, Nike running shoes, painted the colors of the rainbow, adorned one of the walls in the foyer. It was the only hint this was Nike’s headquarters. I would have taken a photo — if it wasn’t for the nondisclosure agreements we signed as we entered.