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October 4, 2022
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UT student creates news-aggregation website for younger readers

2014-11-07_Student_Website_Rachel
Rachel Zein

Mbiyimoh Ghogomu said he wants to help the younger generation better understand the world. The sociology senior along, with his childhood friend Dylan Dement, founded the website The Higher Learning. Their goal was to provide a shortened, simplified version of the news for young readers. The website takes facts consistently found in a variety of news sources and condenses them into a quick, 60-second read. The Higher Learning recaps topics ranging from world news to science and technology.

In addition to the website’s short recent events recaps, Ghogomu also writes editorials for the site. He said, although he usually offers a progressive opinion in his editorials, his conservative friends have told him that they enjoy reading the editorials because he is transparent about his opinions and provides the viewpoint of both sides of the argument. 

Ghogomu spent his first two years of college at Dartmouth. He said he enjoyed being surrounded by intelligent people but didn’t think the atmosphere was helping him figure out what he wanted to do with his life.  


Ghogomu decided to take a couple of years off from college to work and do individual research on various topics that interested him. This research is what inspired The Higher Learning.

“I came to the realization that, for the knowledge I learned to be valuable, I had to find a way to share it,” Ghogomu said. 

Dement, a UT-Dallas alumnus with a degree in global business, deals with the business side of the company.

“I kind of wanted to own my own business eventually,” Dement said. “But I didn’t think I could do it at this stage of my life.” 

Dement helps produce content, as well. He said, initially, this was his only responsibility because they did not create the website with the intention of it becoming a business. 

“We felt like the original idea behind it was to help people,” Dement said. “We were really just trying to spread the word about anything.”

Ghogomu has started recruiting writers on campus. Among them is journalism sophomore Noah Harness. 

“Their content drew me in,” Harness said. “They distribute knowledge based on their appreciation for it.”

The Higher Learning is the first publication for which Harness has worked. He said it has helped him discover what topics he believes have journalistic value. 

“I really like environmental energy stories,” Harness said. “I think it’s a universal topic. I also do a lot of world heritage-type stories. I like presenting information about cultures we’ve never heard about.”

Ghogomu said he eventually wants to have writers in major universities across the world. He believes the best people to report on an event are those that are experiencing it. 

The Higher Learning may bring in professional journalists, but Ghogomu said for the most part they want to keep their staff fairly young.

“We want to keep this young people helping other young people try to make sense of the world,” Ghogomu said. 

As for his own personal goals as a journalist, Ghogomu hopes to one day have enough staff so he can travel and focus solely on writing editorials.

“I’d love to be a firsthand journalist and learn firsthand about the world,” Ghogomu said.

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UT student creates news-aggregation website for younger readers