As the second week of the semester comes to a close, dozens of USC Annenberg’s new graduate students received a warm welcome — and some words of wisdom — from Dean Ernest J. Wilson III Thursday night.
“You’re coming into a school right now which is in the midst of positive change, of almost revolutionary change and innovation,” Wilson told students. “Take advantage of not only benefiting from that change, but tell us what you think that change should be.”
Incoming students to Annenberg’s graduate and Ph.D programs gathered at Town & Gown for a catered reception, welcome address by the Dean, and the opportunity to get to know one another by connecting and collaborating across areas of study. “You are colleagues to one another,” Wilson said. “While you are here, I want you to learn from one another. To be willing to teach one another. To be empathetic toward one another, and to support one another.” About a dozen Annenberg faculty members, including new School of Communication Director Sarah Banet-Weiser and new School of Journalism Director Willow Bay, were also in attendance at the reception. The high caliber of Annenberg’s faculty, Wilson said, is due to the fact that they’re as multi-skilled and diverse as the talented students they teach. “What I love about this faculty is we have a lot of everything,” Wilson said. “That mix of practice and scholarship, and commitment and excellence is something we take very seriously here at the Annenberg school.”
As many of those in Annenberg’s graduate programs hail from out of state or out of the country, Wilson encouraged students to fully utilize USC’s proximity to the culture and amenities of Los Angeles, and Annenberg’s connections around the city and beyond. “We reach out and have networks in Los Angeles, in California, across the United States and globally,” Wilson said. “So please take advantage of this incredible Annenberg family, this network of networks that reaches out into the world.” The Dean also emphasized how the new Wallis Annenberg Hall, and all of the talent and opportunities housed within it, are helping to further the ‘Annenberg Advantage,’ which differentiates Annenberg from other schools of its kind. This is facilitated, Wilson said, by encouraging open communication between faculty and students, breaking down barriers between the different Annenberg programs, and, most recently, by creating a new combined media center in which students can work collaboratively.
“It’s all converged in this wonderful new building,” Wilson said. “And that’s kind of a metaphor for what we consider to be the Annenberg advantage. We want you to communicate across the silos.”
This multidisciplinary approach to graduate school was particularly appealing to students like Diana Crandall and Jessica Harrington, who are both a part of the inaugural class of Annenberg’s new M.S. Journalism program. “I really liked the fact that it was a multimedia program, and that it was innovative,” Crandall said of choosing Annenberg’s M.S. Journalism program.
“It really seemed applied rather than theoretical.” For Harrington, whose journalistic interest lies primarily in broadcast news, Annenberg’s commitment to training students as journalists by offering them practical experience while still in school was the biggest selling point. After visiting USC and seeing for herself just how student-run news outlets like Annenberg Television News operate so similarly to real-world newsrooms choosing Annenberg became an easy decision.
“When I started to look for a journalism program, I definitely wanted something that was hands-on, in the field,” Harrington said. “The practical experience that we’re getting here … that’s exactly what I was looking for, so as soon as I saw that, I knew this was the only school I wanted to go to.”
To see more images from this event, click through for the Flickr gallery.
