Young alum/BBC journalist to give opening address at Heidelberg

Hannah Long-Higgins, a 2015 graduate of Heidelberg University, will be the keynote speaker as the university officially kicks off the 2019-20 academic year with Opening Convocation Thursday. While at Heidelberg, Long-Higgins was an active member of the Speech Team and Delta Sigma Chi sorority. An international studies and English double major, she also performed improv comedy with a student-led group called Make a Scene. She completed the Honors Program and spent her junior year abroad at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Long-Higgins now has found success behind the camera as a video journalist for BBC News in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Heidelberg, she worked at Unite Here Local 8, a labor union representing hospitality workers in Seattle, where she used her lifelong passion for photography to document how Seattle's affordability crisis was impacting the city's invisible, low-wage hotel workers. She went on to complete her master's degree in journalism at Columbia University in New York City. Over the last two years at the BBC, Long-Higgins has covered the deep and local impacts of the opioid epidemic, the lasting health care costs of mass shootings, the 2018 mid-term election, the build-up to the 2020 election, and the sex trafficking of minors before, during and after major events like the Super Bowl. Most recently, she was the videographer and producer for an hour-long BBC documentary about a sperm donor family, which aired on BBC World News Aug 24. During Opening Convocation, Heidelberg President Rob Huntington will officially welcome the Class of 2023 as well as returning students and faculty. Additionally, students will hear from Provost Beth Schwartz and Dean of Student Affairs Chris Abrams. They will receive their orange Heidelberg "H" pins and Heidelberg beanies, a long-standing tradition signifying their official entry into the Heidelberg family. The Heidelberg Marching Band and the Hei-Notes, under the direction of Jon Waters and David Cotter respectively, will provide musical entertainment for Opening Convocation.