UVI Student Makes History as Part of First Ever 'White House HBCU Week' Special White House Briefing
A University of the Virgin Islands communications student made history last week as a participant in a special White House briefing, UVI has announced.
2021-09-22 19:38:45 - VI News Staff
UVI senior communications major and contributing writer for UVIVoice 2.0, George Francis, joined other student journalists from 21 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in a virtual White House briefing with Deputy Principal Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Sept, 10. In the half-hour live streamed event, Francis had the opportunity to directly interview Jean-Pierre as a professional journalist in a White House press conference.
The event was part of the first ever "White House HBCU Week," held in collaboration with the White House Initiative on HBCUs. The week’s activities marked debut demonstrations of initiatives put forth by the new administration, UVI said.
According to the release, Jean-Pierre interacted with student journalists in a question-and-answer format. Each student interaction averaged four minutes and schools were called in alphabetical order, with UVI being last on the list.
“I was humbled to be granted this opportunity to interview the deputy press secretary from our nation's highest office,” said Francis. “To be quite honest, I was really nervous as I sat waiting for my name to be called, but I knew I would have to do my best to represent the Territory, my University, the Communication Department and our student newspaper, UVIVOICE 2.0.”
When Francis was called on to interview Jean-Pierre, he asked, “My class at UVI is reading a book entitled Diversity Matters in the 21st century which includes a chapter about you, the BLM Movement and Anglophone African-Caribbean Impact. We have discussed your blueprint for activism and sections from your book “Moving Forward”. Might you expand on your thoughts that topics such as mental illness, depression and suicide must be acknowledged as serious social ills in communities of color and become part of a larger dialogue in mainstream society?” Before giving her answer, Jean-Pierre expressed surprise and said, “Wow. I did not know about this…[book] Diversity Matters. It’s good to know I’m included in that.”