The Houston Association of Black Journalists (HABJ) held its annual Student Mentoring Breakfast this past Saturday, November 21st, at the Houston Community College (HCC) Central Campus in the Learning Hub Science Building.
College students who aspire to careers in journalism and communications were in attendance.
The HABJ Student Mentoring Breakfast is an annual tradition of community impact and professional development, targeting college students who are aspiring journalists and media professionals. This breakfast helps HABJ meet its goals to ensure that media professionals of color as well as students are well prepared for communications careers and have access to opportunity. This event also contributes to HABJ’s efforts to encourage news organizations to hire, train, develop, retain and promote Black journalists.
HCC-Central President Dr. William Harmon brought greetings to attendees.
The breakfast kicked off with an extremely informative public relations panel. Participants for the public relations panel included Houston Texans senior director of communications Kevin Cooper; Kroger public relations manager Kristal Howard; PR entrepreneur Vannessa Wade and HCC-Central public relations director Debra McGaughey.
The public relations panel was moderated by former TV reporter Mary Benton.
The breakfast continued with an engaging journalism panel.
Participants for the journalism panel included KTRK-TV (ABC-13) multimedia reporter Tracy Clemons; KPRC-TV (Channel 2) reporter Courtney Gilmore; Houston Chronicle web producer Camilo Smith; Houston Style magazine chief photographer Vicky Pink; as well as Houston Forward Times’ own associate editor Jeffrey L. Boney.
The journalism panel was moderated by Houston Chronicle web producer Ebony Fleming.
Both panels yielded tons of great information and best practices that all attendees benefited from. The panel sessions were followed by a resume clinic and networking.
HABJ, the Houston Association of Black Journalists, was established in 1986 and is led by President Jerome Solomon, a Houston Chronicle sports columnist. The local organization is an affiliate of NABJ — the National Association of Black Journalists.
In recent years, the annual mentoring breakfast has rotated among local media and academic venues – the Houston Chronicle in 2011 and 2012; KPRC-TV in 2013; and Texas Southern University in 2014.