A lecturer at the Mass Communication department of Crescent University, Jamiu Folarin has arrived Utah in the United States for the 2022 Solutions Journalism Summit.
The attendance of Mr Folarin, at the summit holding in Sundance, Utah from 5th through 8th, May 2022 is sponsored by Solutions Journalism Network (SJN).
This was made known in an e-mail by
Samantha McCann, Chief Operating Officer and Sonja Petrovic, Development Operations Manager of SJN.
“We are thrilled to let you know that you have been selected to receive a scholarship to the summit.
“We heard fabulous things about your work with the educator community in southwest Nigeria through the SoJo Africa Fellowship.
“We admire your dedication and enthusiasm to solutions journalism in your work and look forward to meeting you in person.
“The Summit is a convening like no other. You can look forward to learning, playing and connecting with others who share your passion for reimagining the news—all in a pretty spectacular landscape,” the email read.
The Vice Chancellor of Crescent University, Professor Ibraheem Gbajabiamila congratulates Jamiu for receiving the SJN scholarship.
It would be recalled that Folarin, Public Relations Officer, PRO, of The Muslim Congress (TMC) in Ogun State, won a $2,000 grant as a 2021 Africa Fellow of SJN to mainstream solutions journalism in media education and practice in Ogun State.
While responding, Folarin said his attendance at the summit will offer him the opportunity to learn and share his thoughts on how to effectively impact lives through solutions journalism.
At the summit, the varsity lecturer will host one of the 10 breakout conversations happening simultaneously that tend to address the question of “What collaborative strategies will enable the solutions journalism community to sustain and scale up known impact?”
“The breakout conversations are expected to provide an excellent way to collaborate with and learn from other participants attending the summit”, Samantha said in an e-mail.
Ahead of the commencement of the summit, Folarin, a devout Muslim will be having a brief conversation with another summit attendee, Dr. Kyser Lough, who is also working to advance solutions journalism practice and its impact.
Dr. Lough who is currently an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Georgia (with his teaching and research focused on solutions journalism), has worked as a journalist, photojournalist and marketing specialist before returning to academia.
While accepting to hold the conversation with him, Dr. Lough said:
“I’m especially excited to meet you because seven years ago this week, I was working in Port Harcourt photographing a teacher workshop that Schlumberger/SEED was putting on.”
According to Samantha: “We have learned that these pre-event dialogues help foster collaboration and can jumpstart creativity at the convening. I thought you might enjoy connecting since you’re both journalism educators.