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NAA Foundation’s Student/Newspaper Partnership Grants encourage newspapers to get involved with high school journalism. Talk about your win-win situations.
By Sandy Woodcock
Many folks may think of fall as that time of year when the leaves turn color. For me, fall begins on the first day of school, no matter what day or month that takes place.
By the time this issue of Update reaches your mailbox, checks funding this year’s group of Student/Newspaper Partnerships will be being used to fund the start-up or the restart of student newspaper efforts nationwide.
This is the eighth year the Foundation has funded this grant program, and we know it can reap some splendid successes. While we can’t say that every newspaper funded continues to publish and thrive, we do know that we have had better than average success. And some of our grant schools and members of their newspaper staffs have achieved stellar success.
Let me tell you about Emily Banks, co-editor of the Cannon Falls High School Lantern and this year’s Minnesota High School Journalist of the Year. Banks’ school newspaper was able to grow and flourish because of grant funds from the NAA Foundation. But as instrumental as those funds were, money wasn’t enough. As important, if not more so, was the mentorship and encouragement the school newspaper received from their local newspaper partner.
“Partnering with the [Cannon Falls] Beacon was probably the best move we made,” Banks wrote to me after an e-mail query. “... Dick Dalton, the editor of our local paper, as well as the rest of the Beacon staff, have been incredibly supportive.”
This fall Banks will attend the University of Minnesota and major in journalism. All this from a young woman who also said that before working on the newspaper staff she thought she couldn’t write.
But the change in Banks’ attitude about her writing skills and career choice doesn’t surprise me. A couple of years ago, a colleague of mine here at NAA and I were meeting with a former journalist who now directs the Minnesota Media Collaborative. During that discussion, my colleague recounted the impact a visit from a professional journalist had on her own decision to become a journalist. It was a deciding moment for her, she said. Now, more than a decade later, she continues that work.
This year 15 partnerships were selected for funding. We’re excited about this new group and look forward to seeing these partnerships grow and flourish.
If your newspaper is one of this year’s partners, the Foundation commends you on your efforts.
If your paper isn’t among the growing list of those that have reached out and “touched” scholastic journalism, perhaps you’ll think about changing that. After all, you just never know when you are going to touch and perhaps change a life.
Sandy Woodcock is the director of NAA Foundation.