Journeys in Journalism uses journalism to teach students important life skills of interacting with others, asking questions and listening while mastering fundamental skills of journalism. The journalism program began with one teacher and one assistant, and now has a staff of teachers and assistants, spanning three schools: Melrose Elementary, John Hopkins Middle and Lakewood High. The school syste
m funds the staffing, but start-up and ongoing costs have been funded through community partnerships. The program is a hands-on, experiential learning experience for students led by people who have had newspaper/newsroom experience – in fact that is a requirement of hiring in the program. What do we do? The emphasis is on learning through doing, with students publishing three newspapers a year at Melrose, four newspapers a year at John Hopkins, and monthly newspapers at Lakewood. In addition, each school maintains an online news product. The elementary and middle school newspapers have won multiple national awards from Weekly Reader and Time/Time for Kids magazine. The Lakewood journalism program has earned a prestigious gold medal designation from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for its newspaper and website. Experiential learning through field trips. Students make community connections through field trips. At Melrose and John Hopkins, students go on field trips each year that are designed to familiarize them with their community and that results in either a story/photo/video or a better understanding of how journalism works in the real world. Those field trips range from a tour of the Tampa Bay Times printing plant to interviews at Midtown businesses to a press conference with the Mayor at City Hall. In the past, the program has offered a free three-week long summer camp experience that immersed students in an intense journalism experience. The camp was field-trip intensive with the students going out into the community to observe and report on stories that affected their lives and neighborhoods. In 2011, 40 students had their choice of 30 field trips and 18 photo cruises (a team of students gets in a car with a teacher and a newspaper photojournalist to ride through the neighborhood looking for potential photos). The camp culminated in a Midtown Magazine and a 100-photo gallery exhibit. With your help, this opportunity could be available again. Real-life experiences and exposure. Everything we do has a real-life result, publication, which gives the students a stronger sense of urgency and pride. Beyond working on the school newspaper, students are urged to seek publication outside of the school, and have been published in the Tampa Bay Times and the Weekly Challenger, and have produced a newsletter for an exhibit at the studio@620. Student work is featured. Photos taken by the students are displayed throughout the community. Midtown magazine and the student publications are distributed throughout the school and into the community. Midtown Through Our Eyes, an annual week-long exhibit at studio@620, gives students, families, neighbors and community leaders the chance to see the students’ words and photos on the walls of an art gallery. An opening night routinely attracts more than 500 people, and by the end of the exhibit, nearly 1,000 people visit the exhibit. Student photos also have been displayed at Florida International Museum (a Smithsonian-affiliated museum in St. Petersburg), St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, Eckerd College, the St. Petersburg mayor’s office, the St. Petersburg Business Assistance Center, American Stage theater, the Royal Theater, the St. Petersburg History Museum, All Children’s Hospital, the Saturday Morning Market, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Kahwa Coffee Café, and the Pinellas County School Board meeting room. Journeys in Journalism Advisory Committee. The program has as advocates a group of community volunteers who meet on a monthly basis to serve the program as needed. Members include Tampa Bay Times executives, attorneys, city officials, parents, USFSP coordinators, and an Eckerd College program director. Volunteers. The program has generated much volunteer interest in the community. From the Tampa Bay Times, 10-12 volunteers routinely donate their time each year, with countless others always willing to come in to speak. More than 200 volunteer hours a year come from this one source.
