Five JMS alumni, Sam Reinders; Siki Mgabadeli; Natasha Joseph; Milisuthando Bongela and Siphokazi Magadla, featured in the 2011 Mail & Guardian 200 young South Africans list.
Below is a profile of each alumnus as it appeared in the Mail & Guardian.
Congratulations.
Sam Reinders - Photo Journalist
If Sam Reinders had a flashback of her 33 years on planet earth, it would resemble something from 'LIFE' magazine: George Bush kicking back on Air Force One, a 28-car cavalcade snaking through Washington DC, pensioners, punk rockers, shack dwellers and urban princesses, whatever her eyes have seen her Canon has captured. Just about.
As a freelance photojournalist focusing on long-term reportage, Reinders has won a 'Mondi Award', for her 'Open Society Foundation Media Fellowship' on acid mine drainage, worked with 'World Press Photo' and taken photographs for a 'National Geographic' travel guide.
If her work is as varied as her clientele, the one commonality is her passion for the human condition. It's a skill she learnt at Rhodes University, crafted during her masters in visual communication at Ohio University, and only really confronted during her internship at 'US News & World Report'. Part photographer, part journalist, Reinders is always a full-time humanitarian.
Reinders graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism in 1999.
Siki Mgabadeli - Radio and Television Presenter
What is Siki Mgabadeli's favourite thing? Talking. That's why she feels she's got the "best job in the world".
The 31-year-old Rhodes University graduate presents SAfm's 'Morning Talk with Siki' every weekday morning. "As a nation, we are hungry for information and I think that's healthy - it certainly helps the debates I'm able to have on radio," she says. She also co-hosts Africa Inc - a show about black economic empowerment - on SABC 3.
Her commitment to "removing the jargon" from economic news coverage won her 'Sanlam's financial journalist of the year' award in 2006, and she hasn't looked back since.
Mgabadeli's love of media is in her blood. Her grandmother was a trailblazer, who wrote radio dramas in isiXhosa: one of the first women of her generation to do so. Mgabadeli needed that same spirit when she entered the world of financial journalism - especially when CEOs talked to her "like a two-year-old" during interviews. They don't do that now.
Mgabadeli graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2000.
Natasha Joseph - News Editor: Cape Argus
When news of Chris Hani's death broke in the Sunday Times newsroom Natasha Joseph was there. The time Joseph spent in her journalist father's office fuelled a fascination with the pulse and impact of news - making her certain that journalism was the only career for her.
As news editor of the Cape Argus, Joseph sees the real stories of Cape Town - the good, the bad and the ugly - land on her desk. Luckily her razorsharp wit (fellow students at Rhodes University will remember her as an outstanding stand-up comic) helps her to withstand the weight of her work; a job she's so good at, that she won the '2010 1st for Women Insurance, Women in the Media Rising Star' award.
Believing in the enduring relevance of newspapers, she'll fight to keep them going and to work on them and will, undoubtedly, one day, join the ranks of her media heroes: her father Ray Joseph, Redi Thlabi and Ferial Haffajee.
Joseph graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2003.
Milisuthando Bongela (2003) - Columnist, Fashion Writer, Co-Owner Mememe, Johannesburg
Fashionista, opinionista. Both words describe multi-talented Milisuthando Bongela. After joining the fashion circuit in 2007 as a fashion assistant and writer for 'Cosmopolitan' this Rhodes University journalism graduate began doing PR for local labels and trend analysis for Dion Chang's agency, 'Flux Trends'.
In 2009 Bongela joined 'AAW!', a specialist project management company that works in the arts and creative industries, as an assistant project manager, and helped to bring local outdoor art installations such as Mary Sibanda's 'Long Live the Dead Queen' to central Johannesburg.
While continuing to freelance as a fashion writer, which won her a 'Sanlam fashion journalism' award in 2008, Bongela travelled to New York and interned with 'Fashion TV'. She recently became co-owner of Jozi's first branch of the renowned fashion boutique 'Mememe', after successfully testing the waters with her series of pop-up shops, which stocked local designers, under the label 'Pulchritude'.
Bongela graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) in 2005.
Siphokazi Magadla (2004) - Lecturer: Rhodes University
When 24-year-old international relations specialist Siphokazi Magadla won a Fulbright Scholarship to complete her master's degree in the United States she certainly followed her motto: "Come in and just devastate!"
In 2009 the outspoken Magadla, who hails from Nqeleni near Mthatha, was elected vice-president of the Ohio University African Students Union, the second-largest student organisation on campus. She also won a graduate student award from the US's National Association of Black Political Scientists.
On her return to South Africa she worked as a research consultant for the Institute for Security Studies, where she focused on the role of women in conflict resolution. Now Magadla lectures at Rhodes University in African security and development and plans to embark on a PhD later this year.
"I grew up very shy, but I had to break out because I realised that if you don't speak up, things don't change," she says.
Magadla graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) in 2006.
For the full list click here.