Detroit, MI — PMG Agency has launched Cohort 2 of the PMG Journey Fellowship in partnership with Cranbrook Horizons-Upward Bound (HUB), supported by the Flagstar Foundation, which has funded the fellowship since its inception. The Journey Fellowship equips students with tools to understand how narratives shape perception, opportunity, and identity, with post-program evaluation showing measurable growth in media awareness and discernment.
Building on HUB’s college access mission, the program examines how repeated messages influence judgment, reinforce bias, or attach limiting labels. Fellows are challenged to question assumptions and define themselves by their values and aspirations rather than inherited narratives.
Through structured dialogue and creative storytelling exercises, students strengthen critical thinking and confidence. They study how stories are framed in media and culture and learn how story functions not only as expression, but as strategy. Education and youth development professionals rated the PMG Journey Fellowship five out of five stars, with 100 percent reporting that the intellectual depth of the youth elevated or shifted their perception.
“With this program, I was able to see that my peers were more than the narrative I had given them,” says Alan Carlisle, 10th-grade student at Cass Technical High School and 2026 Journey Fellow. “I learned the difference between critique and criticism, and I’ve grown as a young man alongside my peers.”
The Journey Fellowship was designed and is led by Ken L. Porter, Executive Producer and Chief Visionary of PMG Agency. “When youth understand how narratives take shape, they move differently,” says Porter. “They become more thoughtful about what they accept, what they repeat, and how they define themselves.”
“It was powerful to partner with PMG Agency to bring the Journey Fellowship to HUB and introduce students to storytelling in a way that affirmed and strengthened their own narratives,” says Dillon A. Brown, Director of Development at HUB.
Katherine Morgan, President of the Flagstar Foundation, adds a call to action to future funders, “The PMG Journey Fellowship is the right type of program that you should be funding. This is important work.”
Cohort 2 also received support from the Wayne County Sheriff Youth and Senior Education Fund, with additional partnership from Project Boss Up and collaboration with Detroit CARES, an affiliate of The National CARES Mentoring Movement.
PMG Agency is a Detroit-based narrative change and experiential storytelling firm focused on elevating aspirational and authentic narratives through its Journey of Stories film series, the Black Excellence Impact Dinner series, and the PMG Journey Fellowship.
For more information, visit pmgjourneyfellows.com.
