Miami Gardens, Fla. – Two Florida Memorial University (FMU) Communication students, Taj-Ray Brown, 23, and Delila Nakaidinae, 20, both juniors, will participate this week in the 2021 Christopher J. Georges Conference on College Journalism.

The informative, cutting-edge industry event is organized each year by the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, with assistance from The Harvard Crimson, the school’s daily student newspaper and official news outlet of the university. The Crimson, the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Mass., according to Wikipedia, is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, and operated by The Trustees of The Harvard Crimson, a nonprofit organization.

“This opportunity will enhance and reinforce the instruction my Journalism students are learning here at Florida Memorial,” said FMU Communication Prof. Russell Motley. “I’m excited for them as they broaden their scope of this evolving industry.”

Motley, a longtime member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), is the immediate past president of the NABJSouth Florida chapter, and currently the chapter’s treasurer. Motley, who headed the team that hosted NABJ’s record-breaking 2019 national convention in Aventura, Fla., which was attended by more than 4,000 African-American media professionals, and who led NABJ-SF to a Chapter of the Year nomination, is an award-winning, veteran journalist who has mentored countless students.

The Harvard conference brings student journalists together from across the country to share ideas, network and attend training sessions with professional journalists, including current Nieman Fellows.

This year’s conference will be held via Zoom on April 9 and 10. The keynote speaker is Harvard alumna Abby Phillip, another noted African-American journalist, now a senior political correspondent and anchor for CNN.

South Florida’s only Historically Black College or University (HBCU), FMU, also has announced that Mathew Knowles, Ph.D., Beyonce and Solange’s father, author, professor, entrepreneur and music executive, will share his story as FMU’s commencement speaker on Saturday, May 8.