Charmaine McKissick-Melton Communications Fellowship

The Process

January – March: Interested students will complete a “Boot Camp” at NCCU to prepare for the application process, the job interview and the work itself.

Late -January: Job descriptions for the Duke internship placements are shared with students, and students are asked to choose three that interest them the most. Student resumes and samples of their writing or producing will then be shared with the appropriate Duke supervisors for review.

First week of March: Students and sponsors meet for in-person speed interviews and then both parties rank-order their choices. Matches are made with a preference for first-to-first choice, first-to-second, and so on, with the student’s priorities taking precedence.

Late May: The work starts — 20 hours per week on a regular schedule. We expect interns to be on campus and in the office as much as possible. Each supervisor will negotiate a specific schedule with their intern and outline expectations for the summer.  

June and July: You’ll also attend a series of ‘lunch and learn’ sessions with program alumni, career counselors, video producers, social media managers and photographers to deepen your understanding of the field.

Mid-August: You will have published work for your portfolio and a professional reference to help you on to the next step in your career!

The Compensation

Dr. Mac Fellows are paid $18/hour for 200 hours (8-10 weeks.) They will also receive a stipend to offset the cost of summer housing, transportation and meals, totaling $3,500 in two payments. The total compensation works out to about $7,000.

2024 Dr. Mac Fellows

Fellow	Unit
Ashari Cain	Durham & Community
Mesa Jones	Dept. of Medicine
Jatu McCray	Kenan Instititue of Ethics
Zyra Dent	Sanford School of Policy
Shimei Cook	Duke Mag Video
Kaia Bond	Duke Health MarComms
Julia French	Faith & Leadership
Aneesa Shaw	University MarComms
K’Mari Peede	Dept of OB/Gyn
Jalynn Woods	Trinity College A&S

Our Namesake

In 2021, we renamed this life-changing experience for Charmaine McKissick-Melton Ph.D., who was an award-winning professor at North Carolina Central University for 15 years before retiring in 2022. In addition to founding this internship partnership with Duke, Dr. Mac helped lead the creation of the NCCU Mass Communications Department from what had been part of the English Department. She also spearheaded creation of NCCU’s first digital media lab in the NCCU Farrison-Newton Communications Building.

Charmaine McKissick-Melton received her B.A. in radio, television, and film from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and a master’s in speech communication with a specialization in radio, television, and film from Northern Illinois University. She worked in the communications industry for ten years, in radio and television sales and management. From 1993 to 1996 she was a Lyman T. Johnson Research Teaching Fellow at the University of Kentucky, where she received her Ph.D. in communications with a focus on race relations. She previously taught at the University of Notre Dame and Bennett College in Greensboro, NC.

A daughter of Durham, Charmaine was one of the students who helped desegregate the Durham public schools as a third-grader. Her father, Floyd McKissick Sr., was a civil rights lawyer and co-leader of The Durham Committee on Negro Affairs who helped defend the Royal Ice Cream Parlor sit-in defendants in 1957. Her parents welcomed into their home and shared meals with civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Abernathy, James Farmer, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Harvey Gantt.

In other words, Charmaine McKissick-Melton is Durham royalty, in addition to being a much-admired professor who touched many young lives at NCCU. We are proud to honor her with this program.