How the Annenberg School connected all the dots for Naima Small
The Class of 2025 communications major was drawn to studying social media and culture, how gender is portrayed online, and the role of technology in perpetuating bias. ‘I loved how Annenberg enabled me to not only see the diversity of ways I could use my degree, but also learn from people who had much different academic interests than me.’
2 min. read
Before even arriving at Penn, Naima Small knew she wanted to major in communication.
“I applied to Penn because of Annenberg,” she says. “I was particularly interested in the concentration around advocacy and activism, subjects I was writing about in high school.”
Image: Courtesy of Annenberg School for Communication
As a teenager, she created an online blog, called “Dear Dark Skinned Girl,” that covered issues facing Black girls and women, from media representation to colorism. She continued her journalism career at Penn at 34th Street Magazine, where she worked as a writer, then a Style editor, then an assignments editor, and, most recently, the Ego Editor. Though she has ultimately decided journalism isn’t the career path for her, Small has remained interested in the subjects she pursued in her writing, like the intersection between social media and culture, how gender is portrayed online, and the role of technology in perpetuating bias.
The fourth-year student from Southington, Connecticut, is completing a communication major with a concentration in advocacy and activism at the Annenberg School for Communication, and a minor in Africana studies. Now that she’s graduating she says she will miss “being a part of such an engaging and vibrant academic community,” she says. “There are so many ways to study Communication—I have friends who are interested in health communication, others in marketing, others in scholarly research. I loved how Annenberg enabled me to not only see the diversity of ways I could use my degree, but also learn from people who had much different academic interests than me.”
Small will also miss the faculty, who she has found incredibly supportive during her time at Penn. “It’s incredible to be surrounded by some of the most widely recognized scholars in the field of Communication as an undergrad,” she says. “When I studied abroad in Australia, my syllabi referenced a few of my professors, and I felt proud to know I had had the privilege of learning from these internationally known scholars firsthand.”
When the Schuylkill swallowed the city: Lessons from Hurricane Ida’s historic flood
New Penn research shows that Hurricane Ida wasn’t a once-in-a-century anomaly but a preview of how climate change, urbanization, and aging infrastructure are rewriting flood risk.
The Fed explained: What it does and why it matters
Former Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and financial historian Peter Conti-Brown, both Wharton professors, unpack the central bank’s origins, its unusual structure, and the quiet ways it shapes the economy
How population changes are impacting primary education worldwide
Research from Penn sociologist Emily Hannum and colleagues reveals regional trends in whether school-age populations are increasing, plateauing, or decreasing—and shows how different countries are responding.
A bioengineered bean gum from the lab of Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell is found to reduce the levels of three microbes associated with head and neck squamous cell cancer to almost zero, without affecting the beneficial bacteria normally found in the mouth.
Fighting oral cancer with bioengineered chewing gum
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell shows that antiviral and antibacterial chewing gums reduce the levels of three microbes linked to worse outcomes in oral cancers, paving the way for more effective and affordable therapies.
