UK Launches Student-Run Podcast Titled 'Bowman's Friends'
LEXINGTON, Ky, (March 15, 2021) — The University of Kentucky will launch a podcast titled "Bowman’s Friends," starting tomorrow. Hosted by four UK students, "Bowman’s Friends" was created to connect and inform students of issues, important deadlines and ways to get involved on campus. With a goal of amplifying student voices, the podcast will include conversations with people across the university relevant to current campus culture from the student’s perspective.
Hosts include Rana Mitchell, Samantha Valentino, Gillian Stawiszynski and Neha Yousuf.
“On the podcast, we plan to talk with the MoneyCATS team who will speak on financial literacy, co-founder and vice president of BOOK-ish to talk about the BOOK-ish organization, and Melody Flowers, executive director for strategic analysis and policy here at UK, who will touch on the new Cornerstone building on campus,” Valentino said. “We also plan to have some episodes with just the four hosts, discussing various topics from the students’ perspective. We recently recorded an episode where we discussed the ways in which COVID-19 has affected our lives as college students.”
New episodes of "Bowman’s Friends" will go live every Tuesday and Friday wherever podcasts are available. The teaser episode will go live Monday, March 15, with the first full episode going live the following day, Tuesday, March 16, and the next on Friday, March 19.
More about the hosts of "Bowman’s Friends":
Rana Mitchell is a senior from Fishers, Indiana, and a media arts and studies major in the college of communication and Information with a minor in creative writing. She works in the College of Education as a Student Success Worker. She is interested in writing, film, television, reading and pop culture. After graduation, Mitchell plans to pursue screenwriting and production.
Samantha Valentino is a junior from Meriden, Connecticut. She is studying broadcast journalism in the College of Communication and Information with a minor in criminology. Valentino is both a writer and the co-campus correspondent for UK’s chapter of Her Campus, an online magazine targeted at the female college demographic. She is also a Pop Culture Committee chair on the UK Student Activities Board. After graduation, Valentino plans to pursue a career in entertainment journalism.
Gillian Stawiszynski is a senior from Orlando, Florida, and she is studying journalism in the College of Communication and Information and anthropology with a minor in French. She is the assistant opinions editor at the Kentucky Kernel. After graduation, Stawiszynski is interested in pursuing documentary work as well as journalistic writing alongside activism.
Neha Yousuf is a senior from Northern Kentucky. Yosuf is majoring in broadcast journalism in the College of Communication and Information and minoring in writing rhetoric and digital studies. She works for the SEC Network, Residence Life and is an ambassador for the College of Communication and Information. Post-graduation, she is interested in pursuing communications or producing.
To listen to the teaser episode, click here. To stay up to date on podcast information, follow "Bowman’s Friends" on Instagram @bowmansfriends.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.