Athena Jones

National Correspondent

Athena Jones serves as a CNN national correspondent based in New York.
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CNN Expansion 11/17/21 Athena Jones National Correspondent
CNN Expansion 11/17/21 Athena Jones National Correspondent

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Cabrini University
CNN
Small private colleges are struggling to keep their doors open as declining enrollment leads to financial instability
Apr 13, 2024
Several small private colleges, including Cabrini University in Pennsylvania, are struggling to stay open as enrollment declines and financial troubles mount.
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CNN
•Video 3:00
College DEI programs are under attack. Here’s why 3:00
Feb 24, 2024
DEI supporters are seeing echoes of America’s fraught racial history in attacks on diversity efforts. CNN’s Athena Jones reports.
Ashley Awad and Jules Lattimore participate in a protest to defend diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Texas, in April 2023.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman/USA Today Network
DEI supporters see echoes of America’s fraught racial history in attacks on diversity efforts
Feb 23, 2024
As efforts to promote DEI in academia increasingly come under fire, defenders tell CNN they are trying to uphold American ideals while critics accuse them of advantaging some groups – like racial minorities – over others.
Young scientist working in the laboratory.
sanjeri/E+/Getty Images
Efforts to close gender interest gap in STEM must be stepped up, Gen Z survey shows
Dec 5, 2023
Despite wide efforts to encourage more girls and young women to pursue careers in STEM, a new survey from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found Gen Z girls significantly lag behind boys in the level of interest expressed in STEM subjects, suggesting more must be done to close the gender gap.
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•Video 4:44
‘We want to see people stand with us’: Palestinian-American teens speak out 4:44
Nov 30, 2023
CNN’s Athena Jones speaks to a group of Palestinian-American teens about their concerns over the war and the impact that it is having on their lives.
HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: A first-grade Dual Language program teacher is teaching in English on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023 at Patterson Elementary School in Houston. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle/Getty Images
To mark your child’s progress, look beyond their grades, report urges parents
Nov 15, 2023
Overreliance on report cards to measure a child’s academic progress may be leading parents astray and preventing children from getting the support they need to learn, a new report suggests.
athena jones pkg jewish students
•Video 3:37
‘Nobody can win a war like this’: Jewish student reflects on Israeli-Hamas war 3:37
Nov 1, 2023
Jewish teenagers in New York shared their concerns about the Israeli-Hamas war and its impact on themselves, their loved ones, America and the world. CNN’s Athena Jones reports.
Jen Singer, an English as a new language teacher, works with students at P.S. 111.
CNN
New York City schools are seeing an influx of students. Here’s how they’re handling the immigration crisis
Oct 19, 2023
On a hot, sticky day in early October, 25-year-old Alesmar stood on a street corner in Manhattan holding her son’s hand.
Students write during an English as a new language class at P.S. 111.
CNN
•Video 3:05
See how one New York City school is handling the immigration crisis 3:05
Oct 19, 2023
More than 120,000 migrants have arrived in New York since the spring of 2022. Many live in temporary housing – often hotels serving as shelters – and many are seeking asylum. The surge has added nearly 30,000 children to the city’s public schools.
An ACT Assessment preparation book
Seth Perlman/AP/File
ACT reports record low scores on its college readiness exam
Oct 13, 2023
The average composite score on the ACT college admissions test dropped to their lowest levels since 1991, according to data released this week.
03 kids social media STOCK
The Good Brigade/Digital Vision/Getty Images
NY officials announce legislation aimed at protecting kids on social media
Oct 11, 2023
Two new bills meant to protect children’s mental health online by changing the way they are served content on social media and by limiting companies’ use of their data will be introduced in the New York state legislature, state and city leaders said Wednesday.
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WVLT
Tennessee aims to tackle pandemic learning loss by making some kids repeat third grade
Sep 10, 2023
Harmony Fletcher likes to read and does so every night, but that was not enough to help her pass the English-Language Arts portion of Tennessee’s assessment exam last spring, her mother, Shaneta Fletcher, said.
tennessee retention jones vpx
WVLT
•Video 3:15
Tennessee 3rd graders strugging with reading could face retention. Here’s why 3:15
Sep 8, 2023
CNN’s Athena Jones looks at Tennessee’s 3rd-grade retention policy aiming at improving literacy amid growing concerns about learning loss due to the pandemic.
Jefferson County Public Schools school buses packed with students makes their way through the Detrick Bus Compound on the first day of school Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, in Louisville, Ky. Kentucky's largest school system has cancelled the second and third day of school after a disastrous overhaul of the transportation system that left some children on buses until almost 10 p.m. on opening day. Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Marty Pollio calls it a "transportation disaster" in a video posted on social media. (Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal via AP)
Jeff Faughender/Courier Journal via AP
•Video 2:48
Why are schools struggling to find bus drivers? CNN investigates 2:48
Aug 18, 2023
CNN’s Athena Jones takes a look at why school districts across the US are having a hard time finding enough school bus drivers.
A new lawsuit accuses Harvard University of discrimination by giving preferential treatment to children of wealthy donors and legacy students, who are mostly White.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Lawsuit alleges Harvard gives preferential treatment to legacy admissions, who are ‘overwhelmingly’ White
Jul 4, 2023
Three minority advocacy groups are suing Harvard University’s governing body, accusing the school of discrimination by giving preferential treatment to children of wealthy donors and alumni, and are citing the recent US Supreme Court ruling that gutted affirmative action to bolster their lawsuit.
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•Video 3:32
CNN’s Athena Jones says the haze from the Canadian wildfires makes Manhattan feel like you’re living in a ‘giant cloud of smoke’ 3:32
Jun 7, 2023
CNN’s Athena Jones reports.

About

Athena Jones serves as a CNN national correspondent based in New York. She was formerly a CNN White House correspondent, covering President Trump and his administration for all of the network’s programs and platforms.

Jones started with the network as a general assignment correspondent in 2011. She has reported on politics and on a wide range of general news stories for programs across the network from breaking news to national stories. She has covered debates over immigration reform, the Affordable Care Act, the war against ISIS and debt and budget issues, in addition to protests against police brutality, Ebola, the Covid-19 pandemic, the #MeToo movement, Supreme Court decisions, weather events and the arts.

Previously, Jones was a White House producer with NBC, where she wrote packages, produced story segments and reported on air for MSNBC and NBC News. Jones covered the presidential campaigns of then-Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during the 2008 election cycle for NBC and the National Journal. Prior to her work at NBC, Jones served as a freelance segment producer for CNN. In addition, from 2001 to 2003, she worked as a reporter for Reuters based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she covered the Argentine presidential elections, the farm industry, the collapse of the country’s economy and other general news stories. Prior to Reuters, Jones reported on politics and the economy in both Chile and Argentina for Bloomberg News.

Jones graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Government and earned her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She studied Spanish language, literature and arts and European politics at the University of Madrid Complutense in Madrid, Spain; and Islamic studies at the American Research Center in Cairo, Egypt, with Duke University.