Sarah Hutchins | July 15, 2009
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| Photo by Sarah Hutchins |
| High school students Dorrie Prussian and Hayley Grossman edited photos in a photojournalism workshop Wednesday. HSJI brings hundreds of students from around the country to IU. |
The institute is divided into three, five-day sessions. Students take part in a variety of workshops, including newspaper, yearbook, desktop publishing, television news, photojournalism and advertising/business.
Sylvania Northview High School senior Alexx Klein said she attended the program to check out potential colleges and work on her sports writing skills.
“I had always wanted to go to college here,” Klein said. “I looked into Northwestern University’s program and researched some other schools, but this one was for a good amount of time. I’m going to be sports editor so I am looking forward to the sports writing workshop.”
Other high school students with no journalism background are attending. North Vigo High School senior Luke Lakstins said he is using HSJI to begin thinking about potential careers.
“I think it would be nice to be a writer someday,” said Lakstins, who is in the newspaper basic reporting section. “I’ve never had a chance to do anything writing-specific.”
Throughout their five days at the institute, students work on a variety of assignments. Editor-in-chief session assignments include creating a staff manual and mission statement. Basic reporting classes involve interviews and writing assignments. Students in the television news class put together their own video package.
Roommates Devyn Nance from Louisville, Ky., and Liz Nordlinger from St. Petersburg, Fla., are in the television news section. Nance has almost no broadcast experience while Nordlinger is about to become news directors of her school’s station.
“I’m looking to improve my skills creating video packages,” Nordlinger said. “I hope I can bring some skills back to my school and learn to come up with more developed ideas.”
Nance said she hopes to learn the basics and get some hands on experience in a field she hopes will one day be her career.
Veteran instructor Jim Lang said the range of skill levels in each section lends itself to an individualized teaching approach, a method he says sets HSJI apart from other summer journalism programs.
“We try and teach to the individual kids,” Lang said. “They run the gamut in skills and we don’t compare them. We take them from where they are and make them better. We don’t measure them against anyone else.”
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| Photo by Sarah Hutchins |
| HSJI students attend lectures as well as work on projects. Here, they are at Teter for a lecture on "Why can’t we publish that?" |
“I hope they leave with a better understanding of journalism’s mission and an idea of what good journalism is,” White said. “This may be their first opportunity to think of journalism as academic.”
White, who is in her first year as HSJI director, said she chose to add, not change, the program. She introduced three enrichment activities to provide students with new opportunities to broaden their skills.
“Journalists are generalists, not specialists,” White said. “We’re trying to provide a foundation through lectures that everyone goes to. It kind of mimics the School of Journalism curriculum where you build up to a specialty.”
An optional evening lecture about photography for non-photographers provides student an opportunity to learn about visual communications. Another new event, “Lunch with a Pro,” brings together students and industry professionals. Finally, a new institute Web site, HSJI.org, serves as an outlet for students to experiment with online journalism.
“I’m trying to arm them with real life examples so they can go home to argue with their guidance counselors and parents,” said White, a former English teacher, publications adviser and HSJI instructor. “A lot of them think journalism is a dying career. They think journalism equals newspapers, but that’s not entirely true. Journalism is flexible.”
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