SJMC Global News Team to travel to Guyana in January
Luis Seijo
SAN MARCOS, Texas – Holly Wise, lecturer in the School of
Journalism and Mass Communication, held a news conference to discuss the Global
News Team (GNT) and their trip to Guyana.
In January 2018, five students will be traveling alongside
the Respiratory Care students of Texas State to document the experience of
being abroad while telling the stories of communities in need of assistance. She
stressed the importance of service for these trips.
“The students of the Global News Team embed with service
learning trips from TXST. Specifically, to tell the stories of the communities
that are being served as well as the students and faculty who are volunteering,
“Wise said. “You are volunteering in an international environment and you are
often living in people’s communities.”
Wise said the inspiration behind the creation of the GNT comes
from her background in service-oriented journalism.
“I’ve always been very interested and a lot of my career has
been spent covering social justice issues abroad and also in the United States so
I’m always looking for opportunities to not only use my skills in those ways
but to then also inspire students to become involved with the world using the
skillsets you’re learning in the classroom,” Wise said.
Wise has no specific plans for the next five years, but said
the program could possibly make two trips in a year, one in both long semesters.
In previous years, GNT students traveled to Nicaragua with
the nursing students at Texas State. Students not only got time to interview local
residents to get insight on what their day-to-day lives are like. They also were
able to interact with residents and children on a personal level.
Wise said the students were out doing important work that
the local government hadn’t done.
“The other thing we’re doing during those home visits is
we’re also taking a census as well because these are such rural parts of
Nicaragua that the government doesn’t keep statistics on who lives there or
what kinds of illnesses they might be facing,” Wise said.
2018 applications are currently closed, but those interested
can keep up with the program at their website, here.
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