One Renowned Liberian Journalist’s Experience

Know an iCampuser

The iCampus learning blog shares stories about the people, innovations, adventures, and experiences that enrich our community. In this edition, we’d like to shine a spotlight on one of Liberia’s foremost media practitioners, a veteran print and broadcast journalist who earlier this year joined the iCampus community with a unique objective.

Anthony Acarus Nyemah Stephens is an award-winning Liberian journalist who works for Power FM/TV as a news editor. He’s a writer, an anchor, a talk show host, a campaigner for civil liberties and an analyst. Stephens has undergone training from several local and international news organizations, including the BBC, VOA and Thomson Reuters Foundation. Stephens’s work has been recognized by the Press Union of Liberia, the trade organization for Liberian journalists. With a career spanning eleven years, he has won several awards for his coverage of sports, the environment, and health issues. In January 2018, Stephens came to iCampus because he needed a convenient and friendly environment with hospitable staff and fast and reliable internet service in order to pursue his studies at Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). He also sought iCampus support in finding a placement for his YALI internship. He wanted to find a local organization whose vision and goals meshed with YALI’s leadership brand and humanitarian mission. As a USAID LAVI (Liberia Accountability and Voice Initiative) Strategic Learning Partner, iCampus has been promoting learning within its community through discussions, professional networking, fail fairs, mentoring, and hands-on and free skills building.

More recently, iCampus has begun supporting a new set of civil society organizations: LAVI education advocacy partners. Through the iCampus community, Stephens gained placement with one such organization, Helping our People Excel (HOPE). Based in Monrovia, HOPE advocates for increases in the Liberian national budget for education. It also seeks to improve learning from failures of the Liberian education system and areas where we’ve had success. Since his placement with HOPE four months ago, Stephens has been working closely with executive director Aisha Cooper. In the coming months, he will assist the HOPE team to conduct stakeholder interviews and to document the conclusions of consultations and monitoring efforts. He will also help the organization to design and roll out communications and outreach strategies for different projects -- including LAVI.

For Stephens, this is not just an opportunity to further his professional experience but also a chance to learn and collaborate. He believes the experience will help him to rethink the way he approaches education issues as a journalist -- and ultimately improve his coverage of these issues.