In a tapestry of cultures, more than one hundred minority students participated in the student media projects to learn more about working in a newsroom and understanding the importance of diversity.

 "It is a great idea to bring together aspiring journalists," said Jocelyn Johnson of NABJ, a participant in the TV project  and a senior at Emory University in Atlanta.

The projects offer students a chance to make new friends, network, and learn about professional and cultural issues.

"Being part of the TV project is a little overwhelming, but I love the experience culturally and professionally," said AAJA member Vicky Nguyen. "In this conference we have a variety of opportunities to go outside of our own cultural bubble," said Nguyen, a senior at the University of San Francisco.

Several students like Daisy Oviedo, a senior at New Mexico State University who is working on the TV project, said that Unity makes the experience unique because students can bond together to identify the problems they face as minority groups.

"Coming to UNITY, brings a whole new dimension to this project because we focus not only in our own problems but on the other organizations struggle within the media," said Oviedo, a member of NAHJ.

Students say that Unity projects are very different than the projects at their own organization.

"The project is very different than the one at NAHJ. Its diversity adds a lot of different perspectives to the project.  It adds so much to the experience of being here," said Brenda de Anda, a participant at the Radio project, member of NAHJ, and recent graduate from the University of Texas at El Paso. 

"As minority groups we have things in common but we see things in a different way too. I am very used to the Latino ways of telling a story and it is interesting to learn the different ways of telling a story," said de Anda.

Compared to student projects offered by the four minority journalists associations, the Unity projects provide more resources and a wider range of issues to cover, and an opportunity to learn from other minority groups. 

"It is a great opportunity to work with other groups of different backgrounds and ethnicities because you can see the different points of view on issues that concern the media, and we can learn from each other" said Ana Lia Gomez a participant in the New Media project and member of NAHJ.