A news program led by Native American students attending Haskell Indian Nations University and the University of Kansas has been awarded with a grant to propel the students’ professional careers.
“Good Morning Indian Country” earned a $100,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, according to a KU news release Monday.
Melissa Greene-Blye, enrolled citizen of the Miami Nation, KU assistant professor and GMIC’s faculty supervisor, said she appreciates that the foundation has recognized it’s essential Native students hold autonomy over their storytelling.
“I have a ridiculous sense of pride in the work the students put in to make ‘Good Morning Indian Country’ successful,” Greene-Blye said in the release. “This is recognition that ‘GMIC’ is carving out important space for narrative sovereignty, allowing us to speak back to a history of underrepresentation and misrepresentation in news and entertainment media.”
Student anchors and producers with GMIC, broadcast weekly, report on local and national news, weather and events as well as host live interviews. The morning program in October earned another large grant: $100,000 to be allocated over the next two years from Press Forward.
Training from the grant is meant to help students transition from newsrooms at their universities to those out in the field. Greene-Blye said instruction could concentrate on how to operate camera equipment, edit content using Adobe software and deliver a rundown, among similar media skills.
“The funding will focus on specific skills training with the goal of helping ‘GMIC’ team members feel prepared to take the next steps to seek an internship or fellowship in a professional media environment,” Greene-Blye said in the release.
The grant will also help cover incidental costs — expenses that students must often cover out of pocket. Eliminating parking costs or transportation barriers, for example, would increase access to opportunities for students, according to the release.
GMIC streams live on Facebook, facebook.com/GoodMorningIndianCountry, at 11 a.m. on Wednesdays.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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