DETROIT, Jan. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- General Motors
launched its second annual Discover Your Drive diversity
journalism program Jan. 7-11, hosting
13 college students and nine journalists from across the country at
Detroit's North American
International Auto Show. Students from diverse backgrounds
participated in the program, which promotes diversity in automotive
journalism and news coverage.
Discover Your Drive began Saturday and concluded
Wednesday with an awards presentation recognizing students for
their work at NAIAS as well as their social media presence during a
scavenger hunt through Detroit.
Students used the new, award-winning all-electric Chevrolet Bolt
EV, named 2017's NAIAS Car of Year, and OnStar technology to find
their way around the city. They posted about their adventures on
Twitter tagging @GM_Diversity using the hashtag
#DiscoverYourDrive.
"We were blown away by the talent and creativity of these
fearless students," says Leslie
Gordon, senior manager, GM Diversity Communications. "Many
of them had not been exposed to automotive journalism, had never
been to Detroit or seen snow. But
they brought with them the right amount of curiosity required to
cover an event as massive and complex as the North American
International Auto Show and they did so with grit and class."
One student demonstrated that drive by chasing a face-to-face
interview with GM President and CEO Mary
Barra on the auto show floor. Another coaxed GM North
America President Alan Batey into a
video that won the program's top prize: an all-expense paid trip to
a national journalism conference.
Students Rushawn Walters and
Nia Muhammad, both of Howard University, and Sarah Rahal, of Wayne State
University, won the prize with "Jammin' with GM," a video
story told through carpool karaoke, focusing on the all-new
Chevrolet Cruze and technologies such as Apple Car Play, Android
Auto, Teen Driver, Rear Seat Reminder and the car's fuel
economy.
"As an aspiring student journalist from Detroit, getting the opportunity to learn more
about what's in my backyard was a priceless gift," said Rahal.
"This program gave me a network of people that are proficient in
the industry and the knowledge to use it in the field. Discover
Your Drive allowed me to believe that automotive news is a
possibility for my future."
The students took part in a journalism workshop led by
Ray Suarez, former host of NPR's
Talk of the Nation. They also heard a panel on the state of
diversity in newsrooms. The panel, moderated by award-winning
journalist Ed Gordon, featured
fashion critic Michael Quintanilla,
formerly of the Los Angeles Times and
San Antonio Express News; political journalist Patricia Guadalupe, a contributing writer to NBC
Latino; Walter Middlebrook, Detroit
News assistant managing editor; and Salvador Rodriguez, Inc. magazine's tech
reporter.
Students attended news conferences and vehicle reveals, explored
the auto show floor and interviewed auto experts. The professional
journalists mentored the students and helped them produce news
stories and presentations. The program ended with an awards
ceremony at the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
"As a diversity and business reporter, it's really great to see
GM put its money and weight behind discovering and helping young
journalists of diverse backgrounds get started with their careers,"
said Inc.'s Rodriguez, also a mentor.
Quintanilla, a returning mentor whose team won last year, says
news organizations need to take note.
"This is the most original experience for college students that
encourages them to consider automotive journalism while also
promoting diversity in newsrooms," he said. "By diverse, I mean not
only diversity in one's ethnicity but also in ideas and a promise
from everyone involved to protect and uphold journalism's existence
and the profession's commitment to tell accurate and honest
stories."
Download photos and video
About the students:
- Nia Muhammad of
Chicago is a sophomore in TV/film
and electronic studio at Howard
University in Washington,
D.C.
- Sarah Rahal of
Dearborn Heights, Michigan, is a
journalism senior at Wayne State
University in Detroit, a
member of the honors Journalism Institute for Media Diversity
program and managing editor of The South End, WSU's student
paper.
- Rushawn Walters of
Springfield, Massachusetts, is a
journalism and theater arts senior at Howard
University in Washington,
D.C. and managing editor for its student newspaper, The
Hilltop.
- Dominique Sims is from
San Francisco and is a mass media
arts senior at Clark Atlanta
University. She is the author of the award-winning blog
Black Students Who Travel.
- Ala'a Ibrahim of Houston is a multimedia journalism and
business senior at University of Texas at
Austin. She has interned at NBCUniversal and KXAN-TV and
will soon be joining KUT & KUTX as a multimedia intern.
- Oriol Brull comes from Barcelona, Spain, and is an advertising and
public relations junior at the City College of
New York in New York City.
He has been a freelance automotive writer for a national Spanish
magazine.
- Gabi Wy of Newburgh,
Indiana, is a sophomore at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. She will be an intern at the
Evansville Courier & Press in January and features editor for
The Shield, her university's student publication.
- William Cornelius of
Oklahoma City is a broadcast
journalism junior at the University of
Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. He
shoots and edits long-form documentary and broadcast packages, does
VOSOT (Voice Over/Sound on Tape) and writes for print and online
publications.
- Aaron Robert of
Warren, Michigan, is an
advertising and public relations sophomore at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He leads content creation
for GVSU's Public Relations Student Society of America chapter,
writing and editing blogs and designing graphics.
- Nguyen Le is a native of
Vietnam and a recent graduate in
print journalism at the University of
Houston. He wrote for the student newspaper The Cougar and
was a movie critic for Cooglife Magazine.
- Jose Arredondo comes from
San Antonio, Texas, where he is a
junior at Texas A&M-San Antonio. He has written and
photographed for the Big Stick, The Bugle Call, The Ranger and La Prensa newspapers and is currently an
intern at Spectrum Sports News.
- Dennis Lin is a native of
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He is
a senior double majoring in communications/advertising with a
sports management minor and sales concentration at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
- Michael Incavo is a
native of Cleveland, Ohio. He is a
journalism and public relations senior at Baylor University's Journalism Public Relations and
New Media department in Waco,
Texas. He has worked for local NPR stations and produced
syndicated reporting features airing across Texas radio stations.
General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners
produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership
positions in the world's largest and fastest-growing automotive
markets. GM, its subsidiaries and joint venture entities sell
vehicles under the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden,
Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling brands. More information on the
company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in
vehicle safety, security and information services, can be found at
http://www.gm.com.
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SOURCE General Motors