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Award-winning journalist to speak at SMWC

News | 10.16.2019
Rhonesha Byng
Rhonesha Byng

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is proud to host Rhonesha Byng, founder and CEO of Her Agenda, a digital media platform bridging the gap between ambition and achievement for millennial women, for a presentation 7 p.m. on Oct. 23 at McMahon Ballroom, Le Fer Hall. The presentation entitled, “From Ambition to Achievement,” is free and open to the public.

Byng is a journalist and entrepreneur who has served as a writer and on-camera reporter for NBC and The Huffington Post.  She has received awards from the Associated Press, the New York Association of Black Journalists, and early in her career, an Emmy award as part of team coverage for a breaking news story as a field producer with WNBC-TV in New York.

She was included in the 2017 class of Forbes‘ 30 Under 30 in both the media and dorm room founders categories. ESSENCE magazine named her among 50 Founders to Watch. She attended DePauw University on a full-tuition leadership scholarship. The platform she founded, Her Agenda, is a site aiming to provide millennial women access to information and inspiration to help them get started with or advance their careers.

Byng is coming to SMWC for a weeklong residence as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. The fellowship is a program by the Council of Independent Colleges. The program presents an opportunity for colleges and universities to host distinguished fellows — prominent artists, diplomats, journalists, business leaders and other nonacademic professionals — to lead the campus community in substantive dialogue. Throughout the week, students, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to interact with Byng in classes, presentations, breakout sessions and SMWC’s Foundation Day events.

“Byng’s work as a journalist and entrepreneur connects to questions we ask our students, or questions they ask about themselves and their pursuit of a degree: who am I? How do I find my purpose? How can I make a difference in the world?” said Aimee Janssen-Robinson, associate vice president for student affairs at SMWC.

“We hope students see that grit and developing a growth mindset are not just ideas stuck in a classroom. There are ways to keep moving forward in life and career paths, and Byng’s experience speaks to that.”