Arielle Coambes, a 2010 graduate of Alcovy High School, was a presenter at the recent 92nd annual Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Association National College Media Convention.

Coambes and former Georgia Southern University director of student media John Harvey, made a presentation about a training program for student journalists, which was originally implemented in spring 2011 at GSU. Coambes served as editor-in-chief of The George-Anne, the GSU student newspaper, from summer 2011 through mid-2013. She is currently the magazine division editor-in- chief in the Office of Student Media at GSU.

She also received the Morris Newspaper Corporation Honor Scholarship for 2013-14 from the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.

Harvey created a similar program at Penn State before taking it to GSU. The program at Penn State trained many journalists who are now editors and award-winning journalists.

Harvey is now at East Carolina University as the Pirates’ director of student media.

During their presentation, Harvey and Coambes described the positives of the program. Their aim, said Coambes, was to "get other universities on board."

"John Harvey is definitely the biggest influence of my life,’’ Coambes said. "He has a lot of knowledge and experience in journalism, especially student journalism.

"I really look up to him," she said.

Coambes is the daughter of Nicole and Jeff Wood of Covington.