This summer, USC Annenberg resurrected an opinion-writing course with nine graduate students taking on such crucial issues as the future of our democracy and battle for racial equality.

“We tapped into the key issues that move us and produced work that, if we’re lucky, we’ll remember 30 to 40 years from now,” said Associate Professor Alan Mittelstaedt, who teaches the course. “When friends and family ask: What did you do in J-school way back in 2021, when the threat of authoritarian rule seemed so real in America, they’ll point to columns we published this summer.”

And, yes, in the face of utter despair over an America where so many question the outcome of our recent presidential election, and where truth and facts—and our constitution—remain diminished, the Annenberg Nine often found cause for hope and optimism.

Annenberg Media’s summer managing editor, Alexis Timko, reviewed the columns and published them per newsroom guidelines.