Jamie Remillard, associate professor of English at Worcester State, has been named a University of Vermont Center for Community News Champion. The award recognizes faculty from across the country who work to build and sustain partnerships between academic institutions and community news organizations.
As a faculty champion, Remillard will receive one-on-one coaching and peer mentoring over the next year to help achieve a “challenge goal” related to community news. “The program provides a supportive framework to help us define and then achieve our challenge goals between now and the end of December,” Remillard said.
Remillard has been deeply involved in bolstering local news connections at Worcester State, especially over the past year and a half. “All of those things are coalescing together now,” she said.
Those efforts include growing the partnership between the university and the Worcester Guardian, a local non-profit news outlet founded in 2023. “The goal is for us to work together to provide experiential learning opportunities for our students and to make it possible for them to be submitting and publishing in the Guardian,” Remillard said.
Remillard is also co-faculty director of the Wormtown Herald, Worcester State’s student-run online news publication. In addition, she teaches in the university’s multimedia journalism minor, which is offered for the first time this academic year.
Remillard takes a balanced approach to teaching students about the news industry, “Remillard takes a balanced approach to teaching students about the news industry, focusing on the value of high-integrity local journalism, while also managing student expectations about the challenging job market they may face.
She makes it clear to students upfront that the goal is not for every single one of them to find a lucrative career in journalism. She emphasizes that the value is in their work as writers and contributors to their community, and in the transferable skills they gain.
Remillard emphasizes the value and importance of local news, especially in the face of “news deserts” where local journalism has disappeared. In an era of shrinking local news coverage, she believes the work of fostering partnerships between universities and community news organizations is crucial. “Local news only gains in its value in this environment. When students are learning about the difference between a social media influencer and a journalist, I think they become very organically naturally curious and excited about learning about journalistic integrity,” she said.
Remillard said she is excited to work with the Center for Community News toward empowering the next generation of journalists. The center provides a valuable platform for strengthening the ties between higher education and local journalism, she said.
Local journalism is more important than ever, especially with the decline of legacy news outlets, according to Remillard, so she appreciates the opportunity to work with the Center for Community News to empower the next generation of journalists and ensure our community has access to high-quality, fact-based reporting.