SEMO, KFVS12 partner to grow bilingual journalism

Southeast Missouri State University and regional CBS affiliate KFVS12 announced a new partnership Feb. 12, to provide education and career opportunities for bilingual journalism students.

The partnership involves recruiting students from three universities in Puerto Rico belonging to the Hispanic Educational Technology Services (HETS) program.

Seniors from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, University of the Sacred Heart and Ana G. Mendez University will be recruited as paid KFVS12 interns.

They will also attend SEMO as journalism students.

"KFVS is excited about this agreement with SEMO and the HETS Universities in Puerto Rico," KFVS12 vice president and general manager Chris Conroy said in a news release. "This partnership will provide enhanced career opportunities for bilingual Spanish-speaking journalism students while also serving Spanish-speaking viewers."

According to Conroy, the students will create content for Spanish-speaking outlets of Gray Television with the goal of creating a recruiting pipeline of bilingual journalists.

Gray Television is the parent company of KFVS12.

"SEMO actively looks for partnerships that benefit our students and helps them gain professional experience," SEMO president Carlos Vargas said. "... I appreciate KFVS for initiating a conversation with SEMO to address a workforce need that has led to establishing greater opportunities for our mass media students as well as valuable agreements with the universities in Puerto Rico."

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