2015 Ailes Apprentice graduates (l-r) Danaia Williams, Randall Payton, Shivan Sarna and Mauricio Muñoz
There are four new graduates of the Ailes Apprentice Program. Founded by Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, the AAP recruits and develops diverse talent who are given a salary and training for their careers. Several past graduates are working at Fox today.
“As I look around the room, I see a few of our other graduates,” said Ailes at Thursday’s ceremony, at which FNC anchor Harris Faulkner gave the opening remarks. “These graduates are going to change the world. They are the best hope for this country. They understand what it means to work, contribute, communicate and lead,” Ailes said.
The graduates of the 11th class of Ailes Apprentices include Randall Payton, a junior Web Video producer for Foxnews.com; Mauricio Muñoz who worked in Technical Operations at FNC and FBN; Shivan Sarna who worked as a Production Assistant at Fox News; and Danaia Williams, an assistant to Alan Colmes at Fox News Radio.
NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Champion Anthony Robles was the Keynote Speaker. Robles, who was born with one leg, was the 2011 recipient of the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance.
The 2015 Inspiring Success Award went to 92-year-old Dabney Montgomery, (at left, with Ailes) a Tuskegee Airman and Civil Rights Activist.
“I’m a great fan of the Tuskegee Airmen because they changed the course of the War, but they also changed the course of history because they did things nobody thought they could do and they did it so well that they are still thought of today as great American heroes,” Ailes said. “(Dabney Montgomery) was with the 332nd Air Fighter group and he was one of the guys that kept those airplanes in the air and he also marched with Martin Luther King from Selma to Montgomery.”
Guests included NABJ president Sarah Glover, NAHJ president Alberto Mendoza, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins, Chase Carey, Executive Vice Chairman of 21st Century Fox and Santita Jackson, FNC contributor and daughter of the Rev. Jesse Jackson (below).
