2003 Reaching Generation NEXT by Knight Foundation

PROJECT DIRECTOR Dorothy Butler Gilliam EDITOR Lexie Verdon ART DIRECTOR AND PRODUCTION MANAGER Liliane Vilmenay COVER PHOTO (Left to Right) Maria CerĂ˛n, Jamila Thompson and Fu Yu Wu, by D.A. Peterson COPY EDITOR Ruthell Howard PRINTER Westland Enterprises, Inc., Forestville, Md. 20747 Nadine T. Allard Account Executive 2

Reaching Generation Nex t A News Media Guide to Creating Successful High School Partnerships BY LISA FRAZIER PAGE

A Publication of The Washington Postâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Young Journalists Development Program S p o n so red By: The John S. and James L. Knight Fo u n d a t i o n 3

T A B L E

O F

C O N T E N T S

6 | Acknowledgments 8 | Letter from the president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) 10 | Letter from the president of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF),

Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) 12 | Introduction 17 | C H A P T E R

HOOKING THEM EARLY: The Rewards of Investing in Scholastic Journalism 21 23 24 25 28 29 30

The Poynter Institute’s high school programs of the `70s and `80s My Story (Shashank Bengali, reporter, The Kansas City Star) The persistent crisis in scholastic journalism The response of two local newspapers to the crisis The response of major industry groups to the crisis My Story (Dana Hedgpeth, reporter, The Washington Post) The big rewards reaped by one newspaper from its high school program

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GETTING STARTED: Creating a Successful Print or Broadcast Partnership 36 42 46 48

Tips for the newsroom manager involved in setting up a high school partnership My Story (Gerald Boyd, managing editor, The New York Times) My Story (Maria Elena Salinas, co-anchor, Univision Network News) Tips for the staff member responsible for operating a high school training program

55 | C H A P T E R

RESURRECTING SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM: A Look Inside Some Model Newspaper-High School Training Programs 57 The American Society of Newspaper Editors’ 2002 survey 60 61 68 72

of newspaper involvement with local high schools Teen/youth pages My Story (Natalie Hopkinson, reporter, The Washington Post) Internships/Apprenticeships My Story (Rick Rodriguez, executive editor and vice president, The Sacramento Bee)

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75 Printing of school papers 77 Structured mentoring programs 85 Workshops and camps 89 | C H A P T E R

TURNING STUDENTS ON TO TELEVISION AND RADIO: Broadcast Partnerships That Work 91 The growth of training programs at community-oriented radio stations 92 The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s survey of

electronic journalism in the nation’s high schools Newstudies, a radio training program for high school students in Philadelphia Radio Rookies, a community-based radio training program for New York youths My Story (Eliott Rodriguez, anchor, WFOR-TV, the CBS-affiliate in Miami) HTV Magazine, a television magazine produced by students in Springfield, Mo. Detroit Public Television’s partnership with the Detroit public schools My Story (Mike Woolfolk, anchor and managing editor, WACH, the Fox affiliate in Columbia, S.C.) 105 Youth Radio, an independent radio training program in Berkeley, Calif. 93 95 97 100 103 103

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TEACHING THE TEACHERS: Print and Broadcast Training Programs for High School Teachers 111 The importance of teacher training 113 The American Society of Newspaper Editors’ High School Journalism Institute 114 The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s Teacher

Ambassadors Program 115 My Story (Karla Garrett Harshaw, editor, the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, and senior

editor, Cox Community Newspapers) 116 The broadcast workshop sponsored by the Student Television Network, a national scholastic organization of broadcast teachers 117 Teacher training offered by individual news organizations 120 My Story (Joann Harumi Ng, features copy editor/designer, The Oregonian) 123 | Resources

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

This handbook would not have been possible without the efforts of many people, who gave unselfishly of their time and energy to support this endeavor. The author and the Young Journalists Development Program owe our deepest gratitude to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, particularly Hodding Carter III, president and chief executive officer, and Eric Newton, director of journalism initiatives, who both believed in this handbook from the beginning and awarded the funding to make it happen. Del Brinkman, a former Knight official, also provided early guidance and support. We were fortunate to work with a dedicated team of individuals—Lexie Verdon, editor; Liliane Vilmenay, art director and production manager; and Ruthell Howard, copy editor—who labored tirelessly to put this book together. We were guided from beginning to end by a committee of talented and resourceful individuals who provided valuable expertise and advice. They are: Robert J. Haiman, president emeritus at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and a Freedom Forum fellow. Carolyn Terry, manager of the high school project for the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. Jamshid Mousavinezhad, special projects manager for the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. Carol Lange, a former high school journalism adviser and regional director of the Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes region of the Journalism Education Association. Diana Mitsu Klos, senior project director for the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Mary Arnold Hemlinger, head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at South Dakota State University. Athelia Knight, assistant director of The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program. Milton Coleman, deputy managing editor of The Washington Post. Coleman and Knight also meticulously read every draft of the manuscript and offered constructive feedback. Emily Barnes, president of 6

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Barnes & Co., facilitated the committee’s meetings and ensured that we stayed on track and wisely used our time together. Lystra Lashley, administrator for the Young Journalists Development Program, coordinated the committee meetings, helped with paperwork and kept us organized. The crew at the American Society of Newspaper Editors—particularly Diana Mitsu Klos; Bobbi Bowman, the group’s diversity director; Tim J. McGuire, 2001-2002 president; and Susan Bischoff, former chair of the group’s education committe and deputy managing editor of the Houston Chronicle—were first to sanction the project and have offered tremendous support throughout the process. Many thanks also to Roz Stark, executive director of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, who got on board early and stayed with us all the way. The top editors and executives at The Washington Post have been the backbone of this project and the Young Journalists Development Program. To Donald E. Graham, chairman and chief executive officer of The Washington Post Company, Boisfeuillet Jones Jr., publisher, Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor, Steve Coll, managing editor, Milton Coleman, deputy managing editor, and Theodore E. Lutz, vice president and business manager, we appreciate your confidence in us. To our families and friends, you provide the emotional support and love that keep us going. Finally, to the editors, news directors, professional and student reporters, high school program coordinators, journalism advisers and others whose work is profiled in these pages, you provided the stories, the very substance of this book.

April 2003 Dear editor: For many of us, working on a high school newspaper was the conduit to a wonderfully fulfilling and challenging career in journalism. With this publication, we hope to provide you and your newsroom with practical tools and inspiration to lend a helping hand to scholastic journalism in your community. As youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see in this guide, investing time, energy and resources in the student media reaps immediate and long-term results. Even those students who do not choose a career in journalism will benefit from a highquality student press and will move into adulthood with a better understanding of, and appreciation for, the First Amendment. Strengthening ties to scholastic media helps you grow your own diverse staff. In a survey of daily newspapers conducted by ASNE for this guide, 34 percent of the 588 dailies that responded said they hired a staff member in the last five years as a direct result of their ties to local high school newspapers. Many newspapers across the country already have strong programs to train and nurture teenage journalists. Seventy-nine percent of the papers that responded to the survey said they help the local scholastic press. Approaches include providing speakers, offering shadow days, judging contests and donating supplies. Others had more intensive efforts such as ASNE Partnerships, teen pages, newsroom apprenticeships and printing the school paper. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find many examples in this guide of how to develop a program that works for your newsroom. One key message is that if you ask your staff to volunteer and lead, you are highly likely to receive an enthusiastic response. Our efforts to nurture a diverse generation of journalists are needed more than ever. While many high schools are producing top-notch student newspapers, there has been erosion in urban and isolated rural communities, which tend to have the most diverse student populations. The challenges we face as professionals in accessing information, records and meetings affect the student media as well. In addition, the free speech environment at many schools has been chilled in light of the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision, which gave public high school officials greater authority to censor school-sponsored 8

student publications. These same concerns and questions about privacy dog online school newspapers. And the schools themselves grapple with tightening budgets, turnover in journalism advisers and a decreasing emphasis on journalism, despite studies that point to the educational value of teaching it. In short, if we want the best and brightest joining our newsrooms, we must be much more aggressive and methodical in finding and helping to train them ourselves. ASNE and our counterparts at the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation have launched wide-ranging high school journalism initiatives with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Our programs can help you jump-start or hone your efforts. And this guide provides insight into best practices and getting results. Good luck!

Diane H. McFarlin ASNE President 2002-03 Publisher,Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune

COURTESY OF ASNE

April 2003 Dear News Director: This handbook is a wonderful reflection of the influence that professional news people have on aspiring journalists. It illustrates the very real benefits that radio and television stations reap when they build ties with local high schools. You’ll read about Dave Davis, a teacher in Springfield, Mo., who formed a partnership with local station KYTV to build one of the nation’s top broadcast programs. Dave has trained hundreds of students who have produced a regular stream of stories—many of them investigative pieces—that air as part of KYTV’s evening newscasts. You’ll also read about Steve Butler, who as a high school student was one of the early participants in KYW News Radio’s Newstudies program— and today is director of programming at KYW (and a Newstudies instructor). And then there’s Janesse Nieves, whose story is just beginning. She’s the New York City teenager who, with the help of WNYC’s Radio Rookies program, turned her experiences with a drug-addicted father into an award-winning story that aired nationally. It’s certainly in our best interest—as news professionals—to make sure that beginning journalists have access to top-notch journalism training, equipment and guidance. Future reporters, producers and news directors must be well-grounded in the tenets of journalism and also should reflect our nation’s increasingly diverse communities. But it’s just as important for us—as citizens in a democratic society— to help foster in today’s youth a genuine understanding of, and appreciation for, the First Amendment. A strong, society-wide commitment to free speech and free press principles benefits all Americans, whether journalists or not. That is why the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation started the High School Journalism project. Supported by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the HSJ project has created partnerships between more than 20 high schools and local stations, worked to integrate high school teachers into professional journalism conventions and meetings, and become a clearinghouse for professional and scholastic collaborations. It has also been an opportunity to work closely with our ASNE counterparts on an issue that clearly crosses 10

industry lines. We hope this guidebook helps your station establish a partnership with a local high school or strengthen existing ties. Our thanks to The Washington Post for spearheading this project and for inviting broadcast ers to be a part of it. We look forward to hearing from you about any efforts you undertake.

Barbara Cochran President, Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, Radio-Television News Directors Association

COURTESY OF RTNDF

I N T R O D U C T I O N

High school journalism was dead in the nation’s capital in l997. Not a single city high school had regularly published a newspaper that school year. Computers were broken or missing. Cameras and copiers were nonexistent. Instructors with experience teaching journalism were few, and journalism classes didn’t even make it to the elective subject list. The city’s brightest African American youngsters rarely considered journalism as a career, and too few students or their parents regularly read the big downtown newspaper. Even at some of the better suburban schools, student-journalists and advisers were struggling—selling candy between interviews to pay for printing. The Washington Post discovered this crisis when the paper decided to get involved with high school newspapers in its circulation area. Six years later, The Post’s owners, top editors and corporate managers say, the newspaper has reaped enormous rewards for its efforts. “This is a good investment,” said Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. “Many students of color wouldn’t be entering journalism at all if it wasn’t for this program…. When news media invest in scholastic journalism, they teach a diverse generation the values of democracy, the First Amendment and the role of a free press.” Newsroom managers throughout the country say they, too, are learning firsthand the benefits of investing in scholastic journalism. This handbook highlights the wide-ranging efforts of a sample of newspapers and television and radio stations that in recent years have formed partnerships with high schools and communities to help train the next generation of journalists. The book also offers guidance to media outlets that are not yet involved with high schools or those that do limited outreach but want to do more. The vision of the handbook is that as many U.S. newspapers and television stations as possible will establish partnerships with high schools in their markets and circulation areas. Forming such partnerships will not only help media industries nurture future journalists, but also will build stronger ties to their communities by educating young people to become readers and viewers. The need for such alliances has never been more urgent. High school newspapers are in danger all over the United States, especially in urban and rural areas. Of the 17,000 high schools in the nation, 8,000, or 40 percent, have no newspapers or woefully inadequate ones. This portends alarming implications for the print and broadcast news industries. 12

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Capturing young people ages 15 to 25 may arguably be the biggest challenge for the future survival of newspapers and broadcast news. Many of these young people are in high school or close to high school age. Newspapers already are largely out of touch with Generation X— those born between 1964 and 1976. A recent study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts indicates a continuing decline in exposure to news via the mass media. Among Generation Xers, just 32% “regularly” read newspapers, and only 47 percent were viewers of TV news. With Generation Dot.Net—those between the ages of 15 and 25—only 30 percent regularly read newspapers, just 38 percent view TV news regularly and only 33 percent listen to radio news. “There is a tremendous generational drop-off in regularly following the news through the daily paper and through TV news, and to a lesser but still significant extent, radio,” according to the report, “The Civic and Political Health of the Nation: A Generational Portrait.” Moreover, the population of young people has begun to grow, and in the coming years will rival the size of the baby boomer generation. It also will be more racially and ethnically diverse than ever, with immigration as the dominant factor driving this population growth. Not only are the majority of people of color in urban centers, but Harvard researchers have established that tremendous markets exist in urban corridors. Newspapers and broadcast media must find ways to reach minority groups and the newest immigrants who are changing the face of the nation. The failure to do so may result in a news media that is irrelevant to its desired consumers in the not-too-distant future. Many industry groups have been sounding the alarm of stalled diversity in the media for several years. More minority journalists left the profession in 2000 than entered it. After a decrease from 11.85 percent to 11.64 percent in 2001, the percentage of minority journalists working at daily newspapers rose nearly one-half of one percentage point to 12.07 percent in 2002. Yet that increase is glacial in a nation where at least 30 percent of its citizens are people of color. Programs that help grow the next generation of journalists and get people of color into newsrooms can help revitalize stalled racial and ethnic diversity in staffing. Numerous studies have shown that minorities who do not become involved in journalism at an early age will probably be lost to the profession, and that’s certainly the case with some of the 13

I N T R O D U C T I O N

journalists who are profiled in this handbook. Devoting resources to high school journalism can run the gamut from simple and inexpensive programs to sophisticated and highly productive ones. These programs are business imperatives—not social welfare or feel-good initiatives. The crisis in high school journalism presents an opportunity for the media to confidently attract and mold the next generation rather than view the newsroom of the future with fear. As the programs profiled in this handbook show, some newspapers and, to a lesser extent, television and radio stations, have already responded to the crisis in scholastic media. According to a survey of daily newspapers by the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), 79% of 588 newspapers surveyed are “doing something” with high schools in their circulation areas. However, most of the activities seem to require little commitment In fact, the number of newspapers that have structured programs are at about the same levels as two decades ago. The Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) and its educational arm, Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF), commissioned a survey in the nation’s schools to determine the status of television, radio and online journalism. The results revealed that while a growing number of schools have television and radio stations and online newspapers, few have formed partnerships with professional broadcast media outlets. The question that undergirds this handbook is this: Given what already is being done, why not accelerate the pace of progress? The programs profiled in the handbook show that by focusing resources, however large or small, media outlets can have a powerful impact in their communities. The message of this guide is threefold: The crisis in scholastic journalism still persists; there is support to help newspapers and broadcast stations start and sustain journalism education programs; and it is in media’s best interest to do so. ASNE and RTNDA, with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, are offering seed grants to members that form partnerships with schools. These grants are designed to support struggling newspapers and establish training opportunities in broadcasting. Indeed, the Knight Foundation has made scholastic journalism a funding priority and has chosen to invest extensively in industry groups such as ASNE ($4.8 million for a three-year project, 2001-2003) and RTNDF. The 14

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foundation has become the engine that helps the media industry power high school journalism in the United States. Students across the United States are eager for opportunities. This guide provides the chance for news media to invest in young people, reap enormous benefits for themselves and the nation, and have fun while doing it. A passion for the craft was ignited for many professional journalists when they worked on their high school newspapers. That same kind of spark can flare into excitement for high school students today.

Dorothy Butler Gilliam Director, Young Journalists Development Program

1 Hooking Them Early The Rewards of Investing in Scholastic Journalism

grew up in a family of newspaper readers. He discussed his favorite newspaper stories with his siblings practically every day, and he saw the disappointment in his parents’ eyes when he didn’t know about a story the rest of the family had read. But when Buckley took the advice of his middle school principal in 1981 and attended a writing seminar sponsored by the Modern Media Institute, now the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, the St. Petersburg eighth-grader started thinking about the news in a different way – as a possible career. That first encounter with journalism hooked him. “The notion that I could help put the paper together or learn to write like the journalists I read every day was just extraordinary,” Buckley said. “When I got my first summer internship, I thought to myself, ‘I cannot believe they pay me to do this.’ ” STEPHEN BUCKLEY

“If you’re a kid who’s bright, you’ve got so many options these days”. —Stephen Buckley

COURTESY OF THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

1 HOOKINGTHEMEARLY: THE REWARDS OF INVESTING IN SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM

Buckley, 35, participated in two more Poynter workshops that year, worked as an intern at the St. Petersburg (Fla.)Times for three straight summersand landed a scholarship from the newspaper, which helped him go to Duke University in Durham, N.C. By the time he entered college, Buckley had touched off a career that ultimately would propel him across the globe to East Africa as a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post when he was 27 years old. But when Buckley returned to the United States, he headed home to work as a national correspondent for the newspaper that first gave him a chance to discover his writing voice, the St. Petersburg Times. He is now an assistant managing editor, responsible for overseeing the paper’s national and international reporting. “If you’re a kid who’s bright, you’ve got so many options these days,” Buckley said. “It makes sense that editors get in and tug on those kids’ ears as soon as possible. The earlier kids can hear that voice, the better.” ■ ■ ■

Steve Butler, 46, was a high school senior in 1974 when he spotted a poster advertising a radio and television news training program sponsored by KYW News Radio in Philadelphia. It seemed perfect for him, a kid who had been producing videos since he first wandered into the television studio at his middle school. Butler told the principal he was interested in the program and was chosen as his school’s representative at Newstudies, the broadcasting training workshop that drew students interested in journalism from all of the area’s high schools. For six consecutive Saturday mornings, Butler rode the train from his neighborhood in the northern suburbs of Philadelphia to the city for four hours of lectures, broadcast writing and reporting. “It got me interested in radio,” said Butler, who initially was more interested in studying television and film. “When I went to college, one of the first places I went was the radio station to check it out.” While in college, Butler worked as a desk assistant at KYW. A year after graduating, he returned as a news writer and reporter. Twice, he left the station to pursue other job opportunities. Twice, he found his way back. In 1985, Butler was named news director and executive editor. He later became director of programming, responsible for the station’s news content, marketing and promotions. He also volunteers as a Newstudies teacher and mentor. “We tell the kids when they get there that if we create an interest in journalism for them, that’s a good thing,” Butler said. “But it’s also a good thing if we confirm for them that it’s not what they want to do. We give them a pretty unvarnished view of what journalism is like.” ■ ■ ■

When a news organization invests time, energy and resources to cultivate the talents 20

COURTESY OF THE POYNTER INSTITUTE

Native American writer and teacher Gabriel Horn speaks to students on “Voice, Place and Perception” at the Poynter Institute’s 2002 Florida High School Writers Workshop. About 175 students attended the free, all-day session.

of students interested in journalism, the most visible and perhaps most rewarding payoff is when those students enter the pipeline of well-trained journalists. The benefits are even more direct for newsrooms that manage to recruit the stars they helped to create. But editors and managers whose newsrooms are already engaged in scholastic training programs say there are more subtle, though no less significant, rewards. They are reaped when the student who once worked for the school newspaper becomes the teacher or the accountant who subscribes to the local newspaper. They are reaped when the parent who once viewed a television news station as the purveyor of everything negative hears about the station’s training program for high school students and softens his view. They are reaped when the high school journalists who interact regularly with their professional counterparts walk away with a greater appreciation of free expression. And they are reaped when the radio reporters and editors spending time with students return to their stations with a richer understanding of the youths and communities they serve. “It’s so obvious,” said Robert J. Haiman, who supported the Poynter Institute’s high school programs as managing director and president from 1983 to 1997. “Getting involved in high schools is not a charitable deed. It’s one in which editors have a powerful self-interest. It’s a good thing to do, but it’s also good for you.” Poynter was one of the early news organizations to reach out to high schools. Its work with students dates to the late 1970s, when founding director and president Donald K. Baldwin and his staff created two programs aimed at improving the quality of St. Petersburg high school newspapers and exposing more minority students to journalism. One of the programs provided the city’s 20 high schools the opportunity to produce their newspapers in a Poynter lab equipped with the latest technology. The newspaper staffs from each of the high schools rotated into the lab for one day a month to work with a full-time computer technician, who taught the students to incorporate color and graphics into their layout and design. The students, who brought handwritten notes, left with camera-ready newspaper pages, ready for delivery to a print shop. The institute hired local journalists to visit the schools twice a month in the interim to help the students develop their ideas into stories. 21

1 HOOKINGTHEMEARLY: THE REWARDS OF INVESTING IN SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM

Several of the school newspapers improved dramatically. But the program was discontinued in the late 1990s, when many of the schools acquired enough of their own computer equipment to become independent of the institute. The second Poynter program brought about 25 local high school students to the institute every day for four to six weeks during the summer for intensive writing drills. Staff members recruited minority students heavily, and minorities initially made up at least half of the participants. The students produced their own newspaper and were paid a stipend of $100 a week. In 2000, the program was revamped to shorten the summer workshop to 10 days and require a yearlong commitment of monthly visits to the institute for seminars, which often feature prominent national and international journalists. “We had some early successes where we introduced journalism to teenagers and saw some of these young people grow in extraordinary ways,” said Roy Peter Clark, who recruited for the programs and taught writing. Today, Poynter also runs a successful summer camp for even younger students. The camp, now in its 20th year, draws fifth- through ninth-graders to the institute for three weeks during the summer for writing drills. Evelyn Hsu, who became director of the institute’s scholastic programs in 2000, said every newsroom has resources that can be tapped to draw talented students to journalism. “When you’re talking about kids who possess the intelligence and drive that journalism demands, you’re competing with other professions,” Hsu said. “And many of those professions are more financially rewarding. But what’s really so heartening and reassuring are the number of kids who are fixed on this early and know it is for them. How could you not want to encourage them? To ignore that enthusiasm and dedication is unthinkable.” The idea that media organizations could help themselves by reaching into high schools to cultivate the talents of future journalists—particularly minorities, whose numbers in the business are low—is not new. In its stinging 1968 report, the U.S. Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly called the Kerner Commission for its leader Illinois Gov. Otto Kerner, lambasted the media for their “shockingly backward” record of seeking, hiring, training and promoting minorities. The commission urged media organizations to make a stronger commitment to minority hiring and offered a possible remedy: “Training programs should be started in high schools and intensified at colleges,” the commission wrote in its report. “We believe that the news media themselves, their audiences, and the country will profit from these undertakings.” The need for news organizations to step in to help their scholastic counterparts may be more crucial now than ever. Census figures show that the baby boomlet of 22

S T O R Y

Shashank Bengali, 23, Missouri correspondent, The Kansas City Star grew up in suburban Los Angeles and got involved with my high school paper. My senior year there, I was editor. The newspaper adviser had heard about this Knight Ridder training program for minorities and thought I should apply. It turned out to be an amazing opportunity— four summers of internships at various Knight Ridder papers, scholarship money to pay for school and a guaranteed year of employment. They really took care of you. You didn’t have to major in journalism, but they tried to find people who were committed to journalism in the long run. I started off doing an internship at my hometown paper, the Press- Telegram in Long Beach, Calif., then the Kansas City (Mo.) Star, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and Philadelphia Inquirer. I took good advice and interned on a different desk at each paper. It turned out to be good experience because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was studying broadcast journalism. I wanted to pro-

duce television news magazine shows. But the more newspaper experience I got, I realized I really liked the writing, and I liked doing longer pieces. I fell in love with newspapers as a medium. Initially, I took the scholarship for the money and the opportunity. I didn’t think I’d stick with it, but I love it. Another scholarship winner and I were talking recently about how much it has changed our lives. My high school was an academic magnet school in a diverse area with a lot of Asian immigrants. Asian immigrant parents like their children to go into medicine, law or engineering. Journalism is seen as something different. People don’t get this business. They get their papers at their doorsteps each day, but they have no idea how they get made. It was helpful for my parents to see this is something I’m good at and that a company is willing to take a chance on me. It showed my parents this is something that could be real positive. There are so many compet-

PHOTO BY ANTHONY REYES (FREELANCE PHOTOGRAHER)

ing fields. Students see the money they could make, and they don’t necessarily want to start out in a small town the way you sometimes have to do in journalism. But to get students at a young age to see newspapers and broadcast media as important professions where the rewards can be huge is very important.

COURTESY OF THE POYNTER INSTITUTE

Kenny Irby, head of the visual journalism faculty at the Poynter Institute, demonstrates a digital camera to a student headed out on a reporting assignment. The teenagers are participants in the institute’s High School Journalism Program.

the late 1980s and early 1990s will produce in 2007 and 2008 the largest high school graduating classes since 1975, the biggest graduating year for the original baby boomers. “We’ve got this new bumper crop of kids going to our schools, and so many of them are minorities,” said Bobbi Bowman, diversity director for the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE). “Many of them are the children of immigrants. They are the new Americans. They are our future readers. They are our future advertisers. They are our future workers.” Yet, many of the students attend schools that have no newspapers and no opportunities to learn about journalism. Over the past two decades, school administrators have responded to tough economic times by slashing school newspaper budgets and journalism classes. Censorship, ever a problem for student journalists, increased at high schools after a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision gave principals greater control over the content of school newspapers. That year, the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates for student free-press rights and provides information, advice and legal assistance at no cost to students and educators, received just over 500 requests for legal assistance, said Mark Goodman, executive director of the center. In 2001, those requests jumped to 2,525. “What you’re seeing is a pretty dramatic increase in a short period of time,” Goodman said. “And at the same time, the number of newspapers has not increased and may even have gone down.” The best opportunity for students to learn about the First Amendment is in high school, Goodman said. Media organizations could assist, he said, by helping schools teach the First Amendment and offering ongoing support and coverage of censorship issues. “The lessons many young people learn about the First Amendment end the day they graduate from high school,” Goodman said. “The importance of the high school experience cannot be underestimated. If we think about preparing not only journalists but citizens, we have to teach them how important the First Amendment is. If we don’t do that, we can’t expect them to be defenders of the First Amendment.” In addition to providing the chance for students to see the First Amendment at 24

1 HOOKINGTHEMEARLY: THE REWARDS OF INVESTING IN SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM

work, high school media have many other benefits, as well. Studies show that students who are involved with journalism at the high school level get better grades on standardized tests. Students at schools that have newspapers and electronic media say they feel a greater connection to their schools. School newspapers also could spark a positive lifelong habit: reading. At many schools, though, the role of defending the First Amendment and the school newspaper falls to journalism teachers and advisers, who are often inexperienced and poorly trained in the field. Many of the teachers end up feeling overwhelmed by the demands of trying to do their jobs, while coping with insufficient budgets, outdated equipment and little outside support. In urban and rural school districts, the results have been especially dramatic: Many school newspapers have stopped publishing. As high as 20 percent of the nation’s 17,000 public high schools have no newspapers at all, according to the Quill and Scroll Society. Others are barely hanging on. In some cases, local newspapers have responded. When the Detroit public school system cut funding for school newspapers from its budget in the mid-1980s, the Detroit Free Press opened its newsroom to the high school journalists. The paper offered student journalists from all of the city’s high schools a chance to produce their papers at the Free Press, which printed the papers as part of a special section and distributed them at no cost to high schools and middle schools in the city. Now, 15 schools publish their newspapers through the Free Press, which has over the years added a myriad of other programs designed to spot and train high school journalists. Melanie Scott, who spent many long evenings at the Free Press, first as editor of her high school paper then as a summer apprentice, returned to the newsroom in 2001 as a 25-year-old reporter assigned to a suburban bureau. A high school photo of Scott and a group of her fellow student journalists sits atop her desk. “I can’t just say I benefited professionally, but personally also,” Scott said. “When I started in the program, I was extremely shy. I liked journalism, but I didn’t really understand the concept of going up to people and asking questions. Now, I don’t feel I have any fear of saying what I feel or letting people know what’s going on. The mentors, the ability to pick up the telephone, and they’re always available, all of it just did wonders for me.” Milton Coleman, deputy managing editor of The Washington Post, began thinking about the need for his newspaper to develop a more structured outreach to high schools in the mid-1990s. He had read a report by ASNE that said African American students are much more likely than any other group of students to decide before college to study journalism. The report was based on an October 1993 study, “The Lasting Effects of the High School Journalism Experience,” commissioned by the Freedom Forum. In 25

1 HOOKINGTHEMEARLY: THE REWARDS OF INVESTING IN SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM

that study, researchers Lee B. Becker and Eunkyung Park analyzed the results of Ohio State University’s annual survey of graduates of journalism and mass communications programs throughout the nation over a period of three years. The researchers found that more than 62 percent of African American graduates who responded said they decided before college to major in journalism, compared with about half of the white graduates. Overall, students of all races who participated in high school journalism, especially the school newspaper, were more likely than their journalism counterparts who had not been exposed to the field in high school to select journalism as a major before college. They also were more likely to work for their college newspaper, complete a newspaper internship, get high grades and find a job upon graduation, the study showed. To Coleman, the report sent an urgent message: If newspapers don’t start to identify and groom the best and brightest students, particularly minorities, before they enter college, the opportunity to steer them into journalism may be lost. Something else stood out in Coleman’s mind. As a member of the committee that awards hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships each year to outstanding African American students in the Washington area through Project Excellence, a program established by the late syndicated columnist Carl T. Rowan, Coleman rarely met applicants interested in journalism. Coleman persuaded Dorothy Gilliam, a former columnist and a past president of the National Association of Black Journalists, to channel her passion for helping young people into developing a high school outreach program for The Washington Post. When Gilliam investigated the status of newspapers in the District of Columbia’s public schools, she was startled by what she found. “I learned that not a single high school was publishing regularly,” she said. “That’s the thing that shocked me. I started developing programs to meet the needs I was discovering.” Gilliam introduced the Young Journalists Development Program in the fall of 1997, and it has grown rapidly to include 21 components, including partnerships with 24 high schools in the Washington area, an undergraduate scholarship, graduate fellowship and a one-credit course for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students at four area universities. Five of the newspaper’s former scholarship and fellowship winners now work as professional journalists, including Krissah Williams, who was hired by The Washington Post in the summer of 2002 as a business reporter. “From a very narrow, selfish perspective, it’s a marvelous recruiting program,” Coleman said. “It’s an opportunity to tap into people very early on, develop in them a certain loyalty to your newspaper, mold them at a young age and later hire them.” Coleman says he has seen other benefits as well. “At a time when newspapers are under intense fire in minority communities, it’s a 26

1 HOOKINGTHEMEARLY: THE REWARDS OF INVESTING IN SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM

very good community and image-building program,” he said. “If people can come away from this program saying The Washington Post helped my child become a better student, then The Washington Post is in better shape.” Angel Jennings, a senior at Duval High School in Lanham, Md., says she is a more focused student, thanks to the Young Journalists Development Program. Jennings was a sophomore in 2000 when she ended up in a journalism class with a group of seniors. With the help of mentors from The Post and new computer equipment financed by an ASNE grant, the class was preparing to publish the school’s first newspaper in 10 years. The help was a lifeline at a school where 91.2 percent of the students are African American, nearly half will be the first in their families to graduate from college and less than one-third will attend a four-year university. But Jennings had no interest in journalism and begged her guidance counselor to remove the class from her schedule. “I didn’t want another writing class basically,” Jennings said. The guidance counselor refused the request, and as the class debated current events and discussed story ideas for the newspaper over the following weeks, Jennings slowly grew interested. Soon, she began to soar. She wrote regularly for the school paper and attended the Urban Journalism Workshop sponsored by the Washington Association of Black Journalists and The Post in the spring of 2001. She also received scholarships from The Post to attend the Maryland Scholastic Press Association 2001 Journalism Workshop, a weeklong residential program at the University of Maryland, and Northwestern University’s month-long National High School Institute. To help raise Jennings’ SAT scores and improve her chances of getting accepted into the college of her choice, The Post also picked up the fees for her to participate in an SAT preparation course sponsored by Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of the newspaper. Now, the girl who once begged to get out of a journalism class wants to make journalism her life’s work. “None of this would have been possible without The Washington Post,” Jennings said. “They were there every step of the way, holding my hand, guiding me, pushing me in the right direction, making sure I got my feet wet in journalism.” Establishing such links with high schools may in the long run mean more to news organizations than the opportunity to help students and to foster good community relations. Facing declining newspaper circulation, waning consumer interest in news, and continued difficulty finding minority applicants to fill job vacancies, many news organizations have begun to link their own survival to that of scholastic journalism. A 2001 ASNE newsroom employment survey, for example, showed that minority journalists working at daily newspapers had decreased from 11.85 percent to 11.64 percent, the first decline since the annual survey was established in 1978. Though the percentage of minorities working at daily papers climbed a half-percent 27

1 HOOKINGTHEMEARLY: THE REWARDS OF INVESTING IN SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM

to 12.07 in 2002, the news was offset by the highest loss of white staffers in the 25 years since the survey began. The crisis in scholastic journalism and dire predictions for the industry have drawn major responses from ASNE and the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), the two largest organizations for print and broadcast managers. With the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, both media organizations have launched comprehensive initiatives aimed at spurring their members to get involved in strengthening scholastic journalism. ASNE’s $4.8 million project, begun in 2000, has four main parts. Its Journalism Partnerships program provides grants of up to $5,000 each to daily newspapers that join a local high school or school district in starting or improving a school newspaper. The grants can be used for computer hardware or software if the partners can identify a clear need and attainable goals. By Sept. 2000, ASNE had awarded grants to 96 newspapers and their partner schools, two-thirds of which have predominantly minority student populations. “The response from newspapers large and small has been extraordinary and illustrates a commitment to the next diverse generation of journalists,” said Diane H. McFarlin, ASNE’s 2002-2003 president and publisher of the Sarasota (Fla.) HeraldTribune. The ASNE High School Journalism Institute offers high school teachers the opportunity to attend an intense two-week training program, held at universities throughout the country, at no cost to the teachers. Each summer up to 200 high school journalism advisers earn at least three college credits for attending the program, which covers the costs of tuition, transportation, housing, meals and materials. A third component of the ASNE project is its scholastic journalism Web site, www.highschooljournalism.org, for students, journalism teachers and advisers, guidance counselors and professional journalists. The content, updated several times a week, includes skill-building exercises, sample lesson plans, a spotlight on high school newspapers across the country, interaction with professional journalists, updates on scholastic press freedom challenges, a database of journalism scholarships and links to university journalism programs. The fourth component is another Web site, www.my.highschooljournalism.org, which offers schools an easy way to start an online newspaper. For a one-time registration fee of $25, students can use cut-and-paste methods, which require no special computer language skills, to post their school newspapers. The hosting service is free. Since the site began in 2002, more than 100 schools have signed up. The approach of the RTNDA, through its educational arm, the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF), also has been multi-pronged. In 2002, the foundation released an Internet guide, “Plugged In: Using the Internet 28

S T O R Y

Dana Hedgpeth, 28, business reporter, The Washington Post was a freshman in high school in Montgomery County (Md.) and got kicked out of band class one day for talking. I was sent to the English teacher, who was also the journalism teacher, and she had a guest speaker. It was David Vise from The Washington Post. That was about 1989. He was working on some exciting project. I remember thinking, wow, he gets paid to ask people questions. My best and my worst quality was that I was very curious. It was totally shocking that someone would pay me to walk up to a complete stranger and ask questions. I asked to stay in the journalism class, and I went there after school. That’s where the meat and potatoes of the school newspaper got done. But I got my real taste of journalism at a paper that no longer exists, a small six-page tabloid with an office not too far from my house. I was about 14, and I rode my bike there one day, walked in, and asked this woman if she had an internship program. She was a real curmudgeon. She

looked at me like I was crazy. She never asked me any questions, and I never filled out any paperwork. But I would go there three days a week. The first assignment she gave me was to cover (actor) Douglas Fairbanks Jr., who was speaking at Leisure World, a retirement community. He was essentially the Elvis Presley of the ‘30s and ‘40s, but I had no idea who he was. When my dad picked me up that day, I was complaining about my crappy assignment, and he told me to call my grandmother when I got home to ask who Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was. I did, and she goes, “Oh my God, be sure to get his autograph!” After that, I rode my bike to the library and did some research on him. The night of the speech, I went up to him, introduced myself and asked if I could interview him. He invited me into his limousine. We sat in his car about an hour, and then he gave me a ride home with my bicycle in the trunk. That was my first story. It ran on the front page, and I was thrilled. Seeing my

PHOTO BY MARVIN JOSEPH

name on the front page of the paper, that’s what hooked me. Now, I’m involved in the Native American Journalists Association, and every summer, I spend three weeks working with high school students, who put out a newspaper at our annual conference. I go out early to scout out stories, and the kids are there about 1 1/2 weeks. Many of these kids, especially American Indian kids, have never had any exposure to journalism. They have creative minds. They like to write or draw, but they’ve never heard of a graphic artist. You put those kids behind computers and give them a graphics program, and they have it figured out in a couple of hours. You get them hooked.

1 HOOKINGTHEMEARLY: THE REWARDS OF INVESTING IN SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM

for High School (and Professional) Journalism.” The guide, aimed primarily at high school students and teachers, includes Internet training exercises, a discussion of legal and ethical issues, information about Web streaming and how professional journalists use the Internet and a directory of workshops, training resources and links. The foundation also selected 14 high school electronic journalism teachers from across the United States to serve as “teacher ambassadors.” The organization provided the teachers special training in journalism and the First Amendment, and the teachers in turn have agreed to pass on their knowledge to at least 25 of their peers. In April 2002, the foundation began awarding grants of up to $5,000 to broadcast media organizations that work with high schools to strengthen existing journalism programs or start new ones. By September 2002, 15 partnerships had won grants ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, said Carolyn Terry, manager of the high school project. The organization’s goal is to spark 100 new partnerships and strengthen 600 existing programs over the next three years. RTNDF also has begun offering training, advice and networking opportunities for high school teachers at regional conferences sponsored by professional journalism organizations. “We do have an awful lot of connections to high schools,” said Barbara Cochran, president of the News Directors Association and the Foundation. “But it’s a very individualized effort, and it varies from state to state and city to city. What we can do is allow for more sharing of ideas about what works and what doesn’t.” The high school outreach programs sponsored by ASNE and RTNDF represent a significant commitment from the Knight Foundation, which has provided the financial backing. The high school initiative is expected to grow to $10 million over the next few years. Several other organizations are working to improve scholastic journalism with grants from the Knight Foundation. Foundation leaders say they have made it a priority to finance programs that are aimed at bolstering high school journalism. “Today’s high school students are tomorrow’s citizens,” said Eric Newton, the foundation’s director of journalism initiatives. “What they think about journalism and the First Amendment really matters.” Some news organizations already have begun to reap the benefits of their investments of time, energy and resources in high school programs. Otis L. Sanford, managing editor of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, was expecting to hear the usual complaints about his newspaper’s coverage one day when a man from a local car dealership reached him by telephone. Instead, the caller thanked him. The man’s daughter had worked on The Teen Appeal , a special section of The Commercial Appeal written by student journalists from the city’s high schools, then 30

Linda Lee, a student in the Radio Rookies broadcast training program in New York, records a narration in the studio.

printed and distributed to the high schools and middle schools free of charge. The father was eager to report that his daughter had moved on to Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she had been named an editor of the campus newspaper. Since the program was created in 1997, at least 30 alumni are engaged in journalism in colleges, internships, or entry-level newspaper jobs, Sanford said. Some have returned to his newspaper as interns. “These are smart kids who would have gone to college anyway,” Sanford said. “But I’m convinced that without The Teen Appeal , they wouldn’t have majored in journalism.” Marcus Matthews can vouch for that. Matthews, a popular athlete who saw playing basketball as his only chance of getting into college, picked up the newspaper only occasionally to read the box scores in the sports section. But he had another hidden talent: writing poetry. In 1997, his senior year, an English teacher with whom he had shared his poems since ninth grade told him about The Teen Appeal , then in its first year. Matthews signed up on a whim and got much more than he expected. “After my first couple of stories, I figured out I was pretty good,” Matthews said. “It just snuck up on me. By the end of the year, I had done so much they awarded me a scholarship.” Matthews turned down a basketball scholarship to accept an academic award to study journalism at the University of Memphis. After his sophomore year in college, he got an internship in the sports department of The Commercial Appeal. “It changed my life,” Matthews said. “At the time, the sports department was all white. I walked in with a big afro, but those guys treated me like a real professional. I covered everything. I got to compete with the real professionals, and I held my own.” Matthews covered sports for his school newspaper, freelanced for magazines and online agencies and interned for the Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald in the summer after his senior year of college. Now 22, Matthews is well on his way to a career he could not have imagined just a few years ago. And he is sure of one thing: “Without The Teen Appeal , I would be nowhere near journalism.” 31

2 Getting Started Tips for Creating a Successful Print or Broadcast Partnership

a commitment. Once a news organization has decided to invest in a high school program designed to spot and train the next generation of journalists, the work can begin. There is no template for creating the perfect program. Whether your newsroom has decided to form a partnership with a high school to jump-start a school newspaper, create a teen page, hire high school i n t e rns, develop a workshop, or come up with something new, you will tailor it to suit your operationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s size and budget. Newsrooms that are already involved with high schools have done that for years. This chapter is designed to help news organizations that are starting out learn from those that are farther down the road. What follows are a few basic tips culled from editors who helped to create the sample of high school programs featured throughout this handbook and the coordinators who run them. IT STARTS WITH

Maria CerĂ˛n, a member of the newspaper staff at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C.

PHOTO BY D.A. PETERSON

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

The advice is general enough to apply to most situations. The tips presented first are aimed at newsroom managers who will be involved in conceptualizing and setting up their high school programs. ■ ■ ■

1. IDENTIFY A COMMITTED STAFF MEMBER WHO WORKS WELL WITH PEOPLE TO DEVELOP AND COORDINATE A PROGRAM WELL-SUITED TO YOUR NEWSROOM. Chances are, the perfect person to run a high school program at your news operation has already expressed an interest in working with young people. Many newsrooms have high school programs today because a staff member, perhaps a reporter, copy editor or producer approached an editor or news director with a well-thoughtout proposal or, at least, a good idea. The coordinator or director of a high school program is usually its visionary, the liaison between the newsroom and the schools, the one who keeps operations flowing smoothly. That may mean negotiating with executives on the business side of the news operation on a budget issue one day, or discussing a First Amendment issue with the nervous principal of a partner school the next, all while trying to persuade busy co-workers to volunteer and encourage talented but often unmotivated students. High school program coordinators say their jobs require patience, good people skills and an ability to juggle many tasks. Whether a program requires a full-time, part-time or volunteer director depends, of course, on the size and scope of the program. News organizations that have fulltime coordinators or directors tend to form partnerships with several schools or operate a program that requires daily coordination and follow-up. The full-time coordinator of the high school newspaper production program at the Detroit Free Press, for example, works with the advisers and newspaper staffs from 15 of the city’s schools. Practically every day, a different school newspaper staff spends several hours at the Free Press to prepare the school newspaper for publication. At The Kansas City Star, the full-time coordinator of Teenstar, the newspaper’s teen page, has to ensure a regular flow of copy from teenagers who are not on staff and edit all of the stories for the weekly page. Other news organizations use part-time coordinators to plan and operate programs that are much smaller in scope, such as a summer internship or spring workshop that spans several weeks. The part-time coordinators generally have to juggle planning for their programs with their regular job responsibilities. But they often are given time off with pay to run the program for its duration. That is the case for Earni Young, the city hall reporter who directs a two-week summer workshop at the Philadelphia Daily News. At KYW News Radio in Philadelphia, though, part of the marketing coordinator’s regular duties include planning the station’s annual Newstudies program, a series of broadcasting workshops for high school students held on six 36

Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham holds a press conference at her office for students attending a two-week summer journalism workshop at the Philadelphia Daily News.

COURTESY OF THE PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

consecutive Saturdays beginning in February. Many newsroom managers who have already implemented high school programs hired their coordinators through a regular job application process, particularly in cases where the position was full-time and the program type and job description had been determined. In other cases, editors or news directors who needed help developing an idea turned to staff members who have some interest and experience in high school programs. For example, when the principal of a Dallas high school called The Dallas Morning News in 2001 to seek help for the school’s journalism teacher, editors immediately thought of senior reporter Ira Hadnot, who had worked with a high school in Oakland, Calif., through the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Hadnot spent a year at the Dallas high school as a full-time mentor on loan from her newspaper. In the search for a part-time coordinator, newsroom managers usually have sought out staff members whose strong commitment to the next generation of journalists is obvious through their volunteer activities – the reporter who is first to volunteer every year to mentor a college intern, the copy editor who regularly visits high schools and middle schools for career days, or the staff member called on regularly to participate in weekend or summer journalism workshops sponsored by other groups. If those staff members are not apparent, ask for volunteers. Consider letting them do this work on company time, so they don’t have to use personal or vacation days. ■ ■ ■

2. SURVEY LOCAL UNIVERSITIES, COMMUNITY GROUPS AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS TO DETERMINE WHETHER YOUR NEWS ORGANIZATION CAN TAP INTO AN EXISTING PROGRAM. This is particularly important for news organizations that are getting involved in high schools for the first time or those interested in expanding their programs. It may prevent unnecessary duplication and allow the news organizations to maximize their resources. For example, many newspapers sponsor high school students at journalism workshops held during the summer at universities throughout the country. The newspapers cover the fees to send a high school editor or student who cannot 37

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

afford to attend, but the universities plan and host the residential camp. Other ways to tap into programs sponsored by community groups or professional associations include providing mentors for the ■ Identify a committed staff students, offering scholarships to the most outstandmember who works well with ing participants and lending a portion of the newspeople to develop and coordinate room or a conference room for a workshop or exera program well-suited to your newsroom. cise. The Detroit Free Press, for example, sets aside ■ Survey local universities, one of its apprenticeship slots for the winner of a community groups and profescommunity-based program, called Focus Hope, sional associations to determine which brings high school students together for a daywhether your news organization can tap into an existing program. long writing competition. For the past four years, WUSA-TV, the CBS-affiliate in Washington, D.C., has ■ Search for creative ways to finance the program. allowed broadcasting participants in a spring work■ Team with a local college or shop sponsored by the Washington Association of university, whenever possible, to Black Journalists and The Washington Post to use its provide instruction, housing studio and production facilities. Union rules prevent and/or scholarships. students from operating cameras and editing equip■ Seek support from the top ment, but the students are allowed to use the station’s management of all parties to the partnership and clearly outline computers to write their scripts. Editors and producthe roles and expectations of ers from other stations volunteer to work with the each. students at the station, but WUSA also pays some of its ■ Understand that press editors and producers overtime to help the students freedoms for the professional media differ from the legal conput together a news broadcast. The students and volstraints on students. unteers meet at the station every Saturday for eight ■ Understand that the investconsecutive weeks, and the students ultimately tape a ment is long-term. 30-minute news broadcast there. “For the students to be in that space in itself is an experience,” said Robin Bennefield, an interactive producer for an online media company and coordinator of the workshop. “To be able to use the studio is essential, and working with the producers and editors helps the broadcast to be really professional.”

Tips For Newsroom Managers

■ ■ ■

3. SEARCH FOR CREATIVE WAYS TO FINANCE THE PROGRAM. How much will it cost, and how are we going to pay for it? Those questions are surely at the top of the list for any newsroom manager interested in starting a program for high school students. There is no simple answer to either. The cost of a program obviously depends on its breadth. A multifaceted program with a full-time director probably will require significant financial resources, while a structured mentoring partnership with one school might require little more than the volunteer 38

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

time of staff, if the school is already well-equipped. In many cases, financial help is available. Most news organizations with high school programs receive their financing from more than one source. Here are some of the most common sources of funds: THE FOUNDATION OF THE NEWS ORGANIZATION OR ITS PARENT COMPANY Many news organizations or their parent companies have set up non-profit foundations through which they channel a portion of their profits for charitable causes. Such foundations have been a great source of funding for high school programs. The Scripps-Howard Foundation, the corporate foundation of the newspaper chain that owns The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, for example, underwrites the bulk of the costs of the teen section produced jointly by The Commercial Appeal, the University of Memphis and city public school students. It also provides scholarships to outstanding seniors in the program. THE NEWSROOM BUDGET Some news organizations absorb the cost of the high school programs within their newsroom budgets or set aside a portion of that budget to help finance the program. The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program, which operates 21 high school programs, receives about half of its operating funds from the newsroom’s budget. The rest comes from the charitable arm of the newspaper and industry grants. At The Kansas City Star, the entire cost of its teen page, Teenstar, is absorbed in the newsroom’s budget. MEDIA FOUNDATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS Concerned about the state of scholastic journalism, some media foundations and professional associations have begun offering grants to help revive school newspapers and electronic media. The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) offer seed grants of up to $5,000 to newspapers, radio or television stations that form partnerships with high schools. The Newspaper Association of America Foundation awarded grants to 20 partnerships between local newspapers and secondary schools in 2002. It was the sixth year the foundation has awarded grants to help create a newspaper at a school that doesn’t have one or to help stabilize and strengthen a school newspaper at risk. The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund awards grants each year to partially fund journalism workshops for minority students, as well as grants of up to $2,500 to urban schools interested in reviving their school newspapers. All of the grants come with specific criteria and mandates, but many news organizations, particularly smaller ones with fewer in-house resources, have benefited greatly from 39

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

Tips for Program Coordinators Search broadly for student participants.

■

Survey the school to determine its technological capabilities and needs.

■

Draw on the expertise and goodwill of staff for volunteers.

■

Outline clearly what staff volunteers are expected to do, and in some cases, what they may face if they are working in schools. ■

Outline clearly the consequences if a student or school does not meet program guidelines. ■

■ Create opportunities for hands-on participation.

them. Some local and state press associations also offer grants that could be used for this purpose. For example, the Colorado Press Association awarded grants of $250 each to three teachers who attended a weeklong workshop sponsored by the Durango (Colo.) Herald. NEWSPAPER IN EDUCATION PROGRAMS Many newspapers today have a Newspaper In Education program, which provides newspapers, curriculum guides and other materials to schools free or at a reduced rate to promote the use of newspapers in the classroom. Some newsrooms have linked their high school programs to the Newspaper In Education program for financial or other support. At the Detroit Free Press, for example, the manager of the paper’s program solicits private financing to cover the bulk of its high school newspaper production program.

PRIVATE DONORS Private sponsors also can be solicited to help cover the costs of a high school program. KYW News Radio in Philadelphia solicits sponsors for its annual workshop. The sponsors are identified on the back cover of an awards program given to students at a closing ceremony. For the past several years, Ford Motor Co. has been the exclusive sponsor of the high school newspaper production program at the Detroit Free Press. For about $42,000 a year, Ford is identified as the sponsor in a small box at the bottom of each page of the special section featuring the high school papers printed by the Free Press. At the end of the year, Ford also sponsors an awards ceremony to honor outstanding high school writers and editors who participated in the program. Some news organizations may be hesitant to accept such contributions from a corporation they cover. But Sharon Martin, manager of the Newspaper In Education program at the Detroit Free Press, said the money amounts to a paid advertisement. SWAPS OF FREE AIRTIME FOR MATERIALS The practice of trading airtime for goods and services is fairly common in radio. KYW News Radio in Philadelphia swapped airtime valued at $11,000 to cover the bulk of the costs for its Newstudies program, the broadcasting workshops that run on six consecutive Saturdays each winter. The station was able to acquire materials and 40

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

sponsor an awards banquet for all of the participants and their guests, about 500 people, by swapping airtime. ■ ■ ■

4. TEAM WITH A LOCAL COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY, WHENEVER POSSIBLE, TO PROVIDE INSTRUCTION, HOUSING AND/OR SCHOLARSHIPS. The journalism department, English department or writing program at a local college or university can be an excellent resource for a news organization interested in establishing a high school program. For example, professors at the University of Memphis, concerned about the state of journalism education in the city’s public schools, came up with the proposal for a citywide newspaper written by high school students and approached editors at The Commercial Appeal. The university and newspaper both agreed they had an interest in working together to revive scholastic journalism in the city. The result was The Teen Appeal, a monthly section written by and for the city’s high school students and then published and distributed to the schools by The Commercial Appeal. The university, with volunteers from the newspaper, operates a weeklong workshop in the summer for the high school writers who contribute to the section throughout the school year. The university also houses The Teen Appeal’s newsroom and office and oversees its operation. The San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News helps sponsor a workshop for Bay area high school students, who live on the campus of San Jose State University for two weeks while attending a crash course in journalism, taught mostly by the newspaper’s staff. During the workshop, the students produce a newspaper called Mosiac. The San Jose chapter of the California Chicano News Media Association started the workshop a decade ago with a $2,000 grant from the Mercury News. Today, the newspaper, the university, the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and private contributors jointly sponsor the program. At universities or colleges that don’t have a journalism program, the English department or writing program may be interested in joining a partnership at a high PHOTO BY REBECCA D’ANGELO

Marcia Davis, an assignment editor for the Style section of The Washington Post, works with a student from Eastern High School. Davis is part of a team of volunteers from the newspaper’s Young Journalists Development Program who visit the school regularly to help students publish their newspaper. 41

S T O R Y

Gerald Boyd, 52, managing editor, The New York Times

COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

first got interested in journalism as a high school student by attending what was then known as Upward Bound. This was a program financed by the federal government for inner-city kids, and it provided us with about six weeks on a college cam pus during the summer. It was during that period that I worked on a newspaper that was produced at Webster College, located in a suburb of St. Louis. In those days we produced newspapers with mimeograph machines. They made me the layout editor. I

knew nothing about layout and even less about journalism, but I got a chance as layout editor for some stupid reason to write editorials. So, I was writing these very passionate editorials, and I got such recognition that I was bitten by the journalism bug. I was bitten big time. My story was like that of many inner-city kids. I lost my mother when I was 5. My father had left me in St. Louis to go to New York, and so I was raised by my grandmother with an older brother and two older cousins. She lived off government assistance. I went to work in eighth grade and did what I could to help support my family. But there was no way I could have gone to college without a scholarship. It was after that summer program that I went back to my high school with a real commitment to become a journalist. That then led me to apply to journalism schools midway in my senior year and eventually become aware of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch scholarship. It was a terrific

program: a four-year scholarship to the University of Missouri that covered the cost of tuition, room and board, books, everything else, and even provided a little money to live off of. And it guaranteed a job at the PostDispatch that began the summer between my senior year and first year in college. In the first two years, you worked as a copy boy. Then your last two years you worked as a reporter. Upon graduation, you were given a chance to come back and work as a reporter, although you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to. I had been working at a neighborhood mom and pop store for 40 hours a week after school every day and all day on Saturday, making, like $37, which I thought was a lot of money. So, I went from that job to working as a copy boy at the Post-Dispatch, and I was making $150, which was more money than I thought existed in the world. I was the most gracious and appreciative and hardworking copy boy in the history of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch because

I couldn’t believe they were paying me that kind of money for essentially being an errand boy. That became a very good experience in the sense that it exposed me to journalism from essentially the ground up and gave me a good sense of a newsroom and a newspaper and all its dimensions. What I found very quickly was that there were people who took a genuine interest in me and my well being, ranging from reporters to secretaries to columnists. And so it was an experience that really allowed me to grow and develop as a journalist but also as a person. When I graduated in ‘73, I came back to the Post-Dispatch as a reporter. I was very appreciative and aware of what a program of that nature had done for me and my career in journalism, so I was very much about trying to find a way to start something similar. Around the time I started working for the Post-Dispatch, there was a growing awareness nationally that black journalists had to try to work together to address some of the many issues we were facing. That

led over time to the St. Louis Association of Black Journalists. One of the first things we took on was the creation of a workshop for high schools students. It was in part out of recognition of the experience I had had as a Post-Dispatch scholarship winner. The workshop gave us a way to expose a lot of black students to journalism in high school and help them begin to develop some of the skills and techniques they needed to succeed. What it also did was give us as working journalists a chance to give back, but give back in a way that was important to our profession. I can’t tell you the joy and the satisfaction we got out of that experience. You could see scared kids coming into a journalistic boot camp and over time become very accomplished and polished adults. There are very few things as rewarding and satisfying as something like that. I don’t think there is any question that news organizations need to be engaged in programs like this. The rewards are on so many different levels, ranging from helping the industry to helping diversity to just the satis-

faction of helping people grow into journalists. The fact of the matter is people of color, in particular bright and talented people of color, have options and those options are growing, rather than shrinking. If you really want to ensure that people of color go into journalism, you’ve got to engage them early. You can’t wait until college and beyond. I just can’t imagine why news organizations wouldn’t want to be a part of that because I know individuals want to.

Todd Schumacher, the newspaper adviser at Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C., reviews material handed out during a reception for high school newspaper advisers at The Washington Post. school. That’s what Athelia Knight, assistant director of the Young Journalists Development Program at The Washington Post, found when she told faculty members at Georgetown University about The Post’s partnerships. Knight and university officials worked out an agreement that will allow Georgetown juniors and seniors who have taken an introduction to journalism PHOTO BY REBECCA D’ANGELO class and/or a related course to receive class credit for visiting Coolidge High School, one of The Post’s partnership schools, once a week for about 21/2 hours to help the adviser, students and volunteers produce the school paper. Many newspapers also team with universities to offer scholarships and collegiate programs with continuing support to successful high school graduates pursuing journalism. The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program and the University of Maryland, for example, jointly offer The Howard Simons Undergraduate Journalism Scholarship and Graduate Fellowship to outstanding minority students. The grants, financed by both the program and the university, cover tuition, housing and other education-related expenses. The Washington Post also teams with the University of Maryland and three other local universities— American, George Washington and Howard—to offer The Washington Post Semester, a one-credit course for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students. The course draws from the newspaper’s resources, such as executive editor Leonard Downie Jr., who has lectured on the future of the news business, and Bob Woodward, who has taught a class on how to find sources. This type of partnership could be particularly helpful for historically black colleges and universities. According to a report on “The Role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Journalism Education,” a large percentage of African American and Hispanic journalism students attend historically black colleges, which are less likely to have a campus newspaper. For college students, working for the school newspaper is the main way to generate clips that lead to internships and ultimately jobs in the industry. ■ ■ ■

5. SEEK SUPPORT FROM THE TOP MANAGEMENT OF ALL PARTIES TO THE PARTNERSHIP AND CLEARLY OUTLINE THE ROLES AND EXPECTATIONS OF EACH. A partnership works best when all of the parties understand their roles and are 44

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

fully on board. Some news organizations have formalized their partnerships by requiring the top management of each party to sign an agreement that outlines each partner’s responsibilities. Other arrangements are more informal. But high school program coordinators for news organizations throughout the country say a commitment and show of support from the top of all the parties sets the tone for the partnership. ASNE encourages newspapers applying for its high school partnership grants to have key newspaper and high school staff brainstorm goals before the application is filled out. Along with the daily newspaper editor, the principal and journalism adviser must sign the application. “What it helps to ensure is that all the parties understand what the partnership is about, and it builds in a timeline and accountability,” said Diana Mitsu Klos, senior project director for ASNE. When The Commercial Appeal and the University of Memphis worked out the details of an agreement to create a teen section written by and for teenagers, they immediately approached the public school system’s top administrator. “I went directly to the superintendent,” said Otis Sanford, managing editor of the newspaper. “I knew her, even though at the time she had a love-hate relationship with the paper, which had been writing stories she didn’t like. I was able to talk to her, and she saw the benefits of this. She helped me host a luncheon, and we invited every principal. Once they got the word from her about how important it was, they got on board.” All but two of the school system’s high school principals attended the luncheon, which also drew the president of the university and the editor of The Commercial Appeal. “I think the key to making it work is you have to meet every partner’s needs,” said Elinor Grusin, associate professor of journalism at the University of Memphis and project director for The Teen Appeal.“I’ve always felt it was good to stay in touch with the city’s schools to make sure we’re operating in a way that makes them feel good.” Dorothy Gilliam (left), director of The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program, and Athelia Knight, assistant director, meet with volunteers for a planning session at the beginning of the school year.

PHOTO BY REBECCA D’ANGELO

S T O R Y

Maria Elena Salinas, 48, co-anchor of Univision Network News, syndicated columnist for King Features Syndicate and one of Hispanic Trends’ 15 most influential Hispanics:

COURTESY OF UNIVISION.COM

was always interested in communications in one form or another. As a teenager, I used to emcee events in the Hispanic community in Los Angeles. To be honest, I didn’t have much exposure to career opportunities. I went to a small Catholic high school, and we didn’t have career days. I went to a community college. I definitely would have benefited from access to journalists and learning the good, bad and the ugly about journalism. I think once you’re in the business you have so

much to offer young people by sharing your experiences with them and telling them what it’s really like. When I was growing up, Spanish language television was a very young market. My parents watched Spanish language TV all the time. Even though my father spoke five different languages, he didn’t allow us to speak English at home. That’s how I was able to maintain my Spanish. My main interest was advertising and marketing. I really had no interest in being on the air in television. I enjoyed radio quite a bit. I started out in radio 24 years ago. I was offered a job in television because I had experience in radio. At the time, I think it was a combination of perseverance and being in the right place at the right time. In Spanish language TV, it was difficult to find reporters whose English was articulate enough to cover a story in an American city but at the same time had broadcast quality Spanish-speaking skills. I was

so petrified that I got laryngitis my first two weeks on the air. When I started working at KMEX, the Spanish International Network was very small. I was the only woman in the newsroom. I used to have to anchor the newscast, host a public affairs program and go out reporting. It was a lot of work. Fortunately, I got to learn about the business on the job. I went back to school to take journalism extension courses at UCLA. I spent six years at the local level then moved on to the network. I think part of my growth was the growth of the network and the Spanish language community. When I began my career in television, there were about 14 million Hispanics in the United States; now there are 37 million. One of the first things I did when I started out in radio was to become involved in the California Chicano News Media Association. I was part of several committees including

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

the Speakers Bureau. We used to speak to junior high and high school students. I think high school is the time when you can impress on them how important the responsibility of being a journalist is. They are hungry for information. A lot of them are confused and don’t know what they want to do. I see it in my own family. My step daughter is a sophomore in college and still not clear about what career she wants to pursue. Young people are so open to learning. You have to get them while their minds are fresh and hungry for information. Last year, I established a scholarship for a student who is interested in following a career in Spanish language media. I donated $5,000, and Univision Network matched the funds. The scholarship is distributed by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and is offered to both high school and college students. The scholarship also includes an opportunity to do an internship with either the network or one of its affiliates. That is one way in which I think we can encourage students.

At the luncheon for principals, the parties also agreed to allow a central person in the school system—ultimately the administrative assistant to the superintendent, who studied journalism at the University of Memphis—to preview stories before publication and suggest changes. Until 2002, there had been just two instances in five years in which the school system requested changes, Grusin said. In one case, a story about students tricking the school’s metal detectors was tweaked without removing any information. But Grusin said she agreed to pull a piece about teen pregnancy in a different issue when school officials made a compelling case that the story wasn’t welldocumented and went against current research. The 2002-2003 school year has seen a bit more interference from school officials, who have red-flagged more stories since a controversial quote by a student in a story about teenagers and sex appeared in the September 2002 issue, despite the administrator’s objections. In most cases, the school system and The Teen Appeal were able to reach a satisfying compromise, said Chuck Holliday, coordinator of the teen section. But Holliday said he held a story about fraternities, sororities and hazing in high schools in October 2002 because school officials disputed the accuracy of the story. “They can make suggested changes,” Holliday said. “We try to adhere to their suggestions because we don’t want the program to be jeopardized over one quote.” 47

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

Some news organizations may balk at the idea of allowing school officials to preview and possibly censor a newspaper that is not published by the schools. But the point is this: If a partnership is to work smoothly, the details of how it will work and a definition of each partner’ s role should be outlined clearly in the beginning. ■ ■ ■

6. UNDERSTAND THAT PRESS FREEDOMS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL MEDIA DIFFER FROM THE LEGAL CONSTRAINTS ON STUDENTS. Mark Goodman of the Student Press Law Center said one of the first things a media organization should do when working with a high school is to learn how press freedom operates in the school. How does the publishing process work? Does the principal or a designee review the newspaper before publication? If so, what has the reviewer’s track record been on sensitive topics? Case law on student press issues has made it more complicated to determine when administrators can censor and when they cannot, so many of them operate under the mistaken assumption that students have no First Amendment rights, Goodman said. But news staff working with the students can be helpful when they know case law pertaining to scholastic journalism. A list of links that provide details on scholastic press law can be found at this Web site: http://highschooljournalism.org/students/pressfreedomresources.htm. 7. UNDERSTAND THAT THE INVESTMENT IS LONG-TERM. Be patient, say editors and program coordinators who have been working with high schools long enough to have learned this lesson. Investing in a high school program may not yield instant results. Perhaps the newspaper at your partner high school doesn’t improve right away, or the star high school reporter mentored by your staff gets to college and decides not to pursue journalism, or your standout high school intern goes to work for another news organization after college or the newspaper adviser gets frustrated. The long-term rewards of your investment will outweigh any short-term disappointments. ■ ■ ■

O nce the nature and scope of a program have been decided, the newspaper staff member in charge of making it work usually has to develop an operational procedure. The following tips are intended for the staff member who will run the program and work closely with the volunteers, school administrators and students: 1. SEARCH BROADLY FOR STUDENT PARTICIPANTS. The most obvious place to recruit students for journalism workshops, seminars and other programs that require a search for students is the school system, particularly English and writing classes. But news organizations should cast their net widely for potential young journalists, not just for the students who come to mind right 48

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

away, says Roy Peter Clark, senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, who helped to develop highly successful writing workshops for high school and middle school students at the institute in the late 1970s. “I think that’s very important,” Clark said. “It gives you the opportunity to think diversely in a number of ways, not just boys and girls or different ethnicities, but people who bring different talents to the task. The reason our high school program was so good and productive is because I was out on the streets. I was talking to teachers. I was talking to the nice ladies from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, who were running career fairs. Word got out that a skinny white guy was looking for black kids interested in writing and language. All of that work pays off in that there comes a time when no potentially good student escapes your view. If some kids win an essay contest, you hear about them and send them an application. That kind of work is very intensive. It doesn’t mean they all come into the program. But we sometimes make the mistake of relying on too limited a group. If you’re just talking to the English teachers, you’re not doing nearly enough.” 2. SURVEY THE SCHOOL TO DETERMINE ITS TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES AND NEEDS. Oftentimes, the schools that could benefit most from a media partnership are woefully under-equipped to produce even a newspaper, let alone a radio or television broadcast. For many news organizations that form partnerships with schools, the bulk of the funding is spent upgrading the technology of the school’s newsroom. When senior reporter Ira Hadnot of The Dallas Morning News walked into the journalism classroom at David W. Carter High School to plan a partnership, she was shocked to discover only one computer, and it belonged to the math lab. She persuaded the school system to rewire the classroom, and the newspaper stocked it with new and used computers. Loyce Best Pailen, former director of corporate information systems at The Washington Post, guided the Young Journalists Development Program in supplying its partnership high schools with the appropriate equipment. Without equipment of their own, members of a school’s newspaper staff would have to rely on the school’s computer lab, which may not have the appropriate software for editing and layout. The general computer lab might work for staff writers, who use it for basic word processing, Pailen said. But students often don’t have access to the lab when they need it, which could impact deadlines. Pailen strongly recommends the following equipment as a minimum standard for a school newsroom: A computer equipped with Quark software. (Though there are lots of other pub lishing packages on the market, Quark is the preferred standard in the newspaper industry.) A color flatbed scanner. 49

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

A digital camera. A color printer. Students also should have access to the Internet, either through a dial-up or direct connection, for research purposes. If students are using a digital camera, a software package, such as Photoshop, for cropping and other photo editing, is recommended. The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund published a guide in 2002 to help urban and rural schools start and maintain student newspapers. To get a free copy of “In the Beginning: Reviving Scholastic Journalism School By School,” send an e-mail to newsfund@wsj.dowjones.com. 3. DRAW ON THE EXPERTISE AND GOODWILL OF STAFF FOR VOLUNTEERS. Most newsroom staffs have all the expertise needed to provide one-on-one mentoring or to put together a workshop, seminar or other journalism program for high school students. Staff members are often happy to volunteer. Don’t be shy about approaching them. When Dorothy Gilliam, director of The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program, sent out the first e-mail explaining the new high school program and asking for volunteers in September 1997, she signed up the first volunteer within 40 minutes. That year, more than 40 volunteers participated in the newspaper’s mentoring partnership with one school. 4. OUTLINE CLEARLY WHAT STAFF VOLUNTEERS ARE EXPECTED TO DO, AND IN SOME CASES, WHAT THEY MAY FACE IF THEY ARE WORKING IN SCHOOLS. Volunteers are most useful when they know exactly what is expected of them. Some news organizations handle this by holding organizational meetings for volunteers to give instructions and answer questions before sending them into the schools. Printed guidelines are also handed out to volunteers in some cases. Volunteers say they are most willing to help out again when they feel they have been effective. An editor who coordinated a partnership at one newspaper said she regrets that she did not offer more guidance to the reporters and editors she invited to speak at a local high school during the 2001-2002 school year. While the editor expected the lectures to focus more on the specific skills of the different jobs, the reporters and editors tended to focus more generally on how they got into the business. After a couple of visits, all of the lectures began to sound the same. This could have been avoided, the editor said, if she had suggested some possible topics the volunteers should cover in their lectures. Another mistake, the editor said, was failing to prepare volunteers for the lessthan-ideal situation they would face at the high school – a large journalism class 50

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

COURTESY OF LOYCE BEST PAILEN

Loyce Best Pailen, former director of corporate information systems at The Washington Post, used this model to set up newsrooms in the high schools that entered partnerships with the newspaper.

with many students who did not work for the newspaper staff and had little interest in the field. As a result, many of the students held side conversations or played on the computer during the lectures. The partnership fizzled that year in part because volunteers grew frustrated with the students’ lack of commitment. The editor may not have been able to change the students’ attitudes, but the volunteers may have been less surprised if they had had some idea what to expect. 5. OUTLINE CLEARLY THE CONSEQUENCES IF A STUDENT OR SCHOOL DOES NOT MEET PROGRAM GUIDELINES. No one ever goes into a partnership anticipating trouble. But what should happen if a news organization buys computer equipment for a high school’s newspaper staff, and the principal arbitrarily decides to use it for another purpose, or the newspaper staff does not demonstrate a good faith effort to meet the promised publishing schedule? News organizations that have grappled with these and other issues have learned in hindsight that it is helpful to have some guidelines in place to follow if a school refuses to cooperate, such as making clear that equipment purchased with grant money will be taken back and given to a school willing to cooperate. In a situation involving grants, the daily newspaper should control the funding. For example, ASNE has found that partnership money sent to the newsroom to track and spend does not get caught up in school district bureaucracy and procurement procedures. 51

2 GETTING STARTED: TIPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL PRINT OR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP

PHOTO BY REBECCA D’ANGELO

Scott Butterworth, a copy editor in the Style section of The Washington Post, helps Adina Ferguson, a student at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. Butterworth is a part of a team of newspaper volunteers assigned to the school. 6. CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR HANDS-ON PARTICIPATION. Students bore easily. They are more likely to be engaged when they can participate in the lesson. For workshops, get students out of the classroom for a few hours, if possible. Take them to cover a local festival. Or, invite a local member of the city council or school board to talk to them about a current issue. For example, a speaker invited to the Poynter Institute to talk to high school students about public records got the students involved by having them search computer databases for the most popular baby names in certain states, said Evelyn Hsu, director of high school programs at the institute. That led to a more serious discussion about how to use public records. Another presenter who talked to the students about how to create graphics had the students come up with a graphic representing the demographics of the program. The students then pulled old newspapers and created graphics for stories. “Anything that is hands-on beats talking,” Hsu said. 52

3 Resurrecting Scholastic Journalism A Look Inside Some Model Newspaper-High School Training Programs

the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) conducted a survey designed to answer this question: “Aspiring Young Journalists–Are We Doing Enough To Help Them?” The results seemed to suggest the answer was no. Of the 234 newspapers that responded, 30 percent indicated they sponsored or assisted high school newspaper projects or p u blications on a continuing basis. Though practically all of the respondents–97 percent–reported having a speaker’s bureau that sent professionals in the business to school events, significantly fewer of them participated in more structured, ongoing activities, such as internships, scholarships and the printing of school newspapers free or at cost. A new ASNE survey, conducted in August 2002, offers more hopeful results. The first good sign was that responses came from 41 percent IN APRIL 1989,

Jamila Thompson, a journalism student at Cardozo Senior High School in Washington, D.C.

PHOTO BY D.A. PETERSON

3 RESURRECTING SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM: A LOOK INSIDE SOME MODEL NEWSPAPER-HIGH SCHOOL TRAINING PROGRAMS

of the nation’s daily newspapers, or 588 of them, more than twice the number that participated in the 1989 survey. And a whopping 79 percent of those who responded said they are involved in high school Percent that sponsor: journalism. But, as in the earlier survey, a breakdown 37% Teen Page of the kinds of activities in which the newspapers are 20% Structured Mentoring involved shows that most of the newspapers that Program responded participate in activities that do not require 59% Shadow Days much continuity. For example, most said they occa78% Speakers at High Schools 32% Speakers at Journalism sionally send staff members to speak at local schools Workshops and sponsor a “shadow day,” during which students 25% Judges for Scholastic Press are paired with journalists for a day. But less than a Contests third of the newspapers that responded offer news11% Luncheon or Awards Ceremony for Teen room apprenticeships, structured mentoring proJournalists grams, scholarships, or free or at-cost printing of 26% Apprenticeships/Internships school newspapers, all of which require more than a 11% Attendance for Students to one-day or one-time commitment. Journalism Conferences or Twelve percent of the papers were not involved Camps 19% Scholarships with high schools at all, though some indicated they 24% Printing of a High School once were. Most in that category are small papers Paper whose editors said they don’t have enough staff to 21% Donation of Supplies or implement any special programs. The other most Equipment to a Local common responses for their lack of involvement High School 21% Other were the schools’ loss of interest, followed by budget restraints. Some also indicated that interested staff SOURCE: AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEWSPAPER EDITORS 2002 SURVEY OF 588 NEWSPAPERS members had left the paper. The good news is that more newspapers than ever seem to recognize the importance of working with high school students and have begun to reach out. But the 2002 ASNE study suggests that newspapers still could do more to provide the kind of sustained interaction with students that can sway a career choice, the kind of structured training offered by ASNE’s partnership program. There is little conclusive data about what kinds of programs work best in steering talented students to journalism. But a wealth of anecdotal evidence points to those that offer early opportunities and continuing support. Lori Aratani, 34, an enterprise reporter for The San Jose Mercury News, found that kind of support in the summer before her junior year of high school when she participated in a journalism training program for minority students at the PressTelegram in Long Beach, Calif. Run by John Fried, then editorial page editor, the

Newspaper Involvement With High Schools

3 RESURRECTING SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM: A LOOK INSIDE SOME MODEL NEWSPAPER-HIGH SCHOOL TRAINING PROGRAMS

program taught students the basics of journalism, provided mentoring and an opportunity to meet other student journalists. “We would go once a week on Wednesday night,” Aratani said. “We would meet in the newsroom. John would bring in speakers to talk to us. It was great because we got to meet kids from other school newspapers and we got to meet actual journalists. We would bring in examples of things we had done for our school newspaper, and they would critique it.” Aratani said she kept in touch with Fried, who helped her get her first internship at the Press-Telegram during college. “The training I got as part of that program made such a difference when I got to college,” she said. “I already knew how a newspaper worked. I knew the ‘5 w’s and 1 h.’ What I learned also helped me when I went back to my high school paper. I’m sure my adviser would get impatient because I felt like I learned so much. I would say, ‘This is the way real journalists do it.’ ” Such training programs give high school students a taste of real journalism at a critical time in their lives, Aratani said. For minority students, the high school training programs can have an additional benefit. “You get to meet people who may become mentors someday,” she said. “If the folks are minorities, you get a sense of, wow, there’s someone like me who can do this.” Aratani, who is Asian American, said many Asian immigrant parents steer their children to other fields because they don’t know much about journalism. “In my family a lot of the folks were, like, journalism, what’s that?,” she recalled. “When I got my first job, my father was horrified because he had spent more on my first year of college than I made. Having someone who’s gone through it can allow you to say, ‘Oh look, mom, this is Ann Curry, she’s a journalist, and she’s not starving.’ ” Newspapers that have already found ways to engage high school students in journalism say a plethora of program possibilities exists for publications of every size and budget. And, they say, editors may be surprised how much their newspapers can accomplish with the ingenuity and goodwill of a committed few. Throughout the country, newspapers are using teenagers in their news operations in some creative ways. In Shreveport, La., for example, teenagers write columns for The Times and have participated in the coverage of major breaking news events, such as the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001. At the Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen, columns by teenagers appear on the editorial page. The Charleston (W.V.) Gazette publishes a teen magazine and has a Web site. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo, uses high school students as sports stringers and photographers. And The Messenger in Madisonville, Ky., added an advisory board of teenagers and a paid teen coordinator to develop a 59

3 RESURRECTING SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM: A LOOK INSIDE SOME MODEL NEWSPAPER-HIGH SCHOOL TRAINING PROGRAMS

monthly section written by and for teenagers, a concept that is growing in popularity. The remainder of this chapter will explore in more detail a sample of programs that newspapers throughout the country have launched over the past decade to assist their high school counterparts. The programs profiled here are grouped by type into five categories identified by the ASNE survey: the teen page, apprenticeships/internships, printing of school papers free or at cost, structured mentoring and workshops/camps. The survey found that these five categories tend to be the most common types of long-term partnerships between newspapers and high schools. In the following pages, you will get a peek at how these programs work and hear from editors, program directors, teachers and students about what they have learned. THE TEEN/YOUTH PAGE In 1989, the idea of devoting a page or a section of a newspaper to youths was so rare that ASNE did not even mention it in its survey of newspapers about their high school involvement. But by the time ASNE conducted its 2002 survey, the landscape of newspapers had changed dramatically. Thirty-seven percent of the papers that responded, or 220 newspapers, indicated that they regularly publish a teen page that includes the work of local students. According to the survey, the teen page is the most common long-term activity that newspapers have created to reach teenagers. Although some newspapers have created special pages written by journalists for youths, most pages that target youths include at least some work generated by students themselves, said Sandy Woodcock, manager of the Youth Readership Program for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). The concept has become so popular that seven years ago a group of editors responsible for youth pages at their newspapers formed the Youth Editors Association of America, which became part of the NAA in 2002. One of the most successful new youth sections is published by the Tulsa World in Oklahoma. The weekly section front, called Satellite, was launched in 1999 and won recognition as “Rookie of the Year” for that year at a 2000 awards ceremony sponsored by the NAA. The paper won best youth section in the country each year for the next two years, guaranteeing a spot in the NAA’s Hall of Fame. Barbara Allen, Satellite adviser, said the idea for the section emerged in late 1998 during a discussion with the managing editor. A reporter at the time, Allen had been volunteering at a teen magazine that was shutting down, and she approached the editor to ask if the paper could use five talented high school students who had been working at the magazine. The timing was perfect because the editor had recently heard about the Youth Editors Association and was considering creating a youth page. 60

S T O R Y

Natalie Hopkinson, 26, youth culture reporter in the Style section of The Washington Post or years, my siblings and I delivered newspapers in our neighborhood for spending money. Although I’d spent so many ink-stained early mornings with newspapers, it never occurred to me that I could be the one writing the stories that were inside. I’m a post-integration baby, so I didn’t think journalism or any other door was necessarily closed to me. But because I had never personally known or heard tell of a journalist, newspapers were a door that I never knew existed. In my senior year of high school, I was desperate to find money to pay for college.

So, I dashed off dozens of applications for scholarships in any and every field, from engineering to medicine and hoped for the best. No one was more surprised than I was when a few essays that I had written earned me the Cox Scholarship, a four-year, full-ride to the college of my choice. Cox Enterprises paid for tuition, books, fees and all the basics. More important, they provided me with internships at the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post, a Cox newspaper, part time during the school year and full time each summer. They paired me with editors

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who patiently and lovingly guided me through the basics of writing and reporting. By the time I graduated from Howard University in 1998, and the University of Maryland in 1999, Cox had given me an incredible head start in this business–one for which I remain eternally grateful.

Allen was offered the job of creating the new section right away. She sent letters to principals and advertised in the paper for additional student writers. The 75 students who responded participated in discussions about story ideas, and some wrote stories for the first issue. Initially, Allen was unsure how her colleagues would react to having teenagers around once a week. But the students quickly proved to be an asset, Allen said. They provided sources and quotes to staff reporters during a series of mayoral forums held in the high school. When a freshman basketball player collapsed and died on the court during a game, the students provided yearbook photos, eyewitness accounts and second-day sources. When two students were injured during an explosion caused by a failed high school science lab experiment, a staff photographer was there to get pictures but was unable to get names. Allen e-mailed the photos to 61

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Amber Adams, a student at Whitehaven High School in Memphis, interviews students for a story during an afternoon writing lab at the 2002 summer camp, sponsored by The Teen Appeal and the University of Memphis. Students write three to four stories during the week, the best of which are published in the first issue of the paper.

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Satellite correspondents, who went to the school and helped the paper identify everyone in the photographs. “The staff members have come to realize these kids are a resource,” Allen said. “And it’s fun to have little kids with blue hair walking around.” Students apply for the section each spring through an application that requires a writing, art or photography sample. Allen said she looks for diversity in age and school when choosing new correspondents, who each get a crash course in journalism during the summer. The number of correspondents varies from year to year, but in recent years about 50 students show up consistently for the weekly meetings on Mondays at 6 p.m. in the newsroom. “I try to have as much discussion among them as possible,” Allen said. “I come in with a list of things we need to talk about.” The students turn in their stories to Allen, who edits them and meets with each student to explain any changes. A staff photographer accompanies a student going out on a first assignment. John Estus, a freshman at Oklahoma State University, was a sophomore in high school when he became a Satellitecorrespondent, initially producing one or two stories a month. “It was really about wanting to educate yourself and others and experience things that 90 percent of high school kids never get to experience,” he said. “It opened more doors than I can count.” By his senior year of high school, Estus was able to work out an arrangement at his school that provided two class credits for an unpaid internship that brought him into the paper during the day for a variety of duties, including proofreading the pages of the Satellite. “I equate the internship to two years of college,” Estus said. “I got to know everybody at the newspaper. I got to sit in a living, breathing newsroom. It was a really great learning experience.” 62

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He now serves as entertainment editor of the daily newspaper at Oklahoma State, a rare position for a freshman. Former Satellitecorrespondents also work on the staffs of college newspapers throughout the country, including the University of Oklahoma, the University of Kansas, Amherst, Baylor, the University of New Mexico and Washington University. Five former correspondents have worked as paid interns at the Tulsa World, and others have been selected to attend various national journalism camps. “If nothing else, I’ve definitely opened some kids’ eyes to explore journalism,” Allen said. ■ ■ ■

When the University of Memphis approached The Commercial Appeal in the mid1990s about forming a three-way partnership with the public school system to create a citywide newspaper for teenagers, executives at the paper’s corporate headquarters were dubious, Managing Editor Otis Sanford said. The newspaper’s parent company, Scripps-Howard, had poured money into a similar venture that had failed at another paper. The task of recommending whether the paper should get involved fell to Sanford, who was raised in Memphis and spent the early years of his career as a reporter and editor there. Sanford considered the university’s research, which showed that in 1991 only five of 28 high schools had newspapers of any substance, and those were published irregularly. “The university was sort of concerned about the sad state of journalism in the city’s schools,” Sanford said. “They wanted to have students to recruit to the journalism school. We needed to have more high school students interested in newspapers, more students reading newspapers and interested in becoming reporters.” Convinced that the partnership could work, Sanford recommended it to corporate executives and spent the rest of the year working with administrators from the University of Memphis to refine the proposal. The partners immediately presented the plan to the superintendent of the city’s public schools, who recognized the great opportunity for students and signed on right away. With a two-year seed grant of $100,000 from Scripps-Howard, the university hired a full-time coordinator and a part-time assistant and transformed an office in the journalism department into a newsroom, which stays open until 7 p.m. daily and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The new teen section, named The Teen Appeal by the students, made its debut in 1997. A 12-page tabloid with full color on the front and back pages, the section includes a mixture of hard news stories, features and columns, all written by the students, as well as photographs taken by the students. Published eight times a year from August to May, the section is inserted in up to 25,000 copies of The Commercial Appeal. The circulation department distributes the newspapers containing the insert 63

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to all of the city’s high schools and middle schools on the first Tuesday of every month. By design, the newspaper does not print enough copies for every student. A school with 1,000 students, for example, may get 600 copies. “I want it to be a commodity, where people want to try to get it because it’s rare,” Sanford said. Since the concept was to create a newspaper for and by students, the insert is included only in the newspapers that go to the schools and is not part of the paper circulated to the general readership. Students from all of the city’s schools are invited to apply for The Teen Appeal staff. They are asked to complete an application, write an essay and submit a recommendation from a teacher. The first year, 165 students applied. Since then, the number of applicants has increased each year to 320 students for 2002-2003. Based on their grades and interest in journalism, 150 students were chosen in 2002 to participate – up to five from each of the city’s 30 high schools. But gauging from participation in previous years, about 40 of them will stick with it and end up as regular contributors throughout the school year, coordinator Chuck Holliday said. The students are given bus passes to travel to the university at least once a week, and one Wednesday a month the staff meets over pizza with Holliday and assistant coordinator Erin Patterson, a graduate student, to brainstorm and assign story ideas. “We rely on them a lot to tell us what goes on in the schools,” Holliday said. “But we also read papers and the Web to keep up with ideas.” The school year begins for The Teen Appeal staff in early August with a weeklong workshop, organized primarily by Holliday, who received a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Memphis in 2001. During the camp the students attend reporting, writing, editCOURTESY OF THE TEEN APPEAL ing and photography workshops, taught each day by university instructors and staff from The Commercial Appeal. Newsmakers from the city also are brought in to give the students a chance to practice their interviewing skills. Gina Pak, a reporter for The Teen Appeal, takes notes during an interview session at a summer journalism camp for student journalists from Memphis City high schools, who write for the section. 64

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Inside a theater-style classroom in the journalism building one sweltering August morning in 2002, about 60 students fired questions at Johnnie Watson, Ph.D., superintendent of Memphis City Schools. Press conference-style, the students raised their hands and identified themselves, before inquiring about the school system’s new policy requiring all students to wear school uniforms in the upcoming fall school term. Watson, trying to appear casual, walked up and down the aisles, paused to prop his leg on a step and leaned close to the students as he explained that he was only carrying out the order of the school board that elected him. Afterward, he joined the students for lunch in a campus cafeteria. Sitara Johnson, 16, a junior, said during the break that she joined The Teen Appeal staff at school to find out more about how it works. “I think I’m going to stick with it,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity, and most people our age don’t get that opportunity.” Elinor Grusin, an associate professor at the university and project director for The Teen Appeal, said the partnership’s overriding goal is to help diversify newsrooms. The Memphis public school system is about 85 percent black. “What we’ve found is most of the students coming into this program really don’t have a clue about what journalism is or that they could turn a love for writing into a career,” Grusin said. “My feeling is I don’t care whether they come to the University of Memphis or wherever, as long as we open an opportunity and turn on a light for them.” The university tracks all graduates of The Teen Appeal , and according to an end-ofthe-year report in 2001, 25 former staffers are majoring in journalism or mass communication in college. Of those students, 21 are minorities. The students, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college, have interned at various newspapers, magazines and online publications throughout the country. “This program really gives high school students an advantage,” said Jesyca Westbrook, a former staff member who graduated from high school in 2002. “The issues that we cover in The Teen Appeal don’t have to be about your school. It’s like being a reporter for The Commercial Appeal.” Westbrook, who joined The Teen Appeal as a sophomore, landed an internship at The Memphis Business Journal the summer before her senior year. A National Merit Scholar, she received a full-tuition scholarship to Howard University, where she is studying journalism. To provide even more support for program graduates who attend college, Sanford has matched the students with volunteer journalists who agree to call occasionally and send e-mails to offer encouragement and advice. The Teen Appeal costs between $110,000 and $125,000 a year to operate, including 65

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the salaries, printing costs and workshop expenses. The Scripps Howard Foundation has financed the bulk of the costs, but smaller one-time grants from industry groups have helped. The program has been so successful that the Scripps-Howard Foundation has begun awarding four $1,000 scholarships each year to seniors on The Teen Appeal staff who pursue journalism in college. The scholarships, two of which are awarded to students planning to attend the University of Memphis and two to students who can use the money at any college or university, are renewable each year for four years. “I think this is a wonderful opportunity for high school students to get exposed to journalism,” Sanford said. “I think this is a model people can use if they’re serious about growing journalists and if they’re serious about having a diverse pool of journalists.” ■ ■ ■

Bill Norton, editor of The Kansas City Star’s teen page, Teenstar, believes his newspaper is offering students a unique opportunity, while also grooming journalists for the future. But the idea for the section came about by accident. As part of an ongoing citywide effort to provide summer jobs for teenagers, the paper in 1994 hired eight high school interns who wrote several stories that editors decided to publish in a one-time special format. The stories were packaged together on the front and back of a newspaper broadsheet, then folded and wrapped across half of the features section. “There was no fanfare,” said Norton, who at the time volunteered with the interns. “But it hit the streets, and word got out that The Star was creating a teen section.” When the newspaper’s publisher heard the buzz, he asked whether the news department could create such a section. Norton, a senior reporter who was eager to try something new, researched what other papers with teen pages were doing and put together a proposal. He hired a teenager part-time as a news clerk and recruited former interns to write for the new section. A teacher who had interned at the paper one summer also helped him recruit student writers. The new Teenstarappeared for the first time in all newspapers in September 1994 in the same format that had earlier grabbed readers’ attention. Published every Tuesday thereafter, the section features student writers who were paid as freelancers, about $30 per story. Norton then decided to set up a volunteer teen advisory board, so he advertised for applicants in the paper’s features section and sent letters to area high schools. Hoping to elicit the support of the school system’s journalism teachers, newspaper and yearbook advisers, he planned a tea for them. But to his amazement, the gathering was a flop. Only a handful of the invited teachers showed up. “The Star was opening its door to the schools and kids, saying, ‘You can use us how66

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ever you want,’ and they didn’t rush to embrace us,” Norton said. “We were, like, dang, what’s up with that?” Norton said he later came to understand that many of the hardworking advisers were worried that Teenstarwould compete with their own publications and steal their few reliable students. Nonetheless, 300 students applied for the initial 45 slots on the board. The board, which meets monthly to discuss story ideas, has since grown to about 60 students, ages 13 to 18, most of whom contribute to the section as writers. Initially, Teenstarwas to operate as an independent news section, which meant it had to generate advertising revenue to cover expenses, but selling advertising space in an unproven section proved to be more difficult than expected. The Star eventually decided to absorb the costs, roughly $100,000 a year – Norton’s salary, the minimum wage rate for a part-time clerk, freelance payments to writers, printing expenses and incidentals, such as the orange juice, bagels and other snacks for the monthly board meetings. The section has survived some tough economic times for the paper. After less than two years of operation, Teenstar was threatened when Knight-Ridder, the newspaper’s new parent company, began searching for ways to reduce operating costs. Norton had to choose between Teenstar and the paper’s high school internship program. “I had to decide do I do something for eight kids or do I try to do something to get 60 to 70 kids involved and produce something all the kids in the area could read?” Teenstarsurvived; the internship program did not. But the section lost significant space when the newspaper eliminated the special format and made Teenstara page inside the features section. Funds to pay the student writers also were cut. Yet, students still write for the section, and it has remained strong. In 2001 and 2002, students captured five first-place awards from the Youth Editors Association of America. “The kids are awesome,” said Norton, a 30-year veteran at The Star. “When you’re sitting in the room with the kids, you get a room full of tomorrow, and it’s just awesome.” Other newspapers that created teen pages have been less fortunate. “Some wonderful pages have gotten killed in recent years,” said Sandy Woodcock, of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). In 2001, the NAA did a business case study of The Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., to determine what kinds of advertising dollars are available to pages targeting youths. The newspaper successfully met its advertising goal, Woodcock said. A second case study in 2002 at the Reading (Pa.) Eagle came close to meeting the goal. 67

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“We found there is money to be gotten,” Woodcock said. “It’s not an easy sell, but it can be a sell.” But, as with other sections of the paper, Woodcock said, the decision to implement a page targeting youths should be driven by a desire to increase newspaper readership among youths. “If folks look at this as a way to get immediate measurable returns, when they get into financial strain, it’s an easy thing to kill,” she said. INTERNSHIPS/APPRENTICESHIPS Another fairly common way that many newspapers are reaching out to high school students is through internships or apprenticeships. Though newspapers have for decades brought college students into their newsrooms during the summer to do entry-level reporting, the idea of using even younger interns or apprentices is not exactly new. In 1989, about 25 percent of the newspapers that responded to the ASNE survey, or 52 of the 234 responses, said they offered internships to high school students. Twenty-six percent of the papers that answered the 2002 survey, or 152 of 588 respondents, said they do so. The way the internship or apprenticeship is structured varies from one newspaper to the next. Some newspapers pay the high school students; others do not. Some require the students to produce stories for the paper. Others focus more on instruction. At the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, two groups of eight or nine high school interns each spend a week in one of two sessions held in June. Because many of the students are learning about journalism for the first time, they are not expected to write for the paper. The weeklong internship is designed to give them a close-up view of how a newspaper operates and what reporters, editors and other staff members do. For Anna Ramirez, who had just graduated from Hyde Park Baptist School, the internship was her first exposure to journalism. “My high school didn’t offer journalism as a class, and we didn’t have a newspaper,” said Ramirez, sitting around a conference table with her peers during a break. “But I kind of knew I wanted to go into journalism since fifth or sixth grade because I loved to write.” Ramirez was just the kind of student the internship was designed to attract. And that one-week stint in a real newsroom was just the kind of practical experience she was seeking. “It has gone above and beyond my expectations,” she said. Throughout the week, the students toured various departments, attended story budget meetings, shadowed newsroom professionals, chatted over lunch with 68

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reporters and editors and participated in daily workshops on a variety of topics, such as the First Amendment, journalism ethics, photojournalism and political cartooning. They also wrote profiles, movie reviews and individual critiques of the paper, none of which was published. The students met at the paper at 9:30 a.m. for a half-hour discussion and oral critique of the Statesman. Those who did not receive the newspaper at home had the option of arriving an hour earlier to read the paper. The schedule varied daily after the critique. A morning with editors in a story budget meeting might be followed the next day by a workshop or visit with mentors in the same time slot. But by 2:30 p.m., the students usually were packing to go home. “One of the things we did that was wildly popular—and this is something anybody can do, even if they don’t do it on a regular basis—was lunch with editors,” said Josefina Villicaña, the newsroom’s director of information services and the program’s volunteer coordinator. “We would choose different groupings of people in the newsroom and invite them to lunch with the students.” Over pizza or sandwiches, the editors—and sometimes, reporters, photographers and artists—answered questions that guided them into casual discussions of how they got into journalism, the high and low points of their careers and what—or what not—to expect in the business. This was just the kind of interaction between students and professionals that Villicaña envisioned when she PHOTO BY D.A. PETERSON first proposed what has become the newspaper’s Youth in Journalism program. Villicaña, a former academic counselor at a California university, began volunteering to speak at Austin schools soon after arriving at the newspaper in 1998. Passionate about education, Villicaña, who is Latino, was eager to find a way to get the newspaper more involved in local schools and draw more minority students Fu Yu Wu, a journalism student at Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C. 69

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into the business. In Austin, nearly 31 percent of the population is Latino, mostly immigrants from Mexico, according to the 2000 Census. Villicaña helped the paper secure a $5,000 partnership grant from ASNE in 2001 to buy computer and photo equipment for a high school and middle school as part of a yearlong partnership that also included mentoring. She came up with the idea for the internship later the same year when she volunteered to work in the newspaper’s booth at a spring job fair organized by the city for teenagers seeking summer jobs. “Students kept stopping by the booth,” Villicaña said. “I was excited to see the level of interest the students had. But I had no positions to offer them.” Soon afterward, she pitched the idea of the high school internship. With the support of the paper’s editor, Rich Oppel, she quickly put together a plan. She ran notices in the newspaper and contacted students who had given her their resumes during the fair. The first year, eight students were selected for two weeks. In addition to the instructional segment of the internship, the students were assigned a major writing project: to produce a guide to the Statesman—a paper that was to be published and distributed by the marketing department to visitors during tours of the paper. The students worked diligently on the project, but it required more time than expected. Villicaña said she also found that the students needed more one-on-one interaction than she could provide with the help of two college interns on loan to her for the two weeks. But the students completed the project, and most of their stories were published in the marketing newspaper. The next year, Villicaña began planning earlier and came up with a new structure. She broke the program into two weeklong sessions, which allowed her to offer internships to twice as many students. But with more students, she would be unable to provide the small stipend that the first group of students received. Villicaña also decided to scrap the idea of having the students produce a major writing project for publication. By starting earlier, she was able to search broadly for a more diverse group of students. She sent letters and fliers to high schools in Austin, advertised on the paper’s Web site and again collected resumes at the spring jobs fair. Villicaña also developed a more extensive application process. In addition to completing an application, the students applying the second year had to provide a 500word essay explaining why they wanted to participate in the internship and two letters of recommendations from teachers, counselors, or community leaders who could discuss either the student’s writing and academic abilities or suitable personality traits. “I realize this is a lot to ask of high school students,” Villicaña said. “But this is 70

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typically what they will be needing in professional jobs. If they’re able to do all that, that in itself is a huge accomplishment.” During the selection process, a committee of newsroom staff considered diversity, gave preference to students who were likely to take their newly acquired skills back to their school papers or yearbooks and looked for students who might not otherwise get the opportunity to work in a newsroom. Of the 15 students selected for the June 2002 sessions, six were white, two were Asian, three were Hispanic, one was African American, one was Native American and two were of COURTESY OF THE GREAT FALLS (MONT.) TRIBUNE Jim Strauss Indonesian descent. “When you look at some of the reasons we come up with for not having this kind of representation in newsrooms – that there are no minorities available or that the ones that do exist are too desired by everyone else or too high-priced to get here – it becomes necessary to look at how we can improve that,” Villicaña said. “I think a clear way to look at it is outreach early on, so we don’t have that as an issue.” ■ ■ ■

At the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune, Executive Editor Jim Strauss is counting on a high school apprenticeship program to help draw more Native American voices to his newspaper. Every other summer, the newspaper hires a Native American student to spend eight to 10 weeks as a newsroom apprentice. The student, generally a high school junior or senior with an interest in journalism, spends about two weeks on the city and features desks and then rotates for at least a week to the other staffs, including design, photo and copy editing. “The idea is to expose them to the different opportunities in the newsroom,” Strauss said. That kind of exposure is important to many of the students, who are likely to have spent much of their lives on a reservation. Montana has seven reservations, and 90 percent of the state’s Native Americans reside on them. “It’s a big step for a young adult to leave to go, for example, to the University of Montana,” Strauss said. “It’s leaving family and breaking some pretty powerful bonds they have.” But Strauss said he tries to send a message through the apprenticeship that voices within the Native American community are important and necessary to the Great Falls Tribune, the state’s second largest newspaper, which has a daily circulation of 34,000. 71

S T O R Y

Rick Rodriguez, 48, executive editor and senior vice president of The Sacramento Bee

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actually got interested in journalism in junior high school. I was in eighth grade. We had a paper, and I was sports editor, and the school named me as the top journalism student. As a child, I would listen to baseball games on the radio and keep box scores to compare to the scores in the paper. Then I went to high school, and in my junior year, I took journalism. They named me editor-inchief of the paper after just one edition. And so, that kind of started me along the road. When I was a junior, I won a second place award in a contest for Northern California high school students. I started writing for the local paper, The Salinas Californian. They had a high school page, and the city editor of the

paper was kind of a family friend. He knew I was editor of the school paper and asked if I wanted to be a correspondent. He had a correspondent at every high school. At the time, there were just four schools, so there were four of us. But I must have been the most reliable because at the end of my senior year, I was working in a Mexican store that was a combination minimart and tortilla factory, and he called me and asked if I wanted to be a copy boy. I actually took a 10 cents pay cut to go to the newspaper, but once I got there, it was an incredible period of time. Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers were just beginning to organize. There were no Spanish speakers on the staff. I immediately got to serve as translator, and soon I was writing stories, pretty badly-worded stories, but the city editor, Eric Brazil, took me under his wing. I kind of got bitten by the bug. I went to community college for two years, working mostly full time. I transferred

to Stanford, which was about 90 minutes away, and I returned home on the weekends to work at the paper. After graduation, I went back to the same paper as a reporter covering cops. I stayed there about three years, and I moved to Fresno to work at The Fresno Bee. After about a year, I got a fellowship to study in Mexico. I returned to the paper, then moved to Sacramento as a reporter in the capital bureau. That was 20 years ago. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been really fortunate to have good mentors. They were all white guys from different backgrounds than mine, but they supported me and gave me a chance. My grandparents on my dadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side were illegal immigrants from Mexico. They eventually got their green cards, but they worked in canneries and in the fields. My aunt had been a nanny to Eric Brazil (the city editor), and he was so appreciative for what she did for his family that he took me under his wing. I was a good student, but I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t

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know what I wanted to do. The fact that someone as impressive to me as Eric Brazil reached out and said to me that I was good and had potential and then took a chance on me really hooked me on the profession. When people take the time to tell you you’re good, they might not think it means much, but I still remember the times when people did that.

Frustrated by the small number of Native American applicants in a state with a significant Native American population, newspaper executives decided to create the apprenticeship and recruit stu dents who might someday bring their talent back to the newsroom. “We realized that rather than having to compete with papers for the same pool of applicants, we needed to expand the pool,” Strauss said. “The effort is to sell journalism to young, talented Native Americans in the state and grow our own talent.” Strauss said he works with high school advisers all over the state, including on the reservations, to identify potential candidates. He also makes note of talented students while participating as an instructor and mentor at a journalism program sponsored by the Freedom Forum in South Dakota for Native American high school students. “If all newsrooms are doing is going to colleges and looking for students who finish, it’s not enough,” Strauss said. The newspaper pays the apprentice $300 a week, but the paper cannot afford to hire a high school student every summer. Unlike the paper’s college interns, the high school apprentice spends most of the time learning. That is no small sacrifice for a newspaper the size of the Great Falls Tribune, but the potential payoff is well worth it, Strauss said. The first high school apprentice, hired in 1999, is a senior studying photojournalism at the University of Montana. She returned one recent summer to the news73

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paper as a photo intern. The newspaper has two Native American staff members, and both came to the paper through college internships. “When a small newspaper hires interns or apprentices, you have expectations that they will be able to hit the ground running,” Strauss said. “But we’re investing time and providing guidance without the expectation that we’re going to get a lot of stories or photos. We realize this is a long-term investment.” ■ ■ ■

The Detroit Free Press offers 10 high school students a five-week apprenticeship each summer beginning in July. To apply for the program, students must write an essay about why they want to be an apprentice and provide a transcript and two letters of recommendation. The selection of the apprentices is based mostly on talent and initiative, and the students are paid $7.65 an hour for about 20 hours a week, said Emeliana Sandoval, a copy editor who helps to run the program. The first week is instructional. The students learn the basics of journalism and hear from a variety of speakers from the newsroom. From the second week through the end, the students spend each Monday in a classroom setting and Tuesdays through Thursdays in the newsroom or, in some cases, a bureau. Each student works with an assigned mentor, who is responsible for making sure the apprentice stays busy while in the newsroom. An apprentice may accompany a mentor to the scene of a story, help with research, write a sidebar or brief, or research and write a full story. “This summer I’ve been given a chance to go to WNBA games,” said Kirkland Crawford, a senior at Renaissance High School in Detroit when he apprenticed in 2002. “That’s how I got my two bylines. Everybody was sort of taking me around.” One Friday night Crawford got to write—on deadline, no less—the paper’s only story about the game. With this setup, the mentors are key to ensuring that the apprentices have a rewarding experience. Each of the apprentices generally walks away with at least two byline stories, though one exceptional student wrote an editorial one year and another ended up with 27 clips. At the end of the apprenticeship, Sandoval gives a $100 “Apprentice of the Year Award.” The award doesn’t necessarily go to the student who got the most clips, she said. The winner might be a student who showed the most growth or initiative. Recruiting and Development Editor Joe Grimm tracks the apprentices via computer and often brings them back as college interns. A few times, he has been able to hire a former apprentice as a full-time employee. Brian Todd, 21, now a full-time Web producer at the FreePress, was a senior when he met Grimm, who happened to be visiting his high school. Always interested in 74

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computers, Todd had designed a Web site for the school. Grimm encouraged him to apply for the apprenticeship. Todd was accepted in the summer of 1999 and got to work closely with the library technician and technical director at the Free Press. When Todd enrolled at Central Michigan University the next fall, Grimm visited and invited him back to the paper as a college intern in the summer of 2000. Todd eventually left the university and began working odd jobs, but he still heard from Grimm, who helped him get a part-time job at the paper as part of its Web team. Then, in September 2001, Todd was brought on full time to design special projects. He attends the University of Detroit part time. “I honestly don’t think I’d be here if not for that program,” said Todd, who taught himself about computers. “Before the apprenticeship, I just knew I wanted to do something with computers. Joe and everybody were just great. They keep tabs on you. They know what you are doing and where you are. If an opportunity comes, they try to put something in your lap to help you grow.” For many of the apprentices, the five-week summer program is not their first direct contact with the Free Press. Most of the city’s public schools publish their school newspapers through the Free Press, and some of the most talented editors and reporters for those publications end up as apprentices. PRINTING OF SCHOOL PAPERS By 1985, funding for school newspapers had been eliminated from the budget of Detroit public schools. But that year, a business executive at the Free Press approached school officials with an idea: His newspaper would be willing to take over the printing and distribution of the papers and give students a chance to learn firsthand about the news business. That was the beginning of a partnership that has ignited a passion for journalism in many students who otherwise may never have known the thrill of putting out a school newspaper. “When I entered high school, I was searching for something to be a part of and something that I was good at,” said Isaiah Pettway, a senior, who was co-editor of the newspaper at Cass Tech High School in Detroit. “The journalism program didn’t start at my school until my freshman year. If we didn’t have this program, I probably wouldn’t have been interested in journalism at all.” Printing high school papers free or at cost

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appears to be growing in popularity among newspapers as a way of helping school publications. Twenty-four percent of the newspapers that responded to the most recent ASNE survey said they do so. That is up from less than 19 percent in 1989. Pat Cybulski Hartley, the full-time coordinator for the Detroit Free Press’ High School Journalism Program, makes sure the program runs smoothly. The staff and advisers at each of the 15 schools that publish through the Free Press get to spend one afternoon a month, a “finishing day,” at the newspaper, usually in the computer training center, to prepare their stories for publication. Under Hartley’s supervision, the students edit stories, write headlines and lay out their page. Each school newspaper gets the space equivalent of one broadsheet. The Free Press then prints several school papers together as a six- or seven-page section that is inserted in about 23,000 copies of the daily newspaper in place of classified advertising. Copies of the Free Press with the appropriate section are then delivered to all of the high schools and middle schools. The six or seven schools whose pages are grouped together and their feeder middle schools get the insert containing the papers for their schools, while the other high schools and middle schools get a different insert containing their schools’ papers. The program operates on about $153,000 a year. The Newspaper In Education program secures private funding to cover the costs of printing and distribution, which total about $42,000 a year. For the past several years Ford Motor Co. has been the exclusive sponsor. Since 1986, Ford also has awarded a $24,000 scholarship to a Detroit public school senior to study journalism at an accredited university. Knight Ridder, the parent company of the Free Press, awards four $40,000 scholarships to graduating minority high school seniors in Detroit. Those scholarships also guarantee four summer internships at newspapers owned by the company and a full-time job upon graduation. The Free Press gives each of its top three finalists for the Knight Ridder award a one-time $1,000 scholarship. For Marlon Walker, 21, a senior studying journalism at Florida A&M University, the Ford scholarship and programs sponsored by the Free Press were life-altering. By middle school, Walker, like most of his friends, had become interested in science—a field he is sure he would have pursued, if not for the Free Press. “All of my friends are going into engineering,” says Walker, a former high school newspaper editor, apprentice and college intern at the Free Press. “I probably would have been in somebody’s program in engineering.” ■ ■ ■

Like its Detroit counterpart, The Washington Post also has poured tremendous resources into developing a myriad of programs to expose students to journalism. Through its Young Journalists Development Program, The Washington Post pays the 76

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printing costs of 17 schools in the District of Columbia and Maryland and uses its own presses to print one high school paper in Virginia. Fifteen of the schools are part of a highly structured mentoring partnership in which the newspaper regularly sends teams of volunteers to the classrooms to guide students from story idea to production. None of the 15 schools was publishing regularly before The Washington Post got involved. The Washington Post chooses three other Washington area school newspapers just for free printing through a competitive application process. The schools that apply for the free printing services tend to have strong newspapers already, but students often have to sell candy or hold other fundraisers to generate money to keep publishing. The winners are chosen based on the quality of their school newspaper program and their financial need. As a neighborly gesture, The Washington Post’s production plant in Springfield, Va., prints the newspaper for Annandale High School, less than a mile away. Located in the suburbs of Fairfax County, one of the area’s wealthiest school districts, Annandale High School’s A Blast is a model of what a school newspaper can be with adequate administrative and financial support. For starters, the paper has a staff of 65 student journalists and an experienced adviser with a journalism background. The paper, published every three weeks, or 15 times a year, is a 20-page broadsheet with crisp color photos and occasional graphics. But even a school paper that was already successful has been able to benefit from a partnership with The Post. When The Post took over the printing, the newspaper switched from a tabloid format to a broadsheet and became a more professional-looking publication with full color on eight pages, sharper photos and enhanced graphics. “It’s affected the way our pages look, and the kids at school when they read it are much more excited to see it,” said Philippe Podhorecki, a newspaper staff member. “It’s a Washington Post-size paper with nice color and everything. Everyone is much happier.” STRUCTURED MENTORING PROGRAMS For many other schools in the Washington area, The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program has revived long-dead newspapers and offered life support to student journalists through teams of mentors who visit the schools regularly to keep the papers publishing. Coolidge High School, one of the District of Columbia’s oldest high schools, had been without a newspaper for 13 years when an English teacher who had heard about the Young Journalists Development Program contacted Dorothy Gilliam, the program’s director, and pleaded for help. Gilliam responded by providing computers, software, mentors and training for the students and adviser. 77

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Osman Kamara, a student at Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, D.C., looks at photos during a photography workshop sponsored by The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program at the Newseum.

PHOTO BY MARK GAIL

“They really support us in every aspect, from developing story ideas to being able to print and distribute the newspaper,” said Sherry Deckman, who became adviser the year after The Post got involved. D’Anthony White, a senior and editor-in-chief of the paper, The Colt Pride , was just slightly interested in journalism when he joined the staff in his sophomore year after hearing talk that the newspaper would be revived. “But I latched onto it,” he said. “And I haven’t been able to put down the pen.” White’s e-mail address reflects his newfound passion for journalism: ilive4journalism. He is planning to major in journalism in college, and the Young Journalists Development Program is helping him to prepare. When he was named editor-inchief, The Post covered the expenses for him to attend a five-day editing workshop at the University of Maryland. The Post also paid his round-trip airfare to the University of Missouri in Columbia to participate in an 11-day workshop for minority students and picked up the tab for him to attend a Kaplan SAT preparation course. Once White began taking the course, he realized that his vision problems made it difficult for him to keep up and that he needed to arrange private tutoring. The Post covered those costs, too. “I would not have been able to afford any of it without The Post,” said White, who lives with his retired grandmother and mother. “But that’s the kind of dialogue I have with The Post. When I talked to Ms. Gilliam about getting accepted to the program at the University of Missouri, she could tell I was nervous. I had never been that far from home without any family. But she talked to me on the phone for about an hour and really comforted me. The connection I have formed with The Post goes beyond journalism.” Gilliam said she realized in 1997 when she created the Young Journalists Development Program that reviving school newspapers in the District and inspiring students who had been without newspapers so long would require more than 78

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sending the schools a few dollars or an occasional speaker. With that in mind, Gilliam structured a mentoring component that has become the core of The Post’s outreach to students. Twenty percent of the newspapers that responded to the ASNE survey, about 115 papers, say they have a structured mentoring program. About 19 percent, or 30 of the papers that responded in 1989, had such a program. Gilliam began with a pilot school, Howard D. Woodson High School, a predominantly African American school in a long-neglected neighborhood in the far northeast corner of the city. The school’s award-winning newspaper, The Insider , had struggled for years without adequate financial support before finally ceasing publication in the 1996-97 school year. Gilliam began meeting in the spring of 1997 with the principal and an English teacher who had been the newspaper’s adviser. They agreed to apply jointly for a $2,500 grant from the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Freedom Forum, a precursor of the current ASNE partnership program. The cooperative effort was awarded the grant, and The Post matched it. Gilliam used the $5,000 to buy five new printers and computer software for the school. In addition, The Post used some of its older equipment to completely restock the school’s newsroom with four computers for writing and editing, one Apple Macintosh computer, one negative scanner and one flatbed scanner for layout, design and scanning photographs. The newspaper also contributed two Nikon cameras, seven lenses, two strobes and up to 10 rolls of film per week. To provide the necessary personnel support, Gilliam often visited the school and galvanized about 40 volunteers from the newspaper, who over the course of a school year, visited the classroom weekly to teach the students about reporting, writing, editing and photography and to work with them one-on-one to get their stories into the newspaper. With volunteers from The Post as mentors, the students at Woodson published six 24-page editions of The Insider , the most editions the staff had ever published in one year. “I was elated first of all that the students were able to respond to the challenge,” Gilliam recalled. “They were so excited to see their bylines and stories about themselves. There was a new sense of pride in the school that extended from the students to the staff.” The Young Journalists Development Program included another component its first year: It became the primary sponsor of the annual Urban Journalism Workshop, run each Spring by the Washington Association of Black Journalists. With a contribution of about $4,500, The Post covered 75 percent of the costs and brought stability to a program that provides intense training for area students each 79

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year. In addition, Gilliam arranged a networking workshop that brought students in the program together for a training session at The Post. At the end of the school year, five students were awarded scholarships to attend a two-week, residential program, called “Futures In Journalism,” run by the University of Maryland in College Park. There were some lessons learned from that first year at Woodson High School, though. The first-year goal had been to help the school newspaper rise to a level of self-sufficiency so that it could continue publishing with minimal support from The Post. But Gilliam realized that The Post had done so much to help the Woodson staff that the school was unable to maintain the same publishing schedule and professionalism without the same level of help. The next school year, as The Post moved on to help another school, the Woodson staff published just one 20-page issue the entire year, despite receiving an additional $10,000 grant from The Post and a $2500 seed grant from the Newspaper Association of America. The second year, The Post chose Bell Multicultural Senior High School, and decided to structure the partnership differently. With a $10,000 grant from the The Post and $2,500 from ASNE and the Freedom Forum, The Post and the newspaper adviser for Bell bought equipment and textbooks and used volunteers more sparingly. The teacher, who had a background in journalism, took the lead in teaching the classes. With a high number of students who spoke English as a second language, the teacher progressed more slowly. But the school succeeded in publishing five papers that year and was able to continue publishing with little additional help from The Post. The same year, 1998, Gilliam added the first college programs—an undergraduate scholarship to the University of Maryland and an undergraduate one-credit journalism course, called “The Washington Post Semester,” taught by the newspa per’s staff at the downtown office for University of Maryland and Howard University students. Word spread quickly that The Post was helping schools revive their newspapers, and teachers began calling to ask how they could become part of the program. But Gilliam faced a challenge: How could the Young Journalists Development Program serve more schools and reach more kids with the same number of volunteers? By the fall of 1999, Gilliam had come up with a new mentoring format that would allow her to add eight more schools as partners and return to Woodson. Instead of marshaling all of the volunteers into one school at a time, she created small teams of four or five volunteers, appointed a team leader and assigned each team to a school. Each team would be responsible for visiting its school weekly and guiding the students and adviser through the journalistic process. By working with the same team each week, the students and adviser at each school were able to build 80

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a rapport with the volunteers. The Woodson model had shown that these urban schools would need continuing help before they were self-sufficient enough to publish on their own. So, many of the teams returned to the same schools the following year. “It provided more continuity,” Gilliam said. “It was also very positive for The Post staff because it brought people together who ordinarily might not meet each other.” With the help of their teams, most of the schools were able to meet the publishing goal of five newspapers in a school year. One team dissolved the first year when volunteers tried unsuccessfully to motivate a weak adviser and disinterested students who rarely showed up for the team sessions. Later, a clash of personalities and expectations between a team leader and an adviser stalled progress at another school. “It takes a lot of negotiations sometimes,” Gilliam said. But for the most part, the team approach has worked well and allowed for continued expansion. By the fall of 2002, teams of volunteers from The Post were working with 17 schools—15 in the District of Columbia and two in neighboring Prince George’s County in Maryland. “We do everything. It’s our paper,” said Keitha Madison, a junior at Coolidge High School and member of the newspaper staff. “It makes me feel good knowing that I contribute to something that makes the school.” As the program grew, Gilliam expanded her staff. In October 2000, Athelia Knight, a national award-winning reporter at the paper and program volunteer, was brought on full-time as assistant director. Shortly afterward, Gilliam also hired a program administrator. In addition to handling the day-to-day operations of the volunteer teams, Knight has brought more structure to a program that has grown rapidly in just a few years. After assessing each of the schools, for example, Knight realized that some of the equipment donated by The Post was outdated or didn’t have the proper software. She pushed The Post to purchase at least one new computer and textbooks for each of the schools. She then used the new textbook to prepare a week-by-week instruction and publication schedule to guide journalism teachers and newspaper advisers an entire school year. “I understand the importance of having school newspapers and how they add a certain dynamic to school life and college life,” Knight said. “I have a real passion for journalism. It started when I worked on the newspaper at my junior high school, so I know the value of working for a school newspaper.” At least 60 students who have benefited from the myriad of high school programs are in colleges pursuing journalism. Five former winners of the program’s scholarship and fellowship have been hired as reporters for major news organiza81

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tions, including one at The Post. ■ ■ ■

Newspapers of all sizes have benefited from the ASNE partnership grants, but the money has been particularly important for smaller papers with fewer resources. While it costs a newspaper little more than the time and dedication of staff to provide mentoring and instruction to a journalism class, the school programs often lack the basic equipment needed to publish a quality paper regularly. That was certainly the case at William Penn High School in York, Pa., in 2001 when its partnership with the York Daily Record was awarded a $5,000 ASNE grant. The only equipment the school’s newspaper staff had to put out its monthly newspaper, The York Hi-Lites , were: a cheap 35mm camera that worked sporadically, a broken printer and a few computers. With the grant, the school was able to buy a new digital camera, a 35mm camera, a Macintosh computer with a large screen, a Macintosh laptop and a printer. In addition to the purchase of new equipment, staff members from the York Daily Record visited the school, located a block away, to teach the journalism class practically every Tuesday for an entire semester. The newspaper’s writing coach and editorial page editor talked to the students about writing well. A photographer showed them how to take better pictures, and an education reporter discussed how to cover education and more. Students got to shadow reporters, editors and photographers throughout the year, and the production staff from the newspaper joined students after school for a few sessions to work one-on-one on layout and production. The newspaper was so impressed with one student, a self-professed computer geek who had stumbled into journalism, the student was invited to spend two weeks as an intern in the paper’s graphics department during the 2001 Christmas holidays. “He came back and taught us so much,” said Jane Dodson, who has taught journalism and advised the newspaper at William Penn the past seven years. Dodson said she saw immediate improvement in the quality of the newspaper after students began working with the staff of the York Daily Record. “The kids were so awed that these people would come on their own time to help us,” Dodson said. “I think the greatest benefit was the role modeling, that people in the community are interested in helping us.” The school and newspaper have maintained a relationship, though the contact between the students and staff is not as frequent as in the first year, Dodson said. But students are free to use the newspaper’s library and speakers still occasionally visit. ■ ■ ■

In Dallas, journalism students at David W. Carter High School were fortunate to have an in-house mentor, Ira Hadnot, a senior reporter for The Dallas Morning News, 82

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in their classroom almost daily for a year. Hadnot, on loan from the newsroom to the school, helped to turn a newspaper that had been defunct for six years into an award-winning publication. In the process, she ignited dreams. A few of the students at this school, where the majority of students are from poor, minority families, knew nothing about journalism before Hadnot arrived but now want to make it a career. The unique partnership emerged when the school’s principal, Leslie Williams, called editors at The Morning News the summer before the 2001-2002 school year. Williams had hired an English and journalism teacher a few years earlier and wanted to know whether the newspaper could offer any help reviving the school newspaper. The teacher, Karen Evans, a graduate of the high school, had studied journalism in college but had no practical experience. The timing could not have been more perfect. The Morning News had recently heard about the ASNE grants and was considering forming a partnership with a high school to apply. Since Williams seemed to understand the importance of a school newspaper and was so enthusiastic about reviving the newspaper at his school, editors figured Carter would be the perfect partner. The editors turned to Hadnot, who has a long history of working with young people, to plan the partnership and apply for the grant. She met with Williams and Evans and visited the school to get an idea of what the program’s needs were. The first time she walked into the journalism classroom, she knew she had much work to do. There was only one computer, and it belonged to the math lab. With word that the $5,000 ASNE grant was forthcoming, Hadnot secured matching funds from The Morning News and the Communities Foundation of Texas. The Morning News also donated six used Macintosh computers. The school used the bulk of the $15,000 grant to transform the newsroom into 12 electronic workspaces that included iMacs, scanners and a fax/copier. The school, built in 1966 with few

Brandon Guidry, editor-in-chief of the newspaper at David W. Carter High School in Dallas, works on a computer provided by the school’s partnership with The Dallas Morning News. The newspaper also loaned a senior reporter to the school for a year.

COURTESY OF THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

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infrastructure changes since, was so old that the new newsroom had to be rewired to handle the technology and allow quick Internet access. The principal and Hadnot persuaded the school system’s administration to rewire the room before the school year began. Hadnot had planned for several of her peers to have a role as regular speakers and mentors at the school, but on Sept. 11, 2001, the beginning of the school year, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. Suddenly, all the newsroom staff who had been eager to help were assigned to cover the terrorists attacks. “It fell primarily to me and a couple of other people to make sure the paper got off to a good start,” Hadnot said. With the support of her editors, Hadnot found herself spending practically every day at the school, and when she wasn’t there, she was at The Morning News planning special events for the students or helping with the production and printing. The first semester, the school offered only one journalism course, and it was open only to seniors, none of whom had ever taken a journalism class. Hadnot taught the basics of writing and reporting and oversaw the production of the newspaper. At the same time, she arranged for the adviser to spend time at The Morning News and connect with scholastic journalism organizations, such as the Journalism Education Association. The students initially spent Saturdays at The Morning News, where they learned layout and production. A small suburban printer, owned by the paper, agreed to print 2,500 copies of the school’s monthly 12- to 16-page tabloid, The Wrangler , at cost, about $430 per issue. In October 2001, Carter’s students published their first newspaper in six years, and they have managed to publish monthly ever since. “It was hard,” Hadnot said. “It took a lot of time.” Hadnot also helped the principal revamp the journalism class schedule to support the future of the program. Instead of just one class open to seniors, the school began offering four journalism courses the next semester. The entry-level course, an introduction to journalism, is open to all students and feeds into successive courses, which end with newspaper production. The journalism teacher now has a full load of journalism courses, instead of also teaching English. In May 2002, several of the students won top awards in a citywide school newspaper competition. In the breaking news category, Carter students tied for first place with students from Highland Park, one of the area’s most affluent suburbs. That summer, The Morning News hired two Carter students as paid summer interns, one in Metro’s suburban news section and the other in computer graphics for News Art. “A couple days ago I was at the school,” Hadnot said in October 2002, a year after 84

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the students began republishing their newspaper. “To see those students sitting at the computers working on stories and not being computer handicapped and realizing how far we had come was really quite amazing.” Hadnot, now back at her newspaper job full-time, said her primary role at Carter these days is as a mentor to the students and adviser. She visits the school once a month to critique the newspaper, and she communicates with students about their stories via e-mail. She also helps to arrange occasional speakers. She hopes The Morning News will eventually pick up another school and find a way to institutionalize its high school program. She said she is confident editors will see the payoff when Carter students return someday to work for the paper. “There has to be continuing support with these programs,” Hadnot said. “That’s the thing that scares editors. But, as I told my editors, there’s no point in investing the time, money and energy and then not have a program in a year. It doesn’t take everybody. It takes just a few committed journalists.” WORKSHOPS AND CAMPS One of the oldest and most popular training grounds for many prospective journalists is the summer workshop. The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and universities have led the way in this area, offering some of the longest-running programs. But they often rely heavily on newspapers for speakers and mentors. Thirty-two percent of newspapers that responded to the 2002 ASNE survey, or 184 newspapers, indicated that their staff members speak at workshops sponsored by other groups. Indiana University’s popular High School Journalism Institute, for example, will celebrate its 57 th year in the summer of 2003. Over five days on the Bloomington, Ind., campus, the institute offers student journalists and advisers a series of noncredit workshops in television news, yearbook, newspapers and news magazines, business and advertising or photojournalism. The workshop, headed by one of the nation’s leading researchers in scholastic journalism, professor Jack Dvorak, costs $295 for tuition, dormitory housing and supplies over five days, plus a $30 or $60 meal ticket. Northwestern University’s National High School Institute drew 85 students interested in journalism for its summer 2002 session, held from June 30 to Aug. 2. For about a month each summer, students attend lectures by prominent journalists from Chicago and elsewhere and lab sessions, seminars and workshops, all designed to sharpen their writing, editing and layout skills, expose them to different kinds of writing and challenge their thinking on journalistic issues, such as ethics. The university provides some scholarships to help cover the costs of the 85

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$3,450 per student tuition, which also covers dormitory housing on the Evanston campus, health services and field trips. Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., is one of few universities that offer technology workshops. For $20 per person, student journalists and advisers can choose from nine single-day workshops on the various computer programs most often used in the production of school newspapers, such as Pagemaker, QuarkXPress, Photoshop and Illustrator. Most minority journalism associations also offer workshops designed to interest minority students in the field. For the past 40 years, the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund also has sponsored a series of summer workshops for minority students at universities throughout the country. In 2002, for example, the newspaper awarded grants ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, which picked up a portion of the costs for 29 such workshops. The grants are awarded annually to colleges, schools and nonprofit organizations, which often form partnerships with newspapers. Based on its model and four decades of experience, the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund offers a free 32-page booklet, “How To Run A Summer High School Journalism Workshop for Minority Students.” To obtain a free copy, send an e-mail to newsfund@wsj.dowjones.com. Yvonne Dennis, 32, assistant city editor at the Philadelphia Daily News, was a junior in high school in 1986 when she was chosen to spend two weeks at a journalism workshop sponsored by the Daily News, Temple University and the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund. Interested in journalism since her sixth-grade teacher made her co-editor of a class newspaper, Dennis was thrilled by the opportunity to spend two weeks learning about reporting and writing from professional journalists. “Because you had such intensive interaction with journalism professionals, you couldn’t help but be excited,” Dennis said. “It was very, very intensive. It wasn’t just reading out of a textbook. At the time I was in it, we spent 24 hours with reporters who prodded us.” Dennis stayed in touch with mentors from the program, who helped guide her through college and the early days of her career. She returned to the Daily News as a copy editor in January 1993 and became an assistant city editor at the paper in 1998. “To have the Daily News sponsor a program that would include constant follow-up and guidance was just priceless,” Dennis said. “I’m one of the lucky people who get to work at a newspaper in my hometown.” For the first 16 years, the workshop was a residential program and partnership between the Daily News and Temple University. Newspaper staff members taught classes during the day at Temple, and at least two of them stayed overnight with the students in the dorms. “Back then, we were all young,” recalled Earni Young, director of the program 86

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the past five years and a volunteer since the beginning. “Few of us were married or had children.” But in recent years, finding enough volunteers to stay in the dorms and teach the classes became more difficult, Young said. Young and others decided to restructure the workshop in 2001 to operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Daily News. The Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists signed on as the new partner. The workshop faced other challenges in 2002 when the public school system was taken over by the state. In the chaos that accompanied the takeover, workshop applications, mailed to every area public and private school early in the year, were never passed on to students. But with advertisements in the newspaper and word of mouth, the workshop attracted just enough good applicants. In June, a month before the workshop, the 10 participants were invited to the paper to brainstorm story ideas and come up with a name for the 16-page newspaper they would produce by the end of the two-week workshop. For the first two days of the workshop, Young drilled the students in the journalism basics and taught them to use the newspaper’s computer system. She also gave each of the students a microcassette recorder, which they got to keep, with a warning that it was to be used only as a back-up. By day three, the students were conducting interviews for their assigned stories. Most of the students wrote at least two news stories and a profile of a fellow student. They were paired with volunteer reporters who helped them set up interviews. Zach Marks, a 15-year-old sophomore, slumped in his chair and stared at his computer screen in the newspaper’s training center one afternoon as the July 2002 session neared the end. He had spent the morning reporting on a story about a new “Safe Streets” initiative by the Philadelphia police. “I got to go out with a reporter to interview people after a guy got shot,” Marks said, still clearly excited by the experience. “It felt like I was part of the action.” As the students worked on their stories, Young, the workshop coordinator, paused at their desks to read over their shoulders. She spared no feelings in her comments. “Earni doesn’t baby us, and that’s good,” said Taryn Stroh, 17. Most of the students who go through the workshop will not become journalists, Young said. But they will leave more informed about the business, she said. Young doesn’t formally track the program participants. In fact, she relies on them to stay in touch if they pursue journalism and want continued advice and guidance. The stars–and, with ease, Young can rattle off the names of those who are shining in the business—always have the initiative to reach out for help, she said. “Those are the success stories that make my heart feel good,” Young said. “That’s the reason I do this. We all come into this business to make a difference. But that sometimes gets lost in the search. This reinvigorates me.” 87

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often these days, you hear their voices on local radio or NPR or catch a glimpse of them in the reporterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spot on the evening news. They are teenagers, and through a growing number of broadcast training programs for youths, they are gaining access to the airwaves like never before. There are close to 100 training programs for teenagers at community-oriented radio stations alone, said Ginny Z. Berson, vice president of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB), a national organization of non-commercial, community stations. The programs are in the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cities, small towns, isolated rural areas and even an Indian reservation, she said. Some are independent programs that produce news stories, commentaries or programming for local and national radio stations. The success of Youth Radio, a 10-year-old M ORE A ND M ORE

Youth Radio students Kacey Ward (back) and Julian Fabian learn engineering on a mixing board. Ward adjusts the audio levels, while Fabian types labels onto digital audio tracks.

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4 TURNING STUDENTS ON TO TELEVISION AND RADIO: BROADCAST PARTNERSHIPS THAT WORK

independent training program in Berkeley, Calif., provided the model and sparked many of the newer programs. Others operate out of a local radio or television station. Some youth agencies and community centers, such as the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, D.C., have developed their own broadcast training programs. And a number of low-power FM stations have been awarded to high schools, such as a high school in Ouray, Colo., Berson said. “There are projects everywhere,” Berson said. “Ninety percent of the kids come in wanting to be deejays. But more and more, the programs are trying to teach the kids news. Maybe a quarter of them are doing news.” In 1999, after experiencing an increase in the number of youths attending its annual conference, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters joined the leaders of Youth Radio to sponsor a “Gathering of Youth in Public Radio” in San Francisco. The first meeting drew about 40 students and 15 adult project leaders for a day of workshops. Attendance more than doubled the next year when the federation secured grants to help the young broadcasters attend what, by then, was the National Youth in Radio Training Project, held in New Orleans. The 2001 conference in San Francisco, the largest yet, drew 150 youths from more than 30 different programs. But despite the growing number of community radio training programs for youths, most of the programs do not offer instruction in basic journalism. The high school initiative by the Radio and Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) and the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF), seek to change that. The program’s overall goal is to enhance broadcast journalism at the scholastic level and prepare students for the field. To prepare for the initiative, the foundation commissioned a study to determine the status of television, radio and online journalism in the nation’s schools. The results showed that while a growing number of schools have television and radio stations and online newspapers, few have ever formed partnerships with broadcast media outlets. Of the 2,089 high schools throughout the nation that responded to the 2001-2002 survey, 31.5 percent reported having a television outlet, 6.6 percent have radio, and 12.6 percent have some type of online journalism. Seventeen percent of the schools that said they don’t offer television, radio or online journalism indicated that they plan to offer such a program in the future. A similar survey in 1998 found that just 22 percent of the responding schools had either television or radio. The schools that reported no electronic media said the main barriers have been cost, lack of appropriate training materials and lack of equipment. Carolyn Terry, manager of the high school project for the RTNDF, said it is difficult for a television or radio station to start a training program in a high school 92

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that doesn’t have the basic equipment for radio and Electronic Journalism television production. in High Schools “No matter how small a newspaper is, with a computer and little other equipment, it can go in ■ Percent of high schools and help start a school newspaper,” Terry said. that offer the following types “There’s no parallel for broadcast.” of broadcast journalism Union rules that prevent the operation of a staprograms: tion’s equipment by non-union personnel also can Television – 31.5% complicate the prospects of setting up training Radio – 6.6% programs for students at the stations, she said. Online – 12.6% “I think there are many professionals who want ■ Percent of schools that have to do this but can’t figure out how to plug in,” partnered with a local television Terry said. or radio station: 12.7% The RTNDF survey, conducted by Jack Dvorak SOURCE: RADIO AND TELEVISION NEWS DIRECTORS FOUNDATION 2001-2002 SURof Indiana University, provided some insight to VEY OF 2,089 HIGH SCHOOLS how the broadcasting professionals might help. Of the schools that have a television or radio station, just 12.7 percent said they had ever formed partnerships with a local station. Teachers and administrators at those schools said they would welcome some kind of involvement from a local station. They said guest speakers from local stations would be the most effective method of teaching their students about the First Amendment. Stations could also donate equipment, provide internship and mentoring opportunities and offer tours to students, the educators said. That is just the kind of collaboration the RTNDF hopes to spur with its grants. Berson, vice president of the community radio broadcasters group, said there are plenty of opportunities for partnerships between news broadcasters and independent or community-based radio training programs for youths. “I actually think there’s tremendous potential for stations to partner with some of these projects to help the kids develop their news skills,” Berson said. The following pages offer a close-up of five broadcast news organizations that have found ways around barriers to reach the next generation of broadcasting professionals. The first three profiles feature successful training programs that are connected to either a radio or television station. The fourth profile of Detroit Public Television’s planned venture to share a state-of-the art production center with a Detroit public school is an extraordinary model. The final profile of Youth Radio gives an inside look at how an independent program works. ■ ■ ■

NEWSTUDIES (PHILADELPHIA, PA.) For the past 35 years in Philadelphia, KYW News Radio has operated one of the 93

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nation’s oldest broadcast training programs for high school students. Called Newstudies , it draws about 250 seniors to the station for six consecutive Saturdays beginning in mid-February. From 9 a.m. to noon each week, the students participate in seminars with radio and television reporters, anchors, editors and producers, who lecture and answer questions about the business. The students tour the newsrooms, studios and editing facilities at the downtown building shared by KYW News Radio and KYW-3, its CBSaffiliated television counterpart. A local celebrity is invited one week to participate in a mock news conference. For the last two Saturdays, volunteers from the station help each of the students write and record a 40-second story that focuses on the student’s school or community. The pieces are aired over three nights on KYW. “It’s great to help you make up your mind whether you want to get into this business,” said Vince Hill, business and finance editor at the station and a former Newstudiesparticipant. “You get a little taste of it all. It’s not for some people. But for me, it was a definite go.” Hill, 45, was a senior at Central High School in Philadelphia when he was chosen to participate in Newstudies . He was more interested in television at the time, but he soon changed his mind. “I liked what I saw,” Hill said of the program. “I liked what I heard. I was really into it.” Hill must have made an impression on station managers, too, because he was offered a job as a desk assistant as he entered his freshman year at Temple University. While in college, Hill worked in various capacities at KYW and two other stations. Upon graduation, he was hired by KYW as an anchor at just 22 years old, the youngest anchor at the station. At least three other Newstudiesalumni work for KYW: Program Director Steve Butler, reporter Tony Hanson and commentator Michael A. Smerconish, a local attorney. “I think there’s definitely an advantage to perpetuating the species,” Butler said. “I think that’s what we mostly get out of it.” Maria Corsaro, the former marketing coordinator who planned the program, said working with the students rejuvenates many of the volunteers. “Reaching out and having the students come here makes us feel good,” she said. Corsaro sent a packet of information to every high school in the Philadelphia area each year and asked each school to send two students who have shown an interest in broadcast journalism to the program. During the six weeks, the students work closely with station employees, who operate the equipment. A studio technician records each of the students’ final stories. In April, the station hosts a graduation at an upscale hotel for participants who 94

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complete the program and their guests. Ten outstanding students receive a $100 savings bond, and one receives the $2,000 Richard Monetti Scholarship, named for a former participant who was killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The program costs $15,000 to $18,000 to operate, including about $11,000 in airtime swaps for goods and services. Private sponsors contribute the rest. Butler, the program director and former participant, said he hopes to expand Newstudie.sThe program received a grant from the RTNDF to create a similar initiative for journalism teachers and advisers. “There’s a rhythm to this place, and Newstudiesis just part of what we do,” Butler said. “Because the program has been going on so long, it would be weird not to do it.” ■ ■ ■

RADIO ROOKIES (NEW YORK) The teenager plugged her ears with her fingers as she sat on stage and waited for her radio documentary to begin. More than a year had passed since her piece first aired in May 2001 on WNYC, New York City’s popular public radio station. But Janesse Nieves, 17, still found it hard to listen to her own voice on tape, telling the painful story of growing up with a father addicted to heroin. The audience at the Museum of Radio and Television in New York that evening had come to hear from Nieves and four of her counterparts, who are part of Radio Rookie,sthe city’s newest media stars. They are teenagers from some of the toughest neighborhoods in New York who through a training program supported by the station learn how to do radio documentaries by producing pieces about their own lives.

Heidi Choe, a student from the Radio Rookies broadcast training workshop, interviews Ginna Marston of the Partnership for a Drug Free America in New York City.

4 TURNING STUDENTS ON TO TELEVISION AND RADIO: BROADCAST PARTNERSHIPS THAT WORK

The audience grew silent as Nieves’ voice rose through the museum’s sound system. “My father’s block is full of memories,” she begins in her heavy Latino accent, the light giggles of children from the neighborhood in the background. “When I went over there to find him, it was hot. The fire hydrant was open, and kids were just splashing and playing. I just told myself, okay, let’s keep it moving. It’s time to go up the stairs so we can do this.” She knocks on the door. “Pa?” She pipes back in: “I stood there for about half an hour, and he never showed…” The story moves to an interview with her mother. A skillet sizzles on the stove in the background as mother and daughter talk about what “Popi” was like before drugs. Nieves begins again: “I can’t remember when exactly it all started. What I do remember is the park we used to play in. There was this gate that was always locked. We had to climb over to get in. I always had this scare because I hated climbing that gate. I would get laughed at because I was too heavy to pull my own weight. But my daddy would come and give me a push, and I would always make it. I loved him for that. I loved being daddy’s little girl. Maybe that’s why my mother didn’t tell me about my daddy’s drug problem.” Her mother: “I felt you were never going to believe me because your daddy had you brainwashed.” Nieves: “I remember my father asked me to pee in a bottle one day. At the time, I didn’t know why. I didn’t want to question him neither. But I later found out it was because he was on drugs, and he needed clean pee to prove he was drug free.” Nieves’ fresh, young voice and those of her co-horts at Radio Rookieshave captivated WNYC listeners and won tremendous praise for the station. Most of the Rookies are high school students who had never even thought of pursuing a journalism career, but their work is winning national recognition. In 2002, Radio Rookies captured the prized Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Radio. “The series has an element of rawness, the feeling that these are real stories told by real people,” the judges said. The stories are as diverse as the teenagers themselves—a Bushwick teenager revealing the ease of buying a gun in his community with interviews of a 19-yearold gun dealer and 16-year-old who owns a gun; a Mexican immigrant living in Brooklyn detailing her struggle to learn English after no one in her family could communicate with a 9-1-1 operator; a Colombian immigrant exposing the segregation within the diverse Spanish-speaking immigrant community in Queens; a Staten Island teenager discussing the tension in her circle of friends, who reacted differ96

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Eliott Rodriguez, 46, anchor of the 5 p.m, 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news, WFOR, the CBS-affiliate in Miami went to LaSalle High School in Miami, and I was always interested in art. In my senior year of high school, I got the job of cartoonist for my high school paper, The Royal Courier . One time I drew an editorial cartoon critical of the principal because he decided to shut down a dance he felt was overcrowded. I loved drawing cartoons. I found it a way to use my art and use it in a way that was constructive. In my senior year, I got a scholarship to Miami-Dade Community College. I was paid a minimal salary for drawing a cartoon strip and editorial cartoons for the student newspaper, The Catalyst. Part of the deal was I had to take a journalism class.

One day my journalism professor told me, “You are such a talented writer. Why are you wasting your time drawing cartoons?” I don’t know if I was all that talented a writer, but little by little I gravitated more toward writing and reporting. I eventually graduated from the University of Miami and immediately went to work at The Miami News, which was an afternoon paper. I worked there three years until one day I got a job offer as a reporter at the local CBS television station. I had never even been in a TV station, and I thought it was a joke. I didn’t think it would last long, but I learned to like television and found my niche. That was 23 years ago. But had it not been for my

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experience at my high school paper, none of it would have happened. The high school newspaper gives you firsthand experience at journalism and what reporting is really like. And now, it’s not just newspapers. High schools have closed circuit television stations and all kinds of high-tech equipment. If high schools can get professional mentoring, that experience cannot be replaced.

ently to the destruction of the World Trade Center by terrorists. Nieves’ documentary concludes when she confronts her father about his drug use during a second visit to his apartment. The stories are even more powerful than reporter Marianne McCune imagined when she came up with the idea in 1999 to teach teenagers about radio and photography. McCune, then a freelancer for WNYC, persuaded Columbia University officials to allow her to use the journalism school’s radio lab while it was empty during the summer to start a radio workshop. She acquired a $16,000 grant from the 97

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Marianne McCune, founder of the Radio Rookies broadcast training workshop in New York, works with student Linda Lee in the recording studio. Open Society Institute to teach the photography segment of the workshop at the Photographic Center of Harlem. With a few hundred dollars from WNYC for the radio segment, McCune COPYRIGHT 2003 AMANI WILLETT and NPR producer Joe Richman of Radio Diaries recruited eight students from Harlem and taught them how to express themselves through radio and photography. The students produced five radio documentaries that so impressed WNYC’s vice president of programming that he agreed to air them one a day on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” which draws more than a million weekly listeners. “I’ve always loved teens, and I think they have a lot more to say than gets out there,” McCune said. The program skyrocketed. McCune got a bigger grant to do more workshops and brought on Czerina Patel, a freelancer at WNYC who had just finished a master’s at Columbia University, as a part-time associate producer. The women came up with the name Radio Rookies and used grant money to buy computer equipment – iMACs, a G3 PowerBook and Pro Tools digital editing software. They also purchased enough Marantz cassette recorders to give each of the students one to use during the workshop. Each workshop is held in a different New York borough in collaboration with a community-based organization, which serves the area’s teenagers and can provide the space. In addition to the first Harlem workshop, others have been held at Make The Road By Walking Inc., a community center in Bushwick, Brooklyn; The Point Community Development Center in Hunts Point in the Bronx, the YWCA in Flushing, Queens; the Seaman’s Society for Children and Families in St. George, Staten Island; and the Grand Street Settlement, a community center on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. At least two workstations are set up at the center for the duration of the program. “Sometimes, we have an idea of a place, and we approach them,” says Patel, who 98

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took over running the program when McCune recently resumed reporting fulltime. “We have to consider: Is there space? Are they flexible? Can they give us the time we need? Is there a need for the program?” The community centers help recruit participants, and students also can sign up on the program’s Web site. “If we’re not getting a lot of applications back, I go to the center and talk to kids,” Patel said. “I hand out fliers on the streets. I visit schools. They just have to want to be there. They don’t have to have an interest in journalism. If the kids are not afraid to take the chance, neither are we.” Nieves, the student who reported on her father’s heroin addiction, was just tagging along with a friend to a meeting about the program in Hunts Point in January 2001 when she heard about the program. She liked the prospect of being on the radio and decided to participate. “It made me more open-minded,” Nieves said. “I think about my future more, what I want to do. I learned a lot, not just one specific thing.” Jacqueline Monterosso, 17, was initially more interested in print journalism but decided to give radio a try when the program came to Staten Island in 2001. “I do like hearing my voice on the radio,” she said, sitting in a conference room at the station’s Manhattan office. “It’s cool. But you come in with no experience in journalism and you leave with absolutely a better understanding of radio as an information medium. How many 17-year-olds are on the radio or sitting in the municipal building in Manhattan?” After at least six students are signed up for a workshop, Patel and a volunteer intern meet with them twice a week after school for eight to 12 weeks to teach them the basics of journalism and broadcasting—what makes a good story, how to transfer taped interviews into the computer, where to hold the microphone to avoid the popping sounds, the importance of capturing the background sounds that give a piece its authenticity. Volunteer mentors from WNYC and other broadcasting outlets in the city are paired, one-on-one, with the students to help them figure out what’s interesting enough in their lives to develop into a story and to set up the necessary expert interviews. The students don’t just talk into the microphone and call it a story. They interview family, friends and strangers alike and sometimes find themselves in the offices of principals, assistant district attorneys or university experts for the interviews that provide context for their stories. “People recognize these are not cutesy because the reporters are young, but this is about what the media could be and should be,” Patel said. “These are high-quality stories based on their own merit.” Mentors sometimes tag along in the background for some of the interviews, but 99

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the students do their own recording and the initial editing. Engineers at the station do the final mixing for the stories, which run on WNYC and are sometimes picked up by national NPR programs. “The thing about Radio Rookies is everybody wins,” Patel said. “Everybody gets the benefit of the relationship. I think the best chance that radio programs have is when they have the support of the station and the ability to air. The relationship between the program and station is so important. Radio Rookies is so much a part of what WNYC stands for, what it’s about. We’re going to grow because WNYC’s behind it.” ■ ■ ■

HTV MAGAZINE (SPRINGFIELD, MO.) Teacher Dave Davis was on a six-week sabbatical, recuperating at home from a knee injury, when he came up with the idea to create a broadcast journalism class at Hillcrest High School in Springfield, Mo. He called the principal, who liked the idea and agreed to add the class the next semester if enough students were interested. Within a month of Davis returning to work in January 1989, 65 students had enrolled. In March of that year, he began teaching the class. The teacher had majored in journalism education in college, but his background was in print. For years, he had hoped to get one of few jobs in the school system teaching print journalism and advising a school newspaper, but none of the positions ever opened. With the new class, he was confident he could teach his students the basics of journalism, but the technology of broadcasting was an entirely different matter. “ I learned right alongside my students,” Davis said. In 13 years, Davis has built an award-winning broadcast journalism program that produces a weekly television news show, HTV Magazine, on the local cable access station and bi-monthly segments that air on KYTV, the top-rated NBC-affiliate in Springfield. Hillcrest High School senior Megan Young shoots an interview for a segment of her Missouri school’s monthly cable news show, HTV Magazine. COURTESY OD DAVE DAVIS

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Davis began the broadcast journalism class with not nearly enough equipment: a camera, a VCR and a television. In class one day he asked if any of his students or their parents owned a camcorder. A few hands went up. He also asked if any of them, by chance, knew someone with editing equipment. A boy whose father was a wedding photographer agreed to ask his dad whether the class could use his deck editing system. The father agreed, and the students and teacher would pile into cars and drive to the family’s home in the evenings after school and on weekends to edit their stories. That’s how the students produced their first eight shows, which began airing on cable Oct. 12, 1989. The class held car washes and bake sales, which raised enough money for them to buy the editing system they had been using. Davis reached out for professional help wherever he could find it. He invited a high school friend who worked at a local television station to his class to critique the cable show and teach some of the broadcasting dos and don’ts. Each year, Davis and his students got better. In 1995, Davis called Marci Burdick, then news director at KYTV, to discuss a possible collaboration. Burdick said she met with Davis at the school and listened as he described his program and showed the students’ work. “The work spoke for itself,” Burdick said. “At the same time, we were adding a 5 p.m. news broadcast and were discussing content. The planets really just aligned the right way.” Burdick agreed to air a segment from the students’ cable show on KYTV’s 5 p.m. broadcast once a week and to assign a producer from the station to work closely with the students. “Television stations and newspapers have been bemoaning for years declining viewership and readership,” Burdick said. “It seemed a wonderful opportunity for us to have more visibility among young people as a station but to provide some real issue-oriented coverage for young people by young people.” The broadcast journalism program at Hillcrest is divided into four classes, which draw a total of about 95 students a year. The advanced production class produces an in-house news broadcast for the school, and the advanced news class produces the cable show. Over the past five years, the students have won four Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for an array of hard-hitting news stories. They have covered such mature topics as homosexuality, race relations, alcoholism among teenagers and poverty in the Ozarks. An undercover investigative project by the students on underage alcohol purchases caused quite a buzz in the community. “Our viewers get to see something they wouldn’t ordinarily see,” said Tiffany Bommarito, a KYTV producer who has been the liaison between the high school and the station for the past five years. “We can’t get the stories from teens that teens can 101

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get from teens.” Bommarito visits the class occasionally to brainstorm story ideas. Otherwise, she stays in touch with the students via e-mail. She previews the stories before they air on KYTV and helps to edit them from their long magazine form to meet the shorter evening news format. With a grant from the RTNDF, Bommarito and Davis recently split the advanced news class into two teams, one to continue producing the cable show and a new team of 10 students who produce original stories for KYTV. To give the students more time to develop their pieces, the segments from Hillcrest High now air on KYTV once every two weeks, instead of weekly. “It’s just growing and growing, and it’s a really cool thing,” said Bommarito, who has helped some former Hillcrest High School broadcasting students get internships at the station during college. The broadcast program gets only $600 a year from the school system for its budget, not even enough to cover the amount spent on videotapes, Davis said. But the students are able to use their newly-acquired skills to raise money to cover expenses and equipment upgrades. They film weddings, community and school events for a fee. Davis said his program has thrived with the strong support of two principals. The principal who implemented the first broadcasting class never asked to review the cable shows before they aired or interfered in any way in the first seven years of the program. “I think he saw this was going to put our school on the map in a whole new way,” Davis said. The current principal, Julie Leeth, Ph.D, who became the school’s leader in 1996, won the Freedom Forum’s 2002 Courage In Journalism Award for her support of the student journalists. Davis said he nominated her for the award because she has stood up for the students at times when it would have been easier to give in to the pressure. For example, Leeth spoke out in favor of the students’ right to express themselves after a 1997 story about gay teens prompted a letter writing campaign from members of the community, organized by a local minister. In 2002, she wrote a letter defending her students to school system administrators, who were offended by a student’s remark about the school board in a commentary that aired on the cable show. “The easy thing would have been for her to say, ‘I have to do what they say because they’re my bosses,’ ” Davis said. “But she is incredible. She’s totally supportive of student press rights. She really gets it.” The Freedom Forum award came with a $5,000 prize that Leeth could have kept for her personal use. Instead, she donated the money to the broadcast program. Davis has ordered three brand-new iMacs. 102

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Mike Woolfolk, 38, anchor and managing editor, WACH-TV, the Fox affiliate in Columbia, S.C. he very first thing I did on television was commentary. I was a sophomore in high school at the time. One of my former middle school teachers had told me about a program called Teen Profile at WGPR-TV in Detroit. It was an opportunity for high school students who were interested in television to be involved in a weekly production. It was mostly instudio interviews with newsmakers in the city. We also dealt with teen issues and did commentary. As part of the application process, we had to write a commentary. I wrote a piece

about the Detroit Pistons, and everybody loved it. On my third visit to the station, they were putting me on television to read my commentary. I stayed with the program until I graduated from high school. In college, I majored in broadcasting and created a program on the cable access station that the entire department could use. I was still in college when I got my first professional job in the business at the same station. Had I not been involved in Teen Profile, I would not have had that level of understanding of what goes into producing a news program. It got me

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focused on what I wanted to do as a career. That kind of experience is invaluable. The more of these types of opportunities we can create for young people, the better.

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DETROIT PUBLIC TELEVISION (DETROIT, MI) With the arrival of the new millennium, executives at Detroit Public Television began searching for a new site to build an all-digital facility. Instead of going solo, they decided to seek a partner. They found an unlikely one close to home: the Detroit public schools. After two years of negotiations and a task force study, the two parties signed an agreement to share a high-tech, multimillion-dollar broadcast production center that will be built inside a new performing, fine arts and communication magnet high school scheduled to open in 2005. “I don’t believe there’s anywhere else in the country that has this level of partnership between a television station and a high school,” said Steven R. Antoniotti, 103

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the station’s general manager. “I’m not talking about industrial or educational level equipment. The high school students will have access to state of the art equipment.” Station officials had initially envisioned a campus with three buildings—a communications magnet school on one end, the offices of Detroit Public Television on the other and a production center, owned by both parties, in the middle. But over time, school officials merged the station’s proposal with plans to build a performing and fine arts school on land owned by the Detroit Orchestra, next to its Orchestra Hall. The deal is now a three-way partnership that includes the school system, the public television station and the orchestra. The new school is expected to house about 600 students, evenly split among the performing and fine arts and communications. Over four years, the communications students will learn media history, journalism and the technical side of broadcasting. “As seniors, students will be behind the cameras working them,” said Bob Scott, vice president of education and programming for Detroit Public Television. “The professionals will act as mentors. Camera people, studio control people, floor managers, set designers and on-camera talent are going to be available to students.” Architectural plans call for a six-story school building that includes an 800-seat theater with a stage, orchestra pit and a production center that includes a main studio large enough to shoot a car commercial, a smaller studio, production booth and radio station. The production center alone is expected to cost $15 million to $20 million. Because the production center is to be built inside the high school, the school system will own it. But a management agreement signed by school and station officials will allow the public television station to manage and operate the center as an outside contractor. The station will have the right to use the facility, as long as its programming does not interfere with school functions, and the station will have to pay a fee for the center’s use. As part of the station’s digital conversion, it will be able to broadcast on four channels at a time. The agreement with the school system calls for the station to turn over one of those channels to the schools for 12 hours a day. “The benefit to them is they get a broadcast channel free,” Antoniotti said. “They get to broadcast everywhere our signal goes, and our signal reaches all of southeast Michigan, at no charge. Viewers don’t need cable. The school system can air concerts, their own productions, teacher training. It is their spectrum.” Public television officials also agreed to relocate its offices near the school and to purchase a high-tech mobile production truck that it will share with the school system. The truck could be used, for example, to broadcast sports events held away from the school. “My vision of this is the fine and performing arts students can appear on a televi104

COURTESY OF YOUTH RADIO

Julia Linton, a student in the Youth Radio training program in Berkeley Calif., reads the news, while Gerald “Whiz” Ward, a former student who is now the program’s broadcast training director, selects a song for a live show produced by the students. sion program created and produced by communication arts students on their own channel,” said Antoniotti, the station’s general manager. The project has had some school system critics, who say the deal unfairly burdens the system and that the amount of money involved is too much to spend on one school in a system that is so needy. But station and school officials have defended the project as an unprecedented collaboration to provide unlimited opportunities to students. “If you buy that mission and goal, from my standpoint, this high school will be one of the gems of the Detroit public school system,” Antoniotti said. ■ ■ ■

YOUTH RADIO (BERKELEY, CALIF.) There were few other programs like it in 1992, when radio reporter Ellin O’Leary got a grant to recruit a group of high school students and start Youth Radio , an after-school workshop to teach the students reporting and broadcasting skills. The program began as a vehicle for the many untold stories behind the violent youth gang wars that left so many young people in the Bay Area dead or in jail, O’Leary said. Her goal then was the same as it is today: to find kids from different neighborhoods, teach them to use radio to tell the stories that are important to them, and provide for them an array of broadcasting skills that could enhance their futures. 105

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Jacinda Abcarian was an 18-year-old Berkeley High School senior, working at a fast-food restaurant with no plans for college in 1993, when a man carrying a huge boom box visited her class and asked if anybody was interested in becoming a deejay. He talked about a new program called Youth Radio , played some tapes of the previous year’s students and invited the students to apply for the program. “I thought everybody was going to talk to him after class because it seemed so exciting,” Abcarian said. “But just one other person and me went up to talk to him. I just wanted to be a deejay. That’s all I wanted to do.” As it turned out, the deejay part of the program was the hook of a more wideranging curriculum that also taught students radio production, writing and reporting. The program has expanded in recent years to also offer students instruction in Web design and operation. When Abcarian completed the 11 weeks of training, she had acquired far more skills than she ever anticipated. Though she didn’t have a college degree, Abcarian was able to work as a freelancer for a public radio station in Atlanta, when she relocated after graduation. She later even landed an internship at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. Abcarian, now 28, eventually returned to Berkeley and landed a job at Youth Radio in 1998. Today, she serves as associate director. “It opened so many doors and opportunities,” Abcarian said. “My story is the story of a lot of kids in the program.” Operated on a $1 million annual budget contributed mostly by California-based foundations, Youth Radiois an independent program with 17 full-time staff members and its own training center. The center includes two fully-equipped production studios, portable deejay setups and five digital editing stations with the latest in editing software. While in training, the students prerecord news stories, features, com mentaries and radio shows at the center. Students get live on-air experience at area radio stations that partner with the program. The stations also air the students’ prerecorded material. For example, Youth Radiostudents are in charge of two hours of programming— the music, news, and public service announcements—on KPFB-FM in Berkeley twice a week. On Thursdays from 4 to 6 p.m., the advanced students produce a show called “Youth Radio All-Stars.” On Fridays from 7 to 9 p.m., the beginners air their show, “Youth In Control.” The students do a monthly talk show on youth issues, called “The Perspective,” for an adult audience on KQED-FM in San Francisco. Their one-minute commentaries run on KQED and KCBS-AM, an all-news station also based in San Francisco. National radio programs, such as NPR’s “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered” and “Marketplace,” regularly pick up the students’ work. 106

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Monolito Twyman, a student at Skyline High School in Oakland, produced this commentary as part of the program: In recent violence in Oakland, a Youth Radio student, Kenny Rankin, was killed. Kenn was part of our outreach program at Camp Sweeney. As recently as August, he was at ou studios in Berkeley, listening to music with other kids, and hosting our Thursday - after noon show on KPFB. Now, he’s gone. I am disgusted with the violent way that my town communicates. The Oakland - homi cide count is already up to 85 deaths this year. There are way too many killings going on I remember firsthand the fear that comes to mind when you hear about or witness the th death of a family member. When I was in 7grade, I heard that my uncle was shot in the leg by the school I was attending at the time. I thought he would end up like my mo She was gunned down in a drive by shooting when I was only 18 months old. You have n idea the pain I felt growing up without my mother around. I lost my mother .forever There are better ways of handling situations than violence… About 50 students—a racially diverse group recruited from schools and community centers mostly in low-income areas—are enrolled in each of four 11-week training sessions at the Berkeley center. Many of the staff members are former students. Just one week after they begin training, the students go on the air. “The atmosphere here is very much not like school,” said Gerald “Whiz” Ward II, 23, broadcast training director and a former student. “The staff is very friendly. We let the students know they have the freedom to speak their minds here, and they have a say in what’s going to happen to them.” The program also offers a shorter advanced training program and a program for students who are college bound. All students are required at least to consult with the coordinator of the college program to get them thinking about advancing their education. Workshops are held at the center between training cycles, and an outreach coordinator takes the program to a juvenile detention center and schools in isolated neighborhoods too far away for students to travel to the Berkeley site. The program has won more than a dozen awards, including the Radio and Television News Directors Association’s top Edward R. Murrow Award in June 2001 for a five-part series, “Making the Grade,” which examined issues affecting African American students in the classroom. In 2002, the program won the George Foster Peabody Award for its work with youths. “I think there’s just nothing like it,” Abcarian, the associate director and former student, said of the program. “There are so few outlets for expression for young people. You come to Youth Radio , and your opinion counts. The program really gets young people thinking about critical issues. It gives them experience, critical thinking skills and a place to be after school when so much of the violence occurs. Just giving them a safe place to be is good.” 107

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hi gh schoo l j o u rnalism teachers and advisers manage to juggle many different roles every day. They are at once First Amendment advocates, writing coaches, deadline marshals, career counselors and budget miracle workers. They are the captains of scholastic journalism programs and the ones who most influence the quality. But the reality in most schools is that the job often falls to a teacher with no background or formal training in journalism, and the program is left to rise, fall or drift, dependent on the teacher to find outside help. “They’re the linchpins, said Stephen D. Reese, professor and former chairman of the department of journalism at the University of Texas in Austin. “Unlike English or other subjects, the journalism teacher is the only one on campus teaching the subject. If they’re not able and capable, it’s not going to happen.” AT THEIR BEST,

A teacher takes notes during a workshop sponsored by The Washington Post’s Young Journalists Development Program.

PHOTO BY REBECCA D’ANGELO

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5 TEACHING THE TEACHERS: PRINT AND BROADCAST TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

Many states don’t require certification for journalism teachers, so what happens in the classroom varies widely from school to school. As a result, students in high schools throughout the country sit through journalism classes for an entire semester and learn little about the important role of the press and the First Amendment in a democracy. “I think you’ll find in most instances the schools that have the best programs have the best-trained teachers,” said Homer L. Hall, president of the Journalism Education Association and a retired journalism adviser. The Journalism Education Association, a scholastic journalism organization for teachers and advisers, for years has offered a summer institute that provides handson training for journalism teachers. The organization also initiated its own voluntary journalism certification program for teachers. While the program is not the equivalent of a state certification, the program recognizes teachers who have gained knowledge and experience from college credits, experience, self-study or from participation in convention sessions or noncredit workshops. Teacher Wattie S. Harmon, attends the ASNE High School Journalism Institute at the Universit y of Maryland.

COURTESY OF ASNE

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5 TEACHING THE TEACHERS: PRINT AND BROADCAST TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

“It does show that the teacher has a knowledge of the subject area and has tried to stay abreast of what’s going on in the field,” Hall said. In recent years professional journalism associations have stepped forward to help struggling high school teachers and journalism advisers. The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) have made teacher training a major component of their wide-ranging high school initiatives. In 2001, ASNE introduced its summer High School Journalism Institute, which provides two weeks of training on college campuses throughout the country for journalism teachers and advisers. Each year, nearly 200 teachers are selected and assigned to attend the institute at a participating university closest to their homes. ASNE spends about $1 million in grant money annually to cover the teachers’ expenses, including transportation, lodging, meals and tuition and provides the participants with materials for their libraries: an AP Stylebook, a primer on scholastic press law, press ethics guides, a news writing text and a design handbook. To ensure that the teachers have support throughout the school year, the association also pays the fees for them to join the Journalism Education Association, the state or region al scholastic press group in the teacher’s state and the Student Press Law Center. About 300 teachers applied to attend the 2002 summer institute. Of those applicants, 175 teachers from 38 states and the District of Columbia were assigned to one of five accredited journalism schools: Ball State in Muncie, Ind.; Kent State in Kent, Ohio; the University of Maryland in College Park (sponsored jointly with Hampton University in Hampton, Va.); the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fla.; and the University of Texas at Austin. That brought the total number of teachers trained at the institute since 2001 to 375. ASNE anticipates selecting another 200 teachers in 2003. With university professors and professional journalists as teachers, the institute focuses on a wide range of skills, including newspaper writing, editing, photojournalism and opinion writing. More than 70 newspaper professionals from across the country taught at the 2001 and 2002 institutes. The high school teachers also are engaged in discussions about the role and future of daily newspapers, the business side of newspapering, journalism credibility, handling ethical dilemmas, First Amendment matters, privacy concerns and the state of scholastic press freedoms. “It was wonderful,” said Brenda Davis, a journalism teacher and newspaper adviser at Cleburne High School in Cleburne, Tex., who attended the 2002 institute at the University of Texas. “I went in there as a first-year teacher, knowing a little bit about how to write. But I knew nothing about how to run a newspaper. I came out of the institute with a lot more confidence.” Davis, 52, who earned a degree in journalism after raising her children, worked 113

5 TEACHING THE TEACHERS: PRINT AND BROADCAST TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

for a newspaper nearly two years before deciding she really wanted to teach. When she arrived at the school, the students were putting out a newspaper once or twice a year. She improved the publishing schedule to once every six weeks. But when she returned from the institute, she was able to guide her 13-member staff to an even more rigorous newspaper production schedule, once every three weeks. For the first time, two of her students won an award at a regional journalism competition. Davis, who had worked briefly as a feature writer, said the institute gave her a well-rounded journalism experience. She said she particularly enjoyed hearing from the guest speakers, Mark Goodman of the Student Press Law Center, who updated the teachers on case law affecting high schools, and officials from scholastic press associations, who discussed what the judges look for during student competitions. For Davis, the camaraderie with other teachers attending the institute was just as important as the instruction. She keeps in touch with some of them regularly through e-mails. “If you’re a journalism teacher usually you’re the only one, and the English department doesn’t have a clue how to help you,” she said. An informal survey of the teachers by the Journalism Department at the University of Texas during the institute found that about half of them work under a principal who requires that an administrator review the school newspaper before publication. “Sometimes, the principals don’t understand the role of the newspaper,” said a teacher from a Houston high school. “They think the newspaper is a public relations tool.” The teachers said a lack of money and resources also makes it difficult to do their jobs. For example, many do not have a structure for selling ads. Terrance Amsler, the journalism teacher at Tennyson High School in San Francisco, said he has a supportive principal but that his newspaper budget is a joke: $72 a year, hardly enough to cover the cost of an ink cartridge for the printer. He and the students write grant proposals and sell candy to raise money. “I can get grants right now,” he said. “But what’s going to happen when I’ve gone through the four or five organizations that fund new newspapers? Who’s going to fund us? What I’m afraid of is we’ll have to die. Then, I’ll be able to write grants as a new newspaper. I don’t think the role of student journalists should be spending an exorbitant amount of time selling Snickers bars.” For the broadcast teachers and advisers in the nation’s high schools, the experience can be even more isolating. But the RTNDF has developed two programs to provide the teachers access to professional training. The foundation has begun offering training sessions for high school teachers during regional conferences sponsored by professional organizations. 114

S T O R Y

Karla Garrett Harshaw, 47, editor, the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun and senior editor, Cox Community newspapers started writing because I just liked writing stories. I became interested in journalism during a middle school career day when I was trying to figure out how I could make money doing what I loved doing. Initially, I thought about becoming a writer for an advertising agency, but I saw in the pamphlet that some of the ad writers had been journalists. My language arts teacher was editor of a small black paper. I persuaded her to let me write a teen column. When I was a sophomore in high school, the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News and the Journal Herald were calling area schools looking for minority students who were interested in newspapers. They were going to bring us in and expose us to the business. When they called my school, the counselor said, “Oh, we have Lois Lane here.” I was excited to get that. I learned that the bulk of the time was to be spent in the reference library and the last week in the newsroom. But

while working in the library, I got to know everybody in the newsroom. I’d just go out and talk to them. When people would come down to the library, I talked to them about what I was already doing. Eventually, I went and talked to some assignment editors. They agreed to let me write some pieces. At the end of the summer, I told them I didn’t think I should stop, and they agreed to that, too. So, I covered township trustee meetings out where I lived, as well as school board meetings. I started doing a teen column for the Dayton Daily News. I went to Wright State University in Dayton and continued working for the paper, eventually becoming a fulltime staff writer. My parents were very supportive but also very concerned about me getting into journalism. Back in the ‘70s, the number of minorities in the business was very low. There was some concern about whether a young black woman could get into the

COURTESY OF THE SPRINGFIELD (OHIO) NEWS-SUN

business, make a living and take care of herself. Two things were most significant for me very early on. One was my language arts teacher, who gave me the opportunity to try my hand at journalism. I give her a lot of credit for taking a chance. I was also very fortunate that the Dayton Daily News and the Journal Herald had a special program that summer. I think programs like that open doors for students and help them see possibilities.

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The foundation also selected its first 14 teacher ambassadors, experienced broadcast journalism teachers who have attended professional conferences and workshops and have pledged to pass on their training to at least 25 of their peers. The teacher ambassadors attended the association’s regional conference in Las Vegas in 2002, where they received a full day of training in the latest developments in electronic journalism. A new group of teacher ambassadors will be selected each year. One of the teacher ambassadors is Dave Davis of Hillcrest High School in Springfield, Mo. He now teaches four classes that draw about 95 students a year. The students produce an award-winning television news magazine on cable and contribute stories to the local NBC affiliate. Davis was the perfect ambassador because he had already begun to reach out to his peers through the Student Television Network, a scholastic organization that he and several other broadcast teachers created to focus on their professional needs and their students. The network, founded in 1999, sponsored its first summer camp for teachers in the summer of 2000. “I always remembered my first years,” said Davis, who studied print journalism in college but learned the technology of broadcasting on his own. “I just always wanted to do something to help broadcast teachers.” The camp, held at the school where Davis teaches, Hillcrest High School, turns the table on the teachers, who become students for a week. With instruction in the mornings and hands-on activities in the afternoons, the teachers learn and practice the skills they expect of their students: shooting, reporting, writing, logging, editing and more. They stay in dorms at the nearby Southwest Missouri State University and can earn graduate credit from the university for a separate tuition fee. The camp is co-sponsored by Channel One, the media company that gives free televisions, VCRs and cable to 12,000 middle and high schools in the country in exchange for an agreement to air its 12-minute news broadcast, which includes two minutes of advertising that targets youths. With contributions also from Apple Computers, the camp provides teachers access to the latest in digital equipment. By the week’s end, the group produces its own show for local cable. “It’s very, very exhausting and stressful, yet the teachers return,” Davis said. “Fourteen returned this year. It’s really clicking.” Jacki Romey, who teaches four broadcast journalism classes and advises the school newspaper at Searcy (Ark.) High School, attended the 2002 camp for the third year in a row. “In my first year, I knew nothing,” Romey said. “I came and realized I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was a journalism major in college, but I wasn’t able to put all the pieces together until I came to camp.” 116

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The teachers who have attended at least one other camp take an advanced class and mentor the first-year teachers. Romey said it was important to her to bond with other broadcast journalism teachers. Her school is at least 50 miles from Little Rock, where the closest television station is based. After attending her first camp, Romey sent four students to the organization’s first summer camp for students in 2002. “I’m the only broadcasting teacher probably within a 50-mile radius of my school,” Romey said. “We’re kind of isolated. That’s why for me the connections and the networking have been so important.” More than 50 colleges and universities throughout the country offer training programs for high school journalism teachers. Many of the schools allow the teachers to earn graduate school credit. Industry organizations, such as The Poynter Institute, also have begun focusing on teachers. The Poynter Institute offers “teacher-in-residence fellowships,” which provide at least two teachers in the St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay area the opportunity to participate with students in the institute’s High School Journalism Program, an intensive 10-day summer workshop with monthly seminars that run throughout the year. Increasingly, individual news organizations are offering internships, seminars, workshops and even curriculum materials to assist journalism teachers and advisers. When staff members at the Tulsa (Okla.) World learned that two local teachers had attended ASNE’s High School Institute in 2002, they went beyond ASNE’s request to provide free copies of the newspaper for classroom use. The Newspaper In Education manager arranged for the free subscriptions, and newsroom staff members offered to mentor. Executive Editor Joe Worley also provided each of the teachers a $1,500 grant to equip their classrooms with journalism materials and equipment. The Washington Post sponsors an annual full-day seminar for advisers in the District of Columbia and suburban Maryland and Virginia. The seminar offers teachers nine different sessions, such as beginning and advanced news writing, newspaper production, publication design tips and using the Internet, all taught by the newspaper’s staff in conference rooms at a local hotel. Sherry Deckman, 24, the newspaper adviser at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in the District, said that during one of the sessions in 2001, she got a staff organizational chart that helped her revamp the newspaper staff. “It’s really good to get concrete tips from professionals working in the field and to exchange ideas with other advisers,” Deckman said. In August 2002, The Durango (Colo.) Herald also reached out to middle and high school journalism teachers in its coverage area by offering a free, weeklong workshop at the newspaper. Managing Editor David Staats and other staff members, led 117

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Tiffany Bommarito, a news producer at KY3 in Springfield, Mo., fills in the “Camp STN” assignment board during last summer’s annual workshop. The teachers were sent into the field to shoot packages for a show produced during the camp.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVE DAVIS

Teacher Steve Parr works on the final edit of a news story he helped produce at the 2002 “Camp STN” workshop for scholastic broadcast teachers.

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a small group of three teachers in discussions on news and sports writing, interviewing, editing, ethics and other topics. The teachers also spent part of each afternoon learning the software QuarkXPress. On their last day, they had to cover and write a story and design and paginate an open page. “We tried in a supportive, friendly way to give them just a taste of what it means to be a newspaper journalist,” he said. “It was our response to the lack of expertise and an effort to help bring teachers along.” The newspaper provided lunch and materials, including a design textbook. The Colorado Press Association also awarded each of the teachers a $250 grant for the week. The teacher workshop is just one of several activities the newspaper sponsors to support scholastic journalism. Since 1997, the paper has held a one-day journalism workshop for area high school students at the Doubletree Hotel in Durango. Founded by the newspaper’s publisher, Richard Ballantine, the workshop, called Four Corners Press Day, attracted 50 student journalists and advisers from Colorado and New Mexico schools in October 2002. At the workshop each year, the students and teachers hear from news professionals and interact with them during writing exercises. The newspaper also selects two college interns each summer and hires high school seniors and recent graduates as part-time editorial assistants. On occasions when teachers have made requests, the newspaper has brought the teachers in for two- or three-day internships that allow them to shadow reporters and photographers, observe the news operation and write a story or two. For a newspaper with a daily circulation of about 10,000 readers, the programs are a huge commitment. “When you’re putting out a paper and have a small staff, it’s all you can do to get the paper out,” Staats said. “I’m fortunate in that I have a good city editor and when necessary can turn over the operation to the city desk.” It helps that the owner of the paper is a strong supporter of education and provides the resources that make the programs possible, Staats said. “We also have a certain self-interest,” he said. “We want to bring good people into the profession.” The commitment that news organizations of all sizes already have made to their scholastic counterparts through the array of training programs outlined in this book demonstrates the possibilities for print and broadcast media that have yet not gotten involved. For a bit of final inspiration, consider the example of Clifford C. Behnke, managing editor of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison. Behnke was so concerned about the quality of journalism instruction in his state that he spent several months 119

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Joann Harumi Ng, 39, features copy editor/designer, The Oregonian

grew up in Madera, Calif., and I always liked writing. In eighth grade, we moved to another part of town, and the school had a journalism class. The teacher was very enthusiastic about journalism, and so I became interested in it. We did reporting around the school, and I really loved being able to interact with people and learn about their lives and what makes them tick. I was lucky because my high school had a journalism program, too. I was a reporter a couple of years, then editor in my junior year and again in my senior year. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t necessarily one journalism organization that influenced me in high school to be a journalist. It was over the course of time getting little bits of encouragement,

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like getting selected as editor of my school paper in my junior year and getting a scholarship from the California Women Journalists Association. Also, one of my high school alums worked at The Fresno Bee, and she came back and spoke to us. That brought home the possibility that the rest of us could do it, too. I went to the University of Southern California and during summers I would come home, and I ended up getting an internship at The Fresno Bee. High school is such an important time because thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when we are thinking about what we want to do. My parents were good about letting me pursue the career I wanted without much information about whether it was a viable career. I think journalism may still be an unknown profession among Asian Americans because we still fail to have critical mass. A lot of time Asian American kids are pushed to do what their cousins, aunts and uncles have done and pursue medicine, law and other math and

science-based fields. Maybe when more of those cousins, aunts and uncles become journalists, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll see more Asian American journalists. If newspapers do more outreach to high school students and involve their parents, it might help the parents better understand journalism as a career.

5 TEACHING THE TEACHERS: PRINT AND BROADCAST TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS

writing a primer for new journalism advisers. “I got the impression that very often the most junior faculty member is congratulated and told, ‘You’re going to be the newspaper adviser,’ ” Behnke said. “I also think that often these people don’t have any idea of the basics tenets of journalism in this country. But they’re teaching kids this stuff.” That was the motivation for his 24-page guide, dubbed “Stop the Presses, I Think,” which includes an explanation of newspaper terminology, a discussion of the fundamentals of journalism, the Wisconsin State Journal’s own mission statement, a lesson on how to write headlines, resource information and sample student publication guidelines. Behnke also met veteran advisers at various workshops and conferences and grilled them about the questions they are most frequently asked by their junior colleagues. He compiled the questions and answers and contact information for the advisers in the guide. Using a mailing list of high schools in the state, he sent a copy to every principal. The first page includes a letter explaining that the primer’s goal is to help newspaper advisers do their jobs better and help high schools produce better papers. “Most journalists were bitten by the newspaper bug in high school,” Behnke said in the letter. “That’s where we began our journey into a profession that we believe is essential to the functioning of our democracy. It is from that crop of aspiring journalists that newspapers most often find their employees. It is our hope, then, that this primer will help you push another generation along the path.” That, quite simply, is the hope of news organizations throughout the country that are investing in high school programs in big and small ways with great expectations for the future.

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Resources

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INDUSTRY GROUPS THAT OFFER GRANTS TO MEDIA PARTNERSHIPS WITH HIGH SCHOOLS American Society of Newspaper Editors Contact: Diana Mitsu Klos, senior project director 11690 B Sunrise Valley Dr. Reston, Va. 20191-1409 703-453-1125 dmk@asne.org Radio and Television News Directors Foundation Contact: Carolyn Terry, high school project manager 1600 K. St., NW Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20006 202-659-6510 carolynt@rtndf.org Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Contact: Richard Holden, executive director P.O. Box 300 Princeton, N.J. 08543-0300 609-520-5927 richard.holden@dowjones.com Newspaper Association of America Foundation Contact: Sandra Woodcock The Newspaper Center 1921 Gallows Rd., Suite 600 Vienna, Va. 22091 woods@naa.org

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KEY NATIONAL SCHOLASTIC JOURNALISM GROUPS

DOW JONES NEWPAPER FUND Web site: http://djnewspaperfund.dowjones.com/fund/defa ult.asp Executive Director: Richard S. Holden Tel: 609-520-5927 E-mail: richard.holden@dowjones.com Address: P.O. Box 300, Princeton, NJ 08543-0300 The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund was founded in 1958 by editors of The Wall Street Journal to improve the quality of journalism education and the pool of applicants for jobs in the newspaper business. It provides internships and scholarships to college students, career literature, fellowships for high school journalism teachers and publicationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; advisers and training for college journalism instructors. The Fund is a nonprofit foundation supported by the Dow Jones Foundation, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and other newspaper companies. Key high school programs include: High School Journalism Workshops for Minorities Description: To encourage minority high school students to consider careers in journalism by providing an opportunity to work with professional journalists and instructors on reporting, writing and editing a student newspaper

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Eligible: Colleges, schools, nonprofit organi zations. Grant: $2,500 up to $5,000 Deadline: October 1 High School Newspaper Project Description: To provide support to start, revive or bolster high school newspapers at schools with a large concentration of students of color, primarily in urban areas. These newspapers should be broadsheet or tabloid Eligible: High school newspapers in innercity areas with high numbers of minority students that publish a newspaper sporadically or not at all Grant: $3,500 Deadline: October 1 National High School Journalism Teacher Awards Program Description: To recognize high school journalism teachers who have made an outstanding contribution to teaching journalism and/ or advising a high school newspaper Eligible: Any high school journalism teacher or adviser with at least three years of teaching experience. Nominations may come from principals, newspaper editors, other teachers, alumni, press associations or the teachers themselves Awards: $1,000 college scholarship for a student of the Teacher of the Year; $500 college scholarships for a student of each of the four Distinguished Advisers. Deadline: July 1

Key college programs include: Centers for Editing Excellence Description: To provide two weeks of intensive training for college juniors, seniors and graduate students, selected through the Newspaper Fundâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Newspaper Editing Intern Program, who will work professionally as copy editing interns for newspapers and news services. Eligible: Colleges or nonprofit organizations Grant: Maximum of $20,000 for 10 students Deadline: October 1 Newspaper Editing Intern Program Description: To encourage students to con sider copy editing as a career in newspaper journalism by providing training, a summer internship and scholarship grants Eligible: All college juniors, seniors and graduate students interested in pursuing careers in newspaper journalism Grant: $1,000 Deadline: November 1 Business Reporting Internship Program Description: To encourage minority college sophomores to seek newspaper reporting internships early in their academic careers. Eligible: Members of minority groups who are entering their junior year or second semester of their sophomore year in college Grant: $1,000 Deadline: November 1

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COLUMBIA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION Web site: www.columbia.edu/cu/cspa/index.html

JOURNALISM EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Web site: www.jea.org

Executive Director Edmund J. Sullivan Tel: 212-854-9405 E-mail: ejs3@columbia.edu Address: Columbia University, 303 Journalism, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY 10027-6902

Executive Director: Linda Puntney Tel: 785-532-7822 E-mail: lindarp@ksu.edu Address: Kansas State University, Kedzie Hall 103, Manhattan, Kan., 66506-1505

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association, organized at Columbia University in the fall of 1924, grew out of several gatherings of editors and staff members from secondary schools in the metropolitan New York area. As a result of these early meetings, a contest to evaluate student-edited newspapers and magazines was organized in February 1925. The results of that competition, which saw 179 publications entered, were announced at a convention held at Columbia on March 12-13, 1925, with 308 delegates in attendance. Those delegates voted to ask the university to continue the organization, adopted its official name, and established its journal, The School Press Review. Since 1925, more than 125,000 newspapers, magazines, and yearbooks have entered the annual critiques for evaluations and more than 240,000 delegates have attended the annual conventions. In 1935, the Association added yearbooks to its evaluations; in 1940, it began an annual fall conference for yearbook editors and advisers, which was expanded to all types of publications in 1983. A separate annual convention for college editors and advisers was created in 1978, in co-sponsorship with College Media Advisers, Inc. 126

The Journalism Education Association, Inc., is the only independent national scholastic journalism organization for teachers and advisers. Founded in 1924, JEA is a volunteer organization. Members of the Board of Directors, including the officers, are current or retired journalism teachers who have obtained their positions through national membership elections. JEA headquarters is maintained as a clearinghouse for JEA members and programs, and provides essential office services. It also houses the JEA Bookstore and membership records, and it is the site of the JEA Advisers Institute. Among JEAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2,000 members are journalism teachers and publications advisers, media professionals, press associations, adviser organizations, libraries, yearbook companies, newspapers, radio stations and departments of journalism. JEA has state and regional affiliates around the country. To find the one nearest to your newspaper, go to: http://www.jea.org/resources/proorgz/stateassns.html or http://highschooljournalism.org/teachers/jororg _index.cfm

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JEA, in conjunction with the National Scholastic Press Association, holds two annual national conventions a year for newspaper and yearbook students and their advisers, featuring hundreds of workshops. The organization also offers adviser-training workshops in the summer and write-off contests for students in the spring and fall. To help promote professionalism, teachers may be recognized as Certified Journalism Educators or Master Journalism Educators through JEA, based on their experience, expertise, certification in teaching and testing. Note that this certification is different from state certification in journalism, which does not exist in many states and is based entirely on college credits. JEA offers a range of awards for students and advisers, including: the Impact Award, Ryan White Award, Let Freedom Ring Award, Journalist of the Year and Medal of Merit

NATIONAL SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION Web site: http://studentpress.journ.umn.edu/nspa/ Executive Director: Tom Rolnicki Tel: 612-625-8335 E-mail: rolni005@umn.edu Address: 2221 University Ave., Suite 121, Minneapolis, Minn., 55414 In 1921, NSPA began helping students and teachers improve their publications. The organization, headquartered in Minneapolis, helps students become better reporters, writers, editors, photographers,

designers, desktop publishers, and advertising and business staffers. NSPA helps advisers as well. Membership in NSPA is by publication, not by school or individual. NSPA contests include the Pacemaker competition, which was launched in 1927 and has been co-sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation since 1971. Online and broadcast Pacemakers awards are also offered. Other key awards include: Courage in Student Journalism Award, co-sponsored the Newseum and the Student Press Law Center. The Story of the Year competition, cosponsored by the Los Angeles Times; Broadcast Story of the Year contest, cosponsored by CNN Student Bureau; Picture of the Year, co-sponsored by the National Press Photographers Association; Design of the Year, co-sponsored by Adobe Systems. Let Freedom Ring: First Amendment Schools Program, co-sponsored by the Journalism Education Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, Quill and Scroll and the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center Robert F. Kennedy High School Journalism Awards, co-sponsored by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. The Associated Collegiate Press is a division of the NSPA. Although it had college members since its inception in 1921, ACP was first established as a distinct division in 1933. Today it is the largest and oldest membership organization for college stu127

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dent media in the United States. As a nonprofit educational membership association, ACP is committed to providing professional services to its student members. Membership in ACP is by publication, not by school or individual.

QUILL AND SCROLL SOCIETY Web site: www.uiowa.edu/~quill-sc/ Executive Director: Richard (Dick) Johns Tel: 319-335-3321 E-mail: richard-johns@uiowa.edu Address: University of Iowa, School of Journalism and Mass Comm., 615 Seashore Hall W., Iowa City, Iowa, 52242 Quill and Scroll is an international honorary society with the goals of promoting and creating interest in high school journalism. It was organized April 10, 1926, by a group of high school advisers for the purpose of encouraging and recognizing individual student achievement in journalism and scholastic publication. Since its founding, charters have been granted to more than 14,024 high schools in all 50 states and 44 foreign countries. To be eligible for a Quill and Scroll charter, a high school must publish a magazine, newspaper, yearbook, literary magazine, broadcast program and or a web site. Also eligible are schools whose students are under the supervision of a local news bureau, radio/television station or publica tion. Charter applications are provided by the international office upon request. A Quill and Scroll charter is granted for a 128

lifetime and there are no annual dues. In 2002, Quill and Scroll updated its “Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism,” which ASNE mailed to every high school and daily newspaper in the U.S. in April 2002. Additional copies are available from Quill and Scroll for $5 each (including shipping). In addition, ASNE is the co-sponsor of Quill and Scroll’s International Writing and Photo Contest.

THE STUDENT PRESS LAW CENTER Web site: www.splc.org Executive Director: Mark Goodman Tel: 703-807-1904 E-mail: director@splc.org Address: 1815 N. Fort Myer Drive, Suite 900, Arlington, Va. 22209 Since 1974, the Student Press Law Center has been the nation’s only legal assistance agency devoted exclusively to educating high school and college journalists about the rights and responsibilities embodied in the First Amendment and supporting the student news media in their struggle to cover important issues free from censorship. The Center provides free legal advice and information as well as low-cost educational materials for student journalists on a wide variety of legal topics. In addition, the SPLC operates a formal Attorney Referral Network of approximately 150 lawyers across the country that are available to provide free legal representation to local stu-

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dents when necessary. Approximately 2,000 student journalists, teachers and others contact the Center each year for help or information. Calls come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

ADDITIONAL WEB SITES To view a list of key scholastic journalism workshops across the country, go to: http://highschooljournalism.org/students/studentprograms.htm To view the University of Georgia Cox Center’s latest Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates, go to: http://www.grady.uga.edu/annualsurveys/index.ht ml The survey, directed by Lee B. Becker, a professor in the university’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and director of the Cox Center, provides information about enrollments, degrees granted and other characteristics of the programs. The data comes from a census of the heads of journalism schools, departments and programs. To find a list of links that provide details on scholastic press law, go to: http://highschooljournalism.org/students/pressfreedomresources.htm

Quill and Scroll School of Journalism and Mass Communication W312 Seashore Hall The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa 52242 To view newspapers from more than 350 high schools, or to obtain information about teacher training opportunities, media partnerships, journalism scholarships and more, go to: www.highschooljournalism.org

MEDIA CONTACTS FOR PROGRAMS PROFILED IN THE HANDBOOK The Poynter Institute for Media Studies Contact: Evelyn Hsu, high school program director 801 Third St. South St. Petersburg, Fla. 33701 ehsu@poynter.org 727-456-2368 Detroit Free Press Pat Cybulski Hartley, high school journalism coordinator 600 W. Fort St. Detroit, Mich. 48226 313-222-6428 or 800-678-6400, Ext. 6428 pchartley@freepress.com

To view a copy of the Quill and Scroll Society’s “Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism,” which was updated in 2002, go to: http://www.highschooljournalism.org/teachers/stateofjournalismprincipalsguidecontents.htm To order a copy, send $5 to: 129

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The Washington Post Contact: Dorothy Gilliam, director, The Young Journalists Development Program, or Athelia Knight, assistant director 1150 15th St., NW Washington, D.C. 20071 202-334-6000 gilliamd@washpost.com knighta@washpost.com The Commercial Appeal Contact: Elinor Grusin, project director of The Teen Appeal 300 Meeman Journalism Building University of Memphis Memphis, Tenn. 38152 901-678-2854 egrusin@memphis.edu The Kansas City Star Contact: Bill Norton, Teenstar coordinator 1729 Grand Blvd. Kansas City, Mo. 64108 816-234-4897 nortonb@kcstar.com KWY News Radio Newstudies Steve Butler, program director 101 S. Independence Mall East Philadelphia, Pa. 19106 215-238-4971 butler@kyw.com

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Dallas Morning News Ira Hadnot, reporter 508 Young St. Dallas, Tex. 75202-4808 214-977-8722 ihadnot@dallasnews.com Durango Herald Contact: David Staats, managing editor P.O. Box Drawer A Durango, Colo. 81302-0950 (970) 247-3504 dstaats@durangoherald.com Tulsa World Contact: Barbara Allen, Satellite adviser 315 S. Boulder St. Tulsa, Okla. 74103-3423 918-581-8336 or 800-999-6397 barbara.allen@tulsaworld.com Austin American-Statesman Contact: Josefina Villica単a, director of information services P.O. Box 670 Austin, Tex. 78767 512-445-3637 jvillicana@statesman.com Great Falls Tribune Contact: Jim Strauss, executive editor 205 River Dr., South Great Falls, Mont. 59405 406-791-6527 strauss29@aol.com

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York Daily Record Contact: Jim McClure, managing editor 122 S. George St. York, Pa. 17405 717-771-2012 jem@ydr.com Philadelphia Daily News Contact: Debi Licklider or Earni Young, coordinators of the Urban Journalism Workshop P.O. Box 7788 Philadelphia, Pa. 19101 215-854-2000 licklid@phillynews.com younge@phillynews.com

Youth Radio Contact: Ellin Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Leary, president and executive director 1809 University Avenue Berkeley, Calif. 94703 510-841-5123 youthradio@youthradio.org Wisconsin State Journal Cliff Behnke, managing editor P.O. Box 8058-858 Madison, Wis. 53708 608-252-6105 cbehnke@madison.com

Radio Rookies Contact: Czerina Patel, producer WNYC News 1 Centre St., 25 th Floor New York, N.Y. 10007 212-669-4575 cpatel@wnyc.org HTV Magazine Contact: Dave Davis, teacher at Hillcrest High School 3319 North Grant St. Springfield, Mo. 65803 417-833-8790 davis@htvmagazine.com Detroit Public Television Bob Scott, vice president of education and programming 7441 Second Ave. Detroit, Mich. 48202

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About the Author Lisa Frazier Page has been a Metro reporter for The Washington Post since 1995. She has covered education in Prince Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s County, Md., Maryland politics, AIDS and a host of general assignments. She also wrote a column about Prince Georgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s County for three years. She spent seven years as a reporter and three years as a Metro Page columnist at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. She is coauthor of The New York Times best-seller, The Pact: Three COURTESY OF LISA LISA FRAZIER PAGE Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream. She is married to Kevin Page, and they have three children, Enjoli, Danielle and Kevin Jr., and are expecting a fourth child in June 2003.

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About the Young Journalists Development Program The Young Journalists Development Program (YJDP) grew out of a belief that journalism in general and newspapers in particular must get involved much earlier in the education process if we are going to steer sharp minds toward the newspaper business. It also addressed The Washington Postâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment to increase job opportunities for minorities who are often underrepresented in newsrooms across the country. The mission of the program is threefold. First, we seek to expose young people to newspaper and media careers, then educate and interest them in the industry by helping high school students and journalism advisers produce, improve and revive school newspapers. The project is not limited to minorities, but certain programs emphasize participation by minority students to expand the potential pool of minority journalists. We seek to support, motivate and develop the best and most promising high school and college students for entry into the media industry and The Washington Post. Second, we seek to build newspaper reading habits in young people and create the next generation of readers because we realize that readership among them is declining. Third, we seek to represent The Washington Post as a good corporate citizen in building and strengthening its relations with key educational institutions in the metropolitan area.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities and promotes journalism excellence worldwide. Through 2002, the Foundation has given $l93 million in 616 gramts advancing journalism education and press freedom.

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