Category: Junior Faculty Advisor

Maija Robinson is a rising Junior at George Mason University and is majoring in Communications with a concentration in Public Relations.  Aside from classes, she is an intern for Mason’s Washington ScholarS Program. Maija also enjoys attending school events and spending time with others. She aims to enter the field of Public Relations upon graduating. Maija attended WJMC in the summer of 2019 and she is more than happy to be able to experience it again this summer!

Jalen Thompson is a Music Composition Major at Colorado State University. He attended WJMC in 2019 and is ecstatic to come back.  He has worked as a communications intern at CSU, researching and writing articles for SOURCE, the universities online newspaper. Furthermore, he is active in social justice issues and hearing other’s perspectives on them. He also enjoys watching basketball and finding new music!

Mady Godfrey is a rising sophomore at George Mason University within the Mason Honors College.  Coming from a small town in North Carolina, Godfrey is attending Mason to pursue a B.A. in Communications with a concentration in Journalism and a minor in legal studies. Attending WJMC in the summer of 2019 as a rising Junior in high school, Godfrey remembers the positive impact the conference had left on her and looks forward to helping leave that same impact on the correspondents in their fun-filled week. Godfrey wishes for each correspondent to be able to leave the conference at the end of their week feeling inspired in their path of becoming future leaders of the world.

Hope Beelman will be transferring to a four-year university in the fall to study journalism after earning her Associate of Arts at Illinois Valley Community College in early May 2022.  She attended WJMC in 2019 with like-minded individuals and shared her experience at the conference with future correspondents as a Youth Advisory Board member. On campus, Hope has created content for the admissions office social media team and her college’s award-winning student newspaper, IV Leader, as a staff writer and editor-in-chief. Additionally, she works on campus as a student worker in the financial aid office and recently began working as a Marketing Intern at Camp Aramoni. Hope is thrilled to return to WJMC as a JFA this summer.

Aly Blair attended WJMC in 2017 which set her on the path to finding her voice as a practitioner of communication and telling stories of those she meets.  After graduating high school in 2019, she enrolled at Le Moyne College where she is in her third year working towards a B.A. in Communications and a double minor in Legal Studies and Psychology. Aly serves many roles on her campus, including campus tour guide, LCTV Work-Study, and a Staff Writer for The Dolphin, the campus newspaper. She has completed numerous internships across all mediums of the field and is a former college swimmer. Aly is excited to pay it forward bY serving as a JFA for WJMC 2022.

Since attending WJMC in 2018 and being a part of the Youth Advisory Board, Karlee truly found a love for storytelling.  As a rising Junior, she is pursuing a major in journalism with a minor in justice at American University. Karlee is extremely excited to share her passion for journalism and love for WJMC with this year’s correspondents in hopes of helping them find their passion. She is involved on campus through multiple organizations but focuses most of her time on her position as a feature writer for Her Campus, a women-run news magazine. Her career goals are to tell the stories of those whose voices wouldn’t otherwise be heard.

Manuela Bushamani is a rising fourth year student at the University of Virginia who is a double major in Art History and Drama. She attended the Washington Journalism and Media Conference in the summer of 2019 as a rising junior in high school. As she was figuring out what she wanted to do with her passion for writing, she had an amazing learning experience that introduced her to the world of journalism. As a JFA in the summer of 2022, she loved the experience of working with students, so she is excited to return to help this year’s correspondents  discover a passion and new learning experience that she experienced as a correspondent.