It was mid-February 2019 when several admitted MA students, myself included, descended upon Chapel Hill to gain a better understanding of what our graduate careers could look like at what is now the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. As I returned to the AC Hotel lobby after settling into my hotel room, my eyes settled on Giulia Heyward ’21 (M.A.), standing in its center wearing all black, with curly hair and big glasses. She looked like she had been plucked from a sidewalk in Brooklyn, where I had been only a few hours prior. I immediately knew we would be friends.
From the way Heyward cited professors she wanted as mentors to the classes she wanted to take, it was clear she had done her homework going into our visit. During her senior year at the New College of Florida in Sarasota, one of Heyward’s professors suggest she read “Waking from the Dream,” by Samuel L. Fulwood ’78. The book chronicles the experiences of a young, Black reporter as he struggles to assimilate into mainstream America. “He attended UNC and talked so much about his times walking down those halls, studying journalism,” explains Heyward. “It wasn’t a question at all that I was going to apply to Hussman because I was so curious about understanding this place that this book had transported me to.”
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