Student
Samantha Latson
Seeking answers for missing women of color
Samantha Latson, M.S. student
“I’m from Chicago and got my bachelor’s degree from Roosevelt University, where I studied journalism. I love journalism, but I also know that in the future I would love to teach. IU not only gave me a full-ride scholarship, but offered me a position as a teaching assistant, so I thought, ‘OK, I can learn journalism and also get the necessary skills to teach in the future.’ My focus in journalism is print, so I love writing and don’t see myself ever getting away from that. I have a real passion for telling stories about people that are often overlooked — primarily stories about marginalized groups.
As a student here at The Media School, I’ve collaborated with the Arnolt Center [for Investigative Journalism] but have also worked on my own for stories about missing women and mostly missing women of color. I’ve also written about Netflix’s Jeffrey Dahmer series and talked about how he was able to go unnoticed for so many years because the primary group of people being affected were young Black men. I want to raise awareness on the missing [people] and violence back home in Chicago. In this area of work, I won a National Association of Black Journalists award for my story on missing and murdered Black women.
Working as a teaching assistant has made me feel more confident in myself as I’ll get these notes from students that say things like, ‘Oh my gosh, thank you so much for raising awareness on this topic that I didn’t know about.’ Hearing things like that just really gives me the courage to believe I could do this one day.
I graduate in May and would love to work in the [media] industry before teaching since you have to practice what you’re doing before you go and teach that. What better way to become a sort of expert and then bring what I’ve learned from the industry back to academia?”
Written By Erin Stafford
Photos By Jordan Venckus