In the media: NewsNation interviews President Hurd about new docuseries

President Nicole Hurd was featured May 3 in a live interview on NewsNation about the six-part docuseries The Class, which follows the senior year of students at Deer Valley High School in Antioch, Calif., during the COVID-19 pandemic. It premiered on PBS March 18, and the first episode received an on-campus screening followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers on April 30.

President Nicole Hurd, Jaye Fenderson, and Daveed Diggs speak on stage in Colton Chapel during a preview of The Class.

Hurd, who served as executive producer of The Class and worked with renowned actor, writer, and producer Daveed Diggs on the project, was joined on the six-minute NewsNation segment by Ebei Oiyemhonlan, one of the six students featured in the docuseries.

Among other points, Hurd noted that the docuseries shows that while higher education is under a lot of scrutiny at the moment, students need it more than ever to fulfill their potential.

“Our higher ed institutions are engines of opportunity,” she said, emphasizing that the filmmakers share the belief that colleges and universities are critical in a democracy and improve the lives of students and the lives of others.

See the complete NewsNation interview.

The Class has also received national media attention, including in the New York Times, Forbes, the Los Angeles Sentinel, the San Francisco Chronicle, and on PBS affiliates across the country.