Jackson Free Press logo

This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

All, our good friend Emily Braden needs to raise $448 in five days to get this matching grant from the Gates Foundation to help her get her journalism program going at Jim Hill. Please read her e-mail below, then click the link to donate to help her and the students reach the goal!

Hey y’all. I created this grant to get some much-needed resources for my journalism class at Jim Hill High School. The Gates Foundation has funded half, but I’ll lose it all if it’s not fully funded in five days! Donations to the grant are entirely tax-deductable, and you can donate a little as a dollar (although more is appreciated too!) This proposal includes a classroom set of the AP Stylebook (as we don’t have any books for this class), lots of jump drives (no student computers in the classroom either), a voice recorder for interviews, a whiteboard for the editors to use for planning and layout and a lot more. The students have not had a school newspaper in several years, so this will create a footprint for journalism classes behind them.

Link:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=218833&verify=310178168&zone=314

Please forward to anyone, and let me know if you have any questions about the grant.

Thanks,
Emily Braden Knight

Previous Comments

We’re at $403! 🙂 Thank you so much for posting this. I’ve had some questions about payment in my email box. Donorschoose is a very efficient and reputable way to donate to a classroom, and you make a payment directly on the website. The notes posted with the contributions always make me smile, and I love sharing them with the students. Thank y’all so much!


I just donated! I also sent it to everyone on LoungeList.com.


Y’all are doing great. Now we only need $235 more to get her to the matching grant. Remember, ANY amount helps! Cheers, all. 😉


Thank for keeping everyone informed on such worthy projects that just need a little jump start. I’m glad to help and my company is happy to be able get them over the top.


YEAH, WMartin! We did it. That didn’t take long at all and, folks, this has so much potential to change a teen’s life, not to mention the city’s. 😉 Stay tuned for how y’all can help JAHSPA, our new Jackson Area High School Press Association. For one thing, we’re still collecting reams of white paper for our under-funded teachers, as well dry erase markers, jump drives, digital recorders, reporters’ notebooks and the like. That kind of stuff can be dropped off here at the JFP. Long live journalism!


Could y’all here me screaming where you are? Can’t WAIT to tell the students. All the support and good thoughts are very much appreciated in a way I’m just too excited to communicate right now.


Count me in on future efforts. Had I known about the Jim Hill project in time, I would have participated.


Congrats, Em! Wow, I wish I could have donated, but you met your goal so quickly. Keep me in the loop for future requests.


Folks, I want to emphasize that you can help other teachers like Emily simply by bringing a couple reams of white paper, or a package of dry-erase markers, by the JFP for them! We’re collecting the stuff and giving it to JAHSPA teachers as they request it.


**Folks, I want to emphasize that you can help other teachers like Emily simply by bringing a couple reams of white paper, or a package of dry-erase markers, by the JFP for them! We’re collecting the stuff and giving it to JAHSPA teachers as they request it.** <--ladd OK. Where exactly is JFP located?

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.