Washington State University Students Visit Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
On Thursday, March 16, 2023, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication hosted students from Washington State University (WSU), Murrow College of Communication. The students met with the Dean and later toured the University of Nairobi Channel (UNC) Television and Radio Stations.
pose for a photo during a visit by WSU students
on Thur Mar 16, 2023
The students who were in the country for a week were from different communication disciplines, including Multimedia Journalism, Broadcast Journalism, Broadcast News Journalism and Print Journalism. They are in the country to research and do stories on different topics of infectious diseases.
They are part of a programme called Backpack Journalism at WSU, where they pick the best communication students from the Murrow College of Communication and send them all over the world to experience the diversity in journalism practice.
Ms. Joy Wanja, an alumnus of the University of Nairobi and a PhD student at WSU said they picked Kenya because it is fast-paced in terms of journalism. “We chose Kenya because the journalism field is very fast-paced and students can learn from this experience,” she said.
“We chose to come to the University of Nairobi because it is the premier institution and that WSU has a programme called Global Health Kenya, which is in partnership with the University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases (UNITID),” said Ms. Wanja. She added that it was important to bring students here since their stories are based on research in infectious diseases.
Other research stories WSU students were covering were why COVID-19 did not affect Africa as much as the rest of the world and a programme called Feed the Future where cattle are treated for East Coast Fever to prevent their deaths and this in turn keeps girls in school as they depend on them as a source of livelihood.
The Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, was very glad about the visit and welcomed them to the faculty. He pointed out that WSU President had visited earlier and was looking for other avenues for partnerships as a collaboration agreement had already been signed.
