(05/15/2008) High school outreach can be boon for your media program

By Nils Rosdahl
Nondaily Newspaper Committee Chair

One of the most effective ways to recruit high school students to your school’s journalism program and newspaper staff is to make them (and the public) aware that it exists and what it offers.

A free journalism workshop can be a major help. Here is how we do it at North Idaho College, a community college in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. We serve a large geographical area as the only college in the Panhandle of Idaho. Our college also attracts students from Western Montana, Eastern Washington and Southern Idaho.

Be aware of the journalism professional organizations in your area and have them be aware of you and your program by being your active in them. For us, these are the Idaho Press Club (IPC) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), both of which have local chapters. Use them to help organize the workshops.  The local chapter of the Idaho Press Club has informal monthly breakfast meetings at a restaurant across the street from our campus. Employees of the two daily papers that serve our area and public relations employees from area businesses, organizations, broadcast media and our college also are invited through an e-mail listserv.

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We have our high school journalism workshop in October, early enough in the school year so the attendees can use the information throughout most of their school year and so the seniors become aware of your programs before they start their college application process. You also need to reserve far in advance rooms you’ll need for the sessions.

Set the date for the workshop at a spring meeting and get the information to the high school journalism instructors in early May so they can budget and reserve transportation and put it on their calendars. Send the information by both letter and e-mail. If possible, use one of your own (or the college’s) Work Study students to help get the proper names and mailing and e-mail addresses. Check on using whatever department your college uses for recruiting for help, either/both the manpower and expense (paper and postage) for the contacting. Assure them that they can have an information table at the workshop.

Use the professional organizations to determine topics and presenters for the workshop. We offer options of three workshops each hour sandwiched by the welcome and keynote sessions in a large room. Get the schedules to the schools about a week ahead of time so students/instructors can determine their workshop schedules. That way they can divide up to their special interests and make sure everything is covered. Include a map denoting where they can park and which building(s) for the workshop and cafeteria for lunch. Have one of your students help with gathering the contest entries. (More on this later.)

Here’s our usual arrangements:

8:15 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.: Registration (students put their names, high school name, college plans on a roster). Each school can put a stack of their papers on a trade table. A table from your college should include stacks of your papers and fliers and applications etc. about your college.  Have your students help.

9 a.m. - 9:20 a.m.: You give the welcome. Explain what/where the sessions are, where they can eat, that they can tour your newsroom/classrooms during lunchtime, that best papers will be announced at the end of the event.

9:30 a.m. - 10:20 a.m.: Options of three sessions.

10:30 a.m. - 11:20 a.m.: Options of three sessions.

11:30 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.: Lunch/newsroom tours. The teachers and presenters-who-wish have lunch with me in a separate room from the open cafeteria. We give these people vouchers for their lunch, which they can bring into that room. In that time I tell the teachers that I’d be glad to come talk to their classes and give constructive (not negative) critiques of their papers. Find out what times/days their classes are. Give them time to tour our newsroom with their students if they like.

12:30 p.m. - 1:20 p.m.: Options of three sessions or keynote speaker with Q&A.

1:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.: (It has to end early enough for their buses to return). I tell all about our program and newspaper (more on that in a future article), remind them about the trade table with our papers and fliers about our program (more on that in a future article). Tell them that they’re welcome to tour our newsroom if they haven’t already (more on what the newsroom should be like in a future article). Finally, I give the results of the newspaper contest, tell them they can come visit and how to contact me for more information (“how” is on the flier), and bid them farewell.

Each school can submit a paper for the “Best in Show” contest. The application with the paper should include its name, school, size of school, private or public, number of students on the staff, how often the paper is published. Explain during the presentation that these things all are considered during the judging. Give plaques or whatever for prizes.

The session presenters are volunteers from the area newspapers, broadcast media, P.R. people and retired media people. Many are from the above journalism organizations or obtained through members of these organizations.

Topics may include: News Writing, Broadcast Journalism, Internet Journalism, Editorial/Column Writing, Entertainment Writing, Interviewing, Feature Writing, Sports Journalism, Media Photography, Advertising, Design, Ethics, Opportunities in Journalism, Internet Research, Media Blogging, Keep these at the high school level. Audio/Visual aides really help, but advise the presenters to not just show their stuff. The how-to is more important.

Make sure all these media get news releases so they can promote the event. Then they should get follow-up news releases — how many from what schools attended, what media/organizations helped and what papers/schools won the contest. All these can be prepared by your news writing classes.

Make sure you have your students help with registration and to be in the newsroom during the tour times. Send thank-you notes to all the volunteers (and a round-up note to their bosses).

Is it worth it? About half of my new students found out about us through these workshops.

Nils Rosdahl is adviser of The Sentinel at North Idaho College and chair of College Media Advisers' Nondaily Newspaper Committee. This is the first in a series of articles regarding how to recruit and retain students to your journalism programs and newspaper staffs. Nils can be reached at nils_rosdahl@nic.edu.