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The COVID-19 pandemic has made it so most museums are closed, but students and researchers at �鶹��Ƶ’s John Mitchell, Jr. Program (JMJP) are working hard to create a digital one that sheds light on civil rights pioneers with largely untold stories.

Thanks to an $8,000 grant from Virginia Humanities, the team is building a digital exhibit on the life of anti-lynching advocate John Mitchell, Jr., and his colleagues Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells. The grant is part of $181,500 in funding awarded to 25 nonprofits.

While online meetings often feel confining, for �鶹��Ƶ students in INTS 304 Social Movements and Community Activism, the virtual environment actually opened doors for them.

Zach Fowler and five other students persevered through the pandemic to finish their postsecondary education at the four-year �鶹��Ƶ Learning into Future Environments (LIFE) Program.

Graduating senior Nicole Herman said �鶹��Ƶ made the world her campus.

The Class of 2021 will graduate on Friday, May 14.

Cyber security engineering major Mitchell Martinez is poised to become the first in his family to earn a college degree.

Malek Salhab, a neuroscience major and member of �鶹��Ƶ’s Honors College, will attend medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University as an early selection candidate on scholarship.

In April, Natalia Kanos was elected �鶹��Ƶ’s new student body president.

Approximately 120 �鶹��Ƶ Music students recorded a digital concert to celebrate unity and resilience in the face of division and uncertainty. The concert, “A Song of Freedom,” presented by �鶹��Ƶ’s Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music, showcases works by Black composers as well as selections inspired by the African-American experience.