Center for African Studies Announces Major Gift-In-Kind from Muck Rack to the HBCU-Africa Correspondents Corps

(Washington, DC) The Center for African Studies is pleased to announce a new educational partnership with Muck Rack, a public relations management (PRM) platform that enables organizations to build trust, tell their stories and demonstrate the earned value of earned media. This partnership is set to deliver a more comprehensive educational experience for the student journalists who are enrolled in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities -Africa Correspondents Corps (HBCU-ACC) Program.

Through Muck Rack for Educators, HBCU-ACC participants will now receive free access to industry-recognized certifications, research and professional tools used by thousands of journalists and public relations (PR) professionals around the world. Among other things, the partnership includes a gift-in-kind donation of software licenses and on-demand video certification courses.

“Muck Rack for Educators is a gamechanger for our students,” says Michael Walsh, Senior Fellow at the Center for African Studies. “There are very few student journalists who can walk into a job interview with an international outlet and explain exactly how public relations professionals discover foreign correspondents and then pitch them on potential stories. Our HBCU-ACC students will have that understanding when they complete our program.”

According to Tatiana Allen, an undergraduate student at Howard University, the benefits extend beyond career development training. Reflecting on this semester’s reporting project, Tatiana observes, “I have more resources from trend reports, top outlets, and reporters."

“Getting hands-on experience and understanding how communicators work is a great way for journalism students to stand out as they prepare to enter the workforce,” says Gregory Galant, cofounder and CEO of Muck Rack. “The HBCU-ACC Program is a great use case for how professors can rethink how to set their students up for long-term success, using free tools like Muck Rack for Educators to provide hands-on experience that has the potential to further strengthen the journalism and PR relationship.”

About the HBCU-ACC Program

The HBCU-Africa Correspondents Corps is an initiative of the Center for African Studies at Howard University.  It aims to provide student journalists and political scientists with the knowledge, skills, networks, and exposure that they need to realize their full potential as foreign correspondents, foreign policy commentators, and international public relations professionals. Past participants have come from Durban University of Technology (South Africa), Grambling State University, Howard University, Morgan State University, Pennsylvania State University, Stellenbosch University (South Africa), Tufts University, University of the Virgin Islands, and Xavier University of Louisiana.

About the Muck Rack for Educators Program

Muck Rack for Educators provides colleges and university professors everything they need to bring skills modern employers are looking for into the classroom. To date, over 3000 students across 330+ professors from colleges and universities such as New York University, Brigham Young University, Pennsylvania State University, Howard University and James Madison University have joined Muck Rack for Educators and the program continues to grow daily.

Point of Contact:

Michael Walsh
Advisor, HBCU-Africa Correspondents Corps
Center for African Studies, Howard University
michael.walsh@howard.edu