Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath is a first-year International Media student.  She is originally from Louisville, Kentucky, but spent the last year living in Palestine.  There, she volunteered in a school and refugee camp in Bethlehem, teaching English, film and photography.  Before living in Palestine,  Laurin-Whitney received her B.A. in Television and Radio Production from Valparaiso University.  Her region of interest is the Middle East and she is most interested in how the media affects the peace process specifically in Israel-Palestine.

Charlotte Young is also a first-year International Media student. A South Carolina native, Charlotte studied broadcast journalism at Howard University. After graduating, she lived in Dakar, Senegal for a year and a half where she taught English and History at the Senegalese American Bilingual School and later worked at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa and volunteered with West Africa Democracy Radio. She returned to the U.S. and spent a year working at the Travel Channel. Her regional interests are in West Africa and she hopes to use media to dispel negative stereotypes of ethnic communities as well as advance U.S. diplomacy efforts.

Vicktery Sanchez is a first-year International Media  student.  A native New Yorker, Vicktery studied International Affairs with a concentration in Latin America and International Development at The George Washington University in Washington, DC. For the past two years, she has been working with the U.S. Department of State in the fields of human rights and public diplomacy.  Her region of interest is Latin America and she hopes to continue to advance U.S. diplomacy efforts.

Jason Kanno is a first-year International Media student. He was raised in the Air Force and has lived in Japan, South Korea, Texas, Hawaii, Virginia and Alabama. Jason studied Government at the College of William and Mary. Since 2008, he has worked for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His fields of interest include law enforcement and public diplomacy.