Seed Money Grant Recipients
T he NAA Foundation has awarded 20 Student Newspaper Partnership Grants of $2,500 in "seed money" to high school papers extending from Dillingham, Alaska, to Clarksburg, W.Va. The grants are given to schools - which must partner with local mainstream newspapers - to establish a school newspaper where none exists or for stabilizing those in danger of failure.
NAA Foundation-funded Seed Money Grants for 2001:
Dillingham (Alaska) High School; Bristol Bay Time, Dillingham; University of Alaska/Bristol Bay
Lillie B. Williamson High School, Mobile, Ala., and The Mobile Register
Rancho Alamitos High School, Garden Grove, Calif.; Orange County Register, Santa Ana; California State University, Long Beach
Cardozo High School, Washington, D.C; The Washington Post; George Washington University
East Marshall High School, Le Grand, Iowa; Marshalltown Times-Republican; The University of Iowa, Iowa City
Sparta (Ill.) High School; Sparta News-Plain Dealer
New Iberia (La.) Senior High School; The Daily Iberian; University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Frederick A. Douglass Senior High School, New Orleans; Gambit Weekly; New Orleans; University of New Orleans Women’s Center
Potomac High School, Oxon Hill, Md.; The Washington Post
Massey Hill Classical High School; Fayetteville, N.C.;
The Fayetteville Observer
Carver High School-Carver Courier, Winston-Salem, N.C.; Winston-Salem Journal; Sara Lee Direct, Winston-Salem
Pecos (N.M.) High School; The Santa Fe New Mexican; Pecos National Historical Park
Timken Senior High School, Canton, Ohio; The Repository; Canton
Summit High School, Bend, Ore.; The Bulletin, Bend; Mountain View High School, Bend
George Washington High School, Philadelphia; News Gleaner; Philadelphia
North Myrtle Beach High School, Little River, S.C.; The North Myrtle Beach Times; Coastal Carolina University Chanticleer, Conway, S.C.
Barbara Jordan High School for Careers, Houston;
The Houston Chronicle; University of Houston
The Loudoun Times Mirror, Leesburg, Va.; Stone Bridge High School, Ashburn, Va.; Shenandoah University, Winchester, Va.
Toppenish (Wash.) High School; Yakima (Wash.)
Herald-Republic; Daily Sun News, Sunnyside, Wash.
Notre Dame High School, Clarksburg, W.Va.;
Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram
Journalism Scores!
Niki Hayes, principal of North Beach Elementary in suburban Seattle, saw that only 37 percent of her fourth-graders passed the writing section of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test in 2000. So she created a journalism academy called North Beach Communications.
Now fourth- and fifth-graders staff the school newspaper, the North Beach Chronicle.
For training, the PTA hired Leah Kohlenberg, part-time editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Kohlenberg organized a journalism conference where media professionals instructed students in interviewing, writing, photography and even ad sales. Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist David Horsey was a speaker.
Hayes says children are also taught the history of the First Amendment and use of technology such as digital cameras, scanners and computers.
With Kohlenberg’s guidance, students interview sources, write articles, take photographs and sell up to $600 in ads for each issue. With these responsibilities come the realism of being professional, facing deadlines and dealing with criticism - factors the students thrive on.
"I have kids run up to me in the hallways between classes and beg for another story assignment, right after some grueling rewriting session," says Kohlenberg.
Most important, students directly involved in the newspaper achieved an 83-percent passing rate in 2000 on the WASL writing section.
Hayes says, "Journalism is the vehicle that helps kids to analyze information and synthesize ideas in writing."
- Travis Loop
Reprinted from Presstime Dec. 2001.