When Julia Meriney went back to school after raising her three sons, one of her first classes was Professor Holly Johnson’s Honors English 102 at Mercer County Community College. At the time she was simply seeking a credit toward her degree, but what she found was a passion and sense of purpose.
In May of 2024, Meriney graduated from MCCC with highest honors and received numerous academic awards, many of which are connected to her time as editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, The College VOICE, for which Professor Johnson is the faculty adviser.
Her connection with the VOICE also led to her involvement with the school’s J-Lab, part of the Fueling Community Journalism at NJ Community Colleges initiative of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
A longtime photographer, Meriney was drawn to the idea of documenting the world around her, particularly the visibly contentious political environment in her area since the 2016 election. When Professor Johnson encouraged her to join the student newspaper, she saw an opportunity to put her photography skills to use.
However, before she could take photos, Professor Johnson encouraged her to write at least one article.
“I ask all students who are interested in doing anything for The VOICE to write articles. It’s important to understand how journalism works, what it takes to do the research, to conduct interviews, to be fair and balanced, to gather all the components and put them together,” Johnson said. “If you are a photographer, that’s great, but journalistic photographs have to help tell the story better than the text alone, and they can’t do that if the photographer doesn’t understand the article or how articles are written.”
Meriney says the experience of writing that first article pushed her out from behind her camera and out of her comfort zone.
“It’s a change in mindset, because you have to ask questions. You have to talk to everybody and understand different perspectives,” Meriney said.
Her first short article on a campus technology upgrade led to many more. She covered everything from cultural heritage celebrations, and art exhibits, to the problem of dead whales washing up on New Jersey’s shore, pieces that allowed her to pair her writing skills with her talent for photography. Meriney moved up the ranks at The VOICE from cub reporter to editor-in-chief.
One of the biggest stories she covered was the weeklong strike by Rutgers University faculty members. The multimedia piece netted Meriney and her colleagues two regional awards as well as a national award from the Society of Professional Journalists and another from the College Media Association.
The VOICE, which has long been one of the highest ranked and most award-winning two-year college newspapers in the country, maintained its standings under Meriney’s care, receiving 13 New Jersey Press Foundation awards in 2023 and 18 more in 2024, along with five College Media Association awards.
Seeing Meriney’s abilities and passion for reporting, Johnson invited her to help with building the J-Lab community journalism certificate program, one of four NJCH-supported non-credit certificate programs at NJ community colleges set up in 2023. With support from Journalism + Design at the New School, these programs offer free, accessible journalism training to New Jersey community members.
Mercer’s cohort included a dozen community members from all walks of life and ranging in age from 17 to 78.
“I had initially thought Julia would just be a liaison between The VOICE and the J-Lab, but I soon realized the role was bigger than that. For example, many of our participants were not confident with basic journalistic tools such as using a phone as an audio recorder, or sharing documents online, especially our senior citizens. Julia jumped in to assist,” Johnson said. “She is incredibly patient and non-judgmental, so it was easy for her to build rapport, and then she helped everyone gain confidence where they needed it.”
The gratification Meriney felt when community members gained the confidence to do the work of journalists kept her coming back.
“J-Lab students aren’t necessarily going into journalism as a career. It’s about giving people hope and giving people confidence to write about things that are important to them and their communities,” Meriney said. “It’s so empowering.”
“Programs like J-Lab offer individuals from the community the training and opportunity to engage with the diversity of their community and represent the information needs of their communities,” Meriney said.
As the first J-Lab came to a close, Johnson and Meriney applied and were accepted into the Solutions Journalism Network’s Train-the-Trainers program alongside editors from ABC News, BBC News and Univision, as well as independent journalists, media startup founders, and professors from other higher education institutions.
The Solutions Journalism Network was co-founded by Tina Rosenberg and David Bornstein who wrote the “Fixes” column for the New York Times.
Johnson describes solutions journalism as “centering the ways in which problems are being tackled rather than just explaining the problems themselves; the focus is on the response not just the calamity.”
Readings from the Solutions Journalism Network were already being used in J-Lab, and the training helped both Johnson and Meriney shape the way they will approach journalism topics in future cohorts.
Meriney, who now works at Eden Autism Services, is considering continuing her studies in photojournalism. She says her time at The VOICE and working on the J-Lab left her “with a sense of hope that I wasn’t expecting.
“We built our own little community in the newsroom,” Meriney said.
Fueling Grassroots Journalism Through NJ Community Colleges is a partnership of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and Journalism + Design, Made possible by a generous grant from the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, the program works with community colleges throughout New Jersey to create and deliver free, noncredit community journalism certificate offerings to equip people with tools to better understand and articulate what’s happening in their communities. Learn more at njhumanities.org/programs/informed-nj.
