What started as an experimental class in the journalism curriculum has turned into a major production and a great resume builder for two students in particular.

Assistant professor Mike Conway led J460 Community Journalism this past spring, a broadcast class devoted to community journalism. He charged the students with developing five to eight minute radio broadcasts about long-term issues in the Bloomington community by the end of the semester.

"There are not a lot of classes that teach radio news," Conway said. "Sadly, there are not a lot of jobs. We want to build it back in because NPR and some outfits are building it back in."

Thanks to a grant from Indiana Campus Compact, the students were able to use the studios of local nonprofit station WFHB in the process. The final project turned out so well that the station signed on to broadcast the student work this summer.

"I wanted (the students) to see what it was like working with a non-profit, a different model than we usually do," Conway said.

Junior Elle Lissitzyn and senior Erica Ballard have received a detailed look at the process, as they have taken the final projects of their classmates and produced them into four 30-minute programs.

Lissitzyn was already interning with WFHB, so her involvement was an easy fit, Conway said. Ballard also jumped on board to assist in editing and public relations for the project.

The topics chosen for the class were long-term issues: homelessness, health care, the criminal justice system and outsourcing.

"With news, it's whatever happened this day," Lissitzyn said. "These pieces are talking more about problems in the community, or issues in the community that are not always kept in the forefront of people's minds, but nonetheless they are important."

Students collected information through interviews and research, putting all into an audio format, with little interference from Conway.

"I told students, 'Here are your topics. Find a story,'" Conway said. "I wanted them to think about the process and not so much the editing. This was not so much a skills course."

Next, Lissitzyn and Ballard toiled over the editing process, forging about 21 minutes on each topic into a 30-minute segment. That included writing a script around the already existing segments, recording the script and editing it all by the July 11 deadline.

Despite putting in long hours, for no pay, both students seemed excited to be a part of the production.

"Since everything is focusing on convergence, I think it's making me more marketable," Ballard said of the project.

Lissitzyn said she also loved working at the station and expanding the class project.

"So rarely people in journalism get to work on long form," she said. "I get 30 minutes to tell a story. I probably won't ever get to do that again."

Conway chose the long form style of journalism for just this reason.

"Even when there is radio news, there is not a lot of room for long form," he said. "They really got to stretch out and let the stories go as far as they thought they need to go."

The opportunity to have long form work was also welcomed by WFHB news director Chad Carrothers.

"This is a project we could not normally accomplish with the resources we have," he said. "We would like to do more of it."

Carrothers was also happy to provide students an outlet to tell the less publicized stories of Bloomington.

"Some of the fruits of this labor are edgy in a way media with the university is not willing to go," he said. "We went after issues that don't necessarily paint the university in a positive light."

WFHB is used to having students around, but only as interns, never in a classroom situation, Carrothers said. The result for him was a somewhat unexpected success.

"Not that I think lowly of J-school students," the 1999 J-school graduate said, "but you never know what you're going to get when you shock someone into a new situation. A lot of the students didn't have any experience outside of the classroom."

Carrothers gave students that experience, just like Conway professed, by more or less letting them go.

"We encourage (them) to feel empowered, take ownership, not like a student, but in the role you are in," Carrothers said. "When you empower people to follow something they have a passion with, the fruits of that labor are great."

Those fruits may continue to bloom in the next few years, as both Carrothers and Conway say they are open to repeating the experience.

"Even without a grant, we're committed to the idea," Carrothers said. "So, I would definitely do it again."

The finished projects will be broadcast on WFHB, which is at 91.3 and 98.1 on the FM band, each Wednesday in July. Part of the evening local news, they will run at about 5:45 p.m.

Encore broadcasts can be heard each Thursday in August, at 11 a.m., as part of "At the Mic: Bloomington Close Up." Additionally, the work will be archived via podcast at the WFHB Web site.