Savannah Worley | June 20, 2008
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| Photo by Savannah Worley |
| After 22 years, HSJI director Jack Dvorak is retiring. He’ll remain with the faculty, however. |
But this summer’s HSJI sessions will be his last as Dvorak is retiring as director of the program he has led for 22 years. He’ll remain a professor at the School of Journalism and alumna Teresa White, a journalism adviser from Noblesville, recently was hired as the new director.
Dvorak cites family health issues as his reason for ending his HSJI leadership. Handing over the reins is bittersweet.
“They want to make a difference,” he said of the more than 13,000 students and 1,000 teachers he has worked with over the years. “I feel they are so important to society, and I feel privileged to teach up-and-coming writers. It’s a big part of my life.”
The 62-year-old HSJI program offers intensive workshops for journalism teachers who want to learn to be better publication advisers as well as high school students working in school media. Students and teachers come from all over the country to attend the workshops, held over several weeks in June and July.
The institute is just one part of Dvorak’s advocacy for scholastic journalism and the profession of teaching journalism. He also has authored several studies that look at how high school students involved in journalism fare as college students, and as a professor, he prepares college students who are headed into careers as high school publications advisers.
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Bonnie Brownlee said despite his retirement, future high school institute directors will always know and respect his work.
“He is a tremendous director of the institution,” she said. “He has tremendous loyalty to it.”
Dvorak directed high school institutes before he came to IU, including one at Northeast Missouri State University, now Truman State University. He also taught and directed the institute at the University for Iowa for five years.
HSJI Administrative Services Coordinator Linda Johnson has worked with Dvorak for 21 years, nearly all of his years as director. She said she learned a lot about the institute and student journalists while under his direction.
“He’s the best boss anyone can ask for,” she said. “He cares about his work and takes it to heart.”
Retired high school adviser Dan Niles has taught at HSJI for 34 years and knew both Gretchen Kemp and Mary Benedict, Dvorak’s two predecessors. Niles said HSJI has always been a wonderful institution, and Dvorak only improved it with his leadership and organizational skills.
“The institute has a national reputation, and he helped enhance it,” Niles said. “Jack has always been all about teaching, which really fits our own principles.”
Instructor Julie Dodd has worked with Dvorak for 13 years, but she said she has been familiar with Dvorak’s work with scholastic journalism for many years. She recalled a study he conducted in the late 1980s that found high school students who were involved with media also did better scholastically than students who were not involved.
Dvorak recently updated the study, finding the same results comparing high school student’s ACT scores and their involvement with student media. Dodd said his research helps encourage journalism professors.
“His research is helping all of us across the country,” she said. “There are many of his former students who are now journalism teachers themselves.”
Those who worked with Dvorak say they will miss him as the director but are happy he will remain on the faculty, Brownlee said. She said Dvorak always shows his co-workers respect, and he is proof of giving and receiving.
“Everyone is very loyal to Jack,” she said. “And he is always loyal and respectful to people who work with him.”
Dvorak said he will always remember the attendees of the institute and their eagerness to start in the field of journalism.
“They are a very uplifting bunch of people.” He said. “They’re here just to learn.”
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