MIAMI - FIU’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) has chosen two of its students for a rare opportunity – all-expense-paid trips to Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.

The two students, Tiffany Parkes and Jillian Simms were selected from a competitive field of students by a panel of local television and newspaper editors and will travel with Allan Richards, chair of the school’s journalism and broadcasting department, on a 10-day study and reporting field trip in mid-April.
Parke and Simms will interview, record video and write articles, as AIDS journalists, in a region devastated by the disease.

Parkes, 23, is a journalism and fine arts major. She has interned for the St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune, and Closer Magazine. As a former student at the University of South Florida (USF), Parkes also served as the editor in chief of “The Voice,” a magazine started by the Black Student Union (BSU), and also served as a contributing writer for the Oracle, USF’s campus newspaper.

Simms, 21, originally from Windsor, CT, is a broadcasting student and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists. For four summers, she interned at FOX 61 news in Hartford, CT, where she gained experience in field production, video editing and story writing for various events. Upon graduation, Simms plans to begin work as a general assignment reporter.

Richards, who has written over a dozen medical documentaries aired on The Discovery Channel and Public Broadcasting Service, including a two-part documentary about AIDS and protease inhibitors sponsored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), will supervise and instruct in this multimedia health reporting experience.

“The idea for this competition came from a few places,” explained Richards. “One inspiration was Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times, who hosts an annual competition and takes two students with him to Africa to conduct ‘backpack journalism,’
which is real-time multimedia reporting in the field – laptop, satellite phone, digital camera, video camera and so on. That’s essentially what our students will be doing.”

Beyond the opportunity to travel abroad for this kind of opportunity, Richards sees this as a chance for students to shed light on the AIDS/HIV issue here in South Florida, as well.

“This is more than just a major global issue; it’s a local issue as well,” said Richards.
“By taking our students abroad, we are taking seriously our obligation to the international community, but our students will also come home with a new understanding of the disease. That information is extremely valuable here, as well.