Expanding What’s Possible for HBCU Students and Campus Media
The HBCU Digital Media Collaborative expands access to opportunities, industry exposure, and
meaningful experiences for HBCU students while strengthening campus media as spaces
where students learn, create, publish, and serve their communities.
Access, Exposure, Experience
We believe preparing HBCU students for an evolving media landscape requires more than
introducing them to traditional career paths. It requires creating access to opportunities,
expanding their exposure to what is possible, and supporting experiences that allow them to put their interests and skills into practice.
Access
Creating Pathways to Opportunity
We connect HBCU students with opportunities, resources, organizations, and financial support that can help move their academic and professional journeys forward.
Exposure
Expanding What Students Know is Possible
We introduce students to professionals, organizations, career pathways, technologies, and emerging areas across journalism and media — broadening their understanding of where their interests and skills can take them.
Experience
Creating Opportunities to Learn By Doing
We support experiences that allow students to create, publish, participate, build
relationships, develop their skills, and gain meaningful exposure to professional
environments.
Elevate
Where access, exposure, and experience come together.
Elevate is HBCU-DMC’s flagship annual convening, bringing HBCU students together with
professionals, organizations, educators, and industry leaders for two days of learning, career
exploration, professional development, and connection.
Opportunity, Brought Directly to Students
Virtual Sessions connect HBCU students directly with organizations offering internships, fellowships, graduate programs, and other professional opportunities.
Students hear directly from the people behind these opportunities—learning what programs
offer, who they are designed for, how to apply, and what can make an applicant competitive
while having an opportunity to ask questions before taking the next step.
Internships | Fellowships | Graduate Programs | Professional Opportunities | Product Intelligence
- Internships
- Fellowships
- Graduate Programs
- Professional Opportunities
- Product Intelligence
Helping Students Get Where Opportunity Is Happening
Being selected for an opportunity is only the beginning. For many students, the cost of travel,
lodging, registration, and other expenses can determine whether they are actually able to
participate.
The Student Impact Fund helps reduce those financial barriers, supporting HBCU students as
they pursue meaningful professional, educational, and career-building experiences.
Strengthening Campus Media. Expanding Student Publishing
HBCU campus media provides students with something that cannot be
replicated in a classroom alone: the opportunity to create, publish, experiment, lead, and serve
an audience.
The Collaborative Media Lab works directly with a small cohort of campus media programs to
strengthen student participation and how they create, produce, publish, and distribute journalism
and media.
Rather than prescribing a single platform or format, we meet campuses where they
are—whether they are building around a website, newsletter, podcast, video, social media, or a combination of platforms—and help them develop strategies that reflect their students,
audiences, and communities.
Areas of Focus:
Publishing Strategy | Student Activation | Content & Production | Audience & Distribution
| Community Reporting
- Publishing Strategy
- Student Activation
- Content & Production
- Audience & Distribution
- Community Reporting
Who We Work With
HBCU-DMC works across the HBCU community to connect students with opportunities,
strengthen campus media, and build stronger connections between campuses and the broader
media industry.
Our Member Campuses
Eight HBCUs have opted into HBCU-DMC campus membership as we work to build a stronger,
more connected network for students, advisors, and campus media.
Our Broader HBCU Reach
Students, faculty, and campus media from HBCUs across the country have engaged with
HBCU-DMC through Elevate, Virtual Sessions, and other initiatives.
Why This Work Matters
Access can change a student’s trajectory. Exposure can expand what they imagine for
themselves. Experience can help turn that possibility into a path forward.
Our work is strengthened by the students, educators, campus leaders, and industry
professionals who believe in creating more pathways between HBCUs and the evolving media
landscape.
Testimonials
“
"This is a long time coming, but it is really exciting to see you pull this together. I am blown away with you have built here and the potential is astounding."
Mira Lowe
Dean
School of Journalism & Graphic Communication
Florida A&M University
“
"This will really engage our students and help them understand what the environment is like now because it's changed so much."
Jackie Jones
Dean
School of Global Journalism & Communication
Morgan State University
“
"This is a long time coming, but it is really exciting to see you pull this together. I am blown away with you have built here and the potential is astounding."
Mira Lowe
Dean
School of Journalism & Graphic Communication
Florida A&M University
“
"This will really engage our students and help them understand what the environment is like now because it's changed so much."
Jackie Jones
Dean
School of Global Journalism & Communication
Morgan State University
Making Campus Membership More Meaningful
We are building the infrastructure that makes membership connection more meaningful
throughout the year.
We are developing a stronger campus membership experience that will give participating
schools more intentional ways to connect students with Collaborative opportunities, professional
resources, mentorship, industry engagement, and support for campus media.
The goal is to make it easier for campuses to activate opportunities for their students, and
easier for students to access them.
Latest from the Collaborative
Follow the latest news, opportunities, partnerships, program updates, and developments from
across the Collaborative.
Stay Connected
Opportunities move quickly. Stay connected with HBCU-DMC for upcoming Virtual Sessions,
student opportunities, Elevate updates, Student Impact Fund information, campus initiatives,
and news from across our network.
Frequently Asked Questions
The HBCU Digital Media Collaborative is an organization working to expand access, exposure,
and meaningful experiences for HBCU students while strengthening campus media as
environments for student development, publishing, storytelling, and community-serving
journalism.
Our work primarily serves HBCU students and campuses while building connections with media
organizations, educational institutions, industry professionals, funders, and other partners that
can help expand opportunities for students.
Virtual Sessions are year-round online engagements that connect HBCU students directly with
organizations offering internships, fellowships, graduate programs, and other professional
opportunities.
Elevate is HBCU-DMC’s annual HBCU Digital Media Conference, bringing students together
with professionals, organizations, educators, and industry leaders for immersive learning,
professional development, career exploration, and networking.
The Student Impact Fund helps reduce financial barriers that can prevent HBCU students from
participating in meaningful professional and career-building experiences.
The HBCU Media Lab works directly with selected HBCU campus media programs to
strengthen student participation, publishing strategy, content production, audience development,
distribution, and community-serving journalism.
Yes. Eight HBCUs have opted into HBCU-DMC campus membership. We are currently
expanding the membership model to create more structured year-round engagement, stronger
campus activation, and additional resources for participating campuses and their students.
No. Many HBCU-DMC opportunities and programs are designed to reach HBCU students more
broadly. As our membership model develops, member campuses will have more structured
ways to engage with HBCU-DMC and activate opportunities for their students.
HBCUs interested in campus membership, the HBCU Media Lab, student opportunities, or other
forms of engagement can contact HBCU-DMC to learn more about current and developing
opportunities.
We work with organizations interested in connecting with HBCU students, supporting
professional opportunities, sharing industry expertise, investing in student access, or
strengthening HBCU campus media. Organizations interested in collaborating can contact us to
discuss opportunities for engagement.
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