Alumni Spotlights

Our Alumni Spotlights feature highlights the impact that studying abroad has had on the careers of alumni. Read more about the varied career paths that alumni have taken since studying abroad. Check back monthly to catch each new posting.

Merrill Scholar Emerges as Global Storyteller—Alum of the Month Jimmie Briggs

Meet Jimmie Briggs (IES Abroad Vienna | 1989) a gifted storyteller and humanitarian. Jimmie was pre-med at Morehouse and pre-accepted to Harvard Medical school, prior to which he spent a semester in Vienna after receiving a Charles Merrill Jr. Scholarship. Vienna changed Jimmie's trajectory and he decided not to pursue medicine, but journalism. Witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of Eastern Europe had a profound effect on his life.

After graduating from Morehouse College, he worked at the New York Post and Village Voice. He started Man Up Campaign, a non-profit to engage men/boys in global movement to end gender-based violence throughout the world. He has written three books, including the award-winning book Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War. In 2010, he was awarded GQ Magazine's “Better Men Better World” award.

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