Above The Fold
Above the Fold
In Friendship
The NAA Foundation has been designated as a “Friend of Scholastic Journalism” by the Journalism Education Association.
The Friend of Scholastic Journalism Award is given to individuals and groups making significant contributions to scholastic journalism.
The award recognizes the NAA Foundation for its sustained support of scholastic journalism programs, teachers and students across the country. It was officially presented to NAA Foundation Director Sandy Woodcock at JEA’s national convention in November at Gaylord Opryland in Nashville.
Since 1997, the NAA Foundation has offered financial support to middle school and high school journalism programs that team their local professional newspapers to resurrect or begin student newspapers. In addition to the Student/Newspaper Partnership Grant, the NAA Foundation lends its support nationwide to scholastic journalism programs.
The NAA Foundation’s grant to the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., has resulted in a series of free, downloadable presentations on student press law complete with teacher presentation notes (
www.splc.org). Offerings include “Press Law Primer,” “Copyright Law” and “Press Freedom.”
Lesson plans for journalism teachers linked to national language arts standards can be downloaded from the NAA Foundation’s Web site, www.naafoundation.org. Titled “N the News,” this free eight-unit curriculum features daily lesson plans using the newspaper as its textbook.
The NAA Foundation and JEA partnered to present the first-ever Cornerstone Award in spring 2005 to Davenport (Iowa) Central High School. This award recognizes up to two secondary schools that have shown their students, teachers and administrators thoroughly understand the importance of the First Amendment.
Also in support of JEA initiatives, the NAA Foundation has provided fellowships for advisers to attend the JEA/National Scholastic Press Association high school journalism convention’s Outreach Academy, a daylong program giving new advisers of color and those serving minority populations a crash course in how to become better advisers.
The NAA Foundation awards Young Publisher Grants to school newspapers partnering with professional newspapers to develop business plans with the goal of relying only on advertising for funding. One broad outgrowth of this program will be a manual all advisers can use to develop their own funding plan based on advertising.
Above the Fold
YEA Salutes a Founding Member
In October, the Youth Editorial Alliance lost founding member Laura Crooks, who died at age 37.Crooks joined The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., in 1997 as editor of the Our Generation section for teens, became food editor in 2000 and was assistant features editor at the time of her death. In the early part of her career, she worked at the Phoenix Gazette and The Arizona Republic. She is survived by her husband, Gary, and two children: Calvin, 9, and Carly, 6.
Crooks played an instrumental role in the organization of the first conference for youth editors in 1996, recalls Lorraine Eaton of The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, who founded YEA.
“We had an instant goal, to make these youth editor positions respected in newsrooms and to learn from each other,” Eaton says. “Laura offered to find youth editors in the western part of the country, a process that meant endless phone calls – no e-mail back then.”
Debra Leithauser of The Washington Post, who also helped to put together that first conference, notes that Crooks went on to organize YEA’s 1998 conference in Spokane. “Her energy, enthusiasm and fun nature will be so missed,” Leithauser says.
Crooks was equally generous with her time in mentoring new youth editors. Kathy Miedema of the San Jose Mercury News, who started the TX. section at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, Utah, remembers how Crooks guided her in getting the program up and running.
“She was the key that opened the door to a whole new world for me, and I'll never forget what a great job she did organizing the conference in Spokane mere months after her first [child] was born,” Miedema says.
As Eaton points out, Crooks’ contributions to the youth editorial movement will endure.
“She leaves behind a laudable legacy that will keep on giving, and that I know she was proud of,” Eaton says. “In Spokane and Arizona, she directly touched the lives of hundreds of young journalists. Through her tireless work in launching YEA, she will continue to indirectly touch the lives of thousands.”
In Crooks’ memory, a college savings fund has been set up for her children. Contributions may be sent to the Laura Crooks Memorial Fund, Account No. 502700, Spokane Media Federal Credit Union, 901 W. Riverside Ave., Spokane, WA 99201-1099.
