From the moment he first saw the University Park campus as a prospective undergraduate student in the mid-’90s, JaBari Brown knew he wanted to be part of the USC culture. “It was just one of those things where, I could see myself here,” he said.

Dylan Valley was in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport coming back from a fellowship conference in Berkeley, California to his hometown of Cape Town when he received an email that his virtual reality film, Azibuye – The Occupation had gotten into the Sundance Film Festival. “I started dancing in the terminal,” Valley said.

Harry Vaughn’s desk was covered with notes for his introduction and the question-and-answer session that would follow the 2020 Sundance Film Festival screening of Whirlybird by documentarian and fellow USC Annenberg graduate Matt Yoka. Vaughn (MA, specialized journalism (the arts)) and Yoka, (MA, specialized journalism) had a lot in common beyond their degrees. While they hadn’t met, or even known about each other before Yoka’s documentary was accepted into the festival, they were both native Los Angelenos, later learning they even attended high schools across the street from each other in La Cañada.

When Megan Jordan travels overseas, packing for her digital life can be tricky. She leaves her personal cellphone and computer at home, and carries only work devices stripped of sensitive data. And when she visits a hotel’s gym, she steers clear of anyone working out nearby because they could potentially download her data.

On Saturday, Jan. 25, the TIME’S UP Foundation and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative released a new report, “Inclusion at Film Festivals,” which examined the gender, race, and ethnicity of narrative film directors, film festival programmers, and executives from 2017–2019.

When Ivy Schamis began describing what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14, 2018, she stood up and walked to the door of the classroom on the third floor of the Annenberg School for Communication building.

The Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg has awarded $25,000 in reporting grants from its Impact Fund to help California journalists undertake ambitious explanatory or investigative reporting about health issues in underserved communities in the state. The grants will go to journalists at eight news outlets, including a podcast, two public radio stations, one Spanish-language radio station, one online-only outlet and three newspapers. Grantees also receive six months of mentoring from veteran journalists.

When Brenda Wiewel was looking for guidance on how to best promote the work being done as part of the USC Homeless Initiative, she didn’t have to look far. Wiewel, director of the university initiative to eliminate homelessness, reached out to the USC Annenberg Agency. Here she connected with Jing Ma, a second-year communication management graduate student. After discussing with Wiewel the best ways to get the word out on campus about activities, resources and volunteer efforts, Ma met with the 19 other students in the Agency and formulated a plan.