By Carol Cooper with Madison Sanchez, and Alexis Rodriguez
On November 9th, 2018, staff reporters from the MCSM Rampage attended the annual High School Journalism Conference and Newsie Awards Ceremony at Baruch College in Manhattan. First year student journalists Madison Sanchez, Valeria Allusson, Alexis Rodriguez, and Blu Rivera sat in on conference teaching sessions, together with Principal David Jimenez, Vice Principal Charles Kwan, and RamPage advisor Carol Cooper.
Ms. Katina Paron (in red dress), hands out the first of several awards won by the Francis Lewis High School newspaper.
This year we found that the conference format had changed quite a bit from how it was run in previous years. This is largely because its longtime head coordinator, Katina Paron, has decided to step down from that pivotal position. We wish her well as she was always very supportive of the MCSM Newspaper Club, and encouraged our previous Newsie award-winners Roberta Nin Feliz, and Aaron Jackson.
Happily, Ms. Paron was still active in the event as a presenter and a conference announcer this year; but she no longer deals as directly with the annual conference format and invitations to the various schoolsas she once did.
Some of the changes implemented this year included inhibiting free movement between workshops by asking students to sign up in advance for various classes; adding more workshops that teach skills related to hard news reporting; offering a lunchtime table-discussion activity; and staging a post-lunch press conference allowing students to question a guest speaker on a school-policy related topic. Naturally, some of the new protocols worked better than others, but the staff at Baruch are always looking for feedback, and are working to improve the conference experience for all students and teachers. We, like other attending schools, offered suggestions to improve next year’s conference.
Among the many interesting workshops MCSM surveyed were: “Lightning Ledes: Grabbing the Reader in 25 Words or Less” by Jere Hester; “Paging Advisers & Editors: Layout & Design” by Cadence Turner & Jacqueline LInge; “Storm Alert: Covering Climate” by Beth Daley; “Story Idea Incubator” by Indrani Sen; “Photojournalism in the Digital Age” by John Smock; “Avoiding Big Mistakes: Law and Ethics for Journalists” by Geanne Belton; and “Digging Beneath the Surface: Investigative Reporting” by Eileen Markey.
Workshop presenters varied in teaching style and levels of engagement with student reporters. High schools from all over the five boroughs were represented, and consistently asked probing, intelligent questions related to each topic. The news conference centered around a school-wide program initiated just this year by New York’s Department of Education to launch mandatory mental health programs in New York City public schools. The speaker was a leading Parent Advocate for this program, and she spoke eloquently about the need to monitor and support student mental health.
(L-to-R) Rampage staff at the Newsies: Alexis Rodriguez, Madison Sanchez, Blu Rivera, Valeria Allusson, and club advisor Ms. Cooper with Principal Jimenez and our trip chaperone Ana M. Rodriguez.
Asked to relate what they thought of the conference, Madison Sanchez and Alexis Rodriguez offered the following: “I liked everything about the workshop portion of the conference,” admits Madison. “I attended the investigative, photography, and copyediting workshops, and I learned both from the presenter and the other students. Next year, I would attend the “Lightning Ledes” class because I think it would be beneficial. The photojournalism class was helpful because it suggested how to take good pictures for articles.”
Alexis also found the workshop on photojournalism exciting. “I liked the workshop that dealt with photography,” she said. “ I felt that it was very helpful, and there was never a time when I was bored.”
Asked their opinion of the lunchtime press conference, Madison and Alexis were impressed by this new effort to research and improve student mental health. “I liked the way the news conference was presented,” says Alexis. “The Parent Advocate answered all the questions that everyone asked. I think it’s a good idea to monitor students’ mental health, because it is a major issue for teens, and [a crisis] can be prevented with help.”
“The issue of monitoring and supporting the mental health of public school students is important because of the rising suicide rates,” added Madison.
Asked which workshops they might take if they went to the Newsies again, both students indicated that they would be willing to repeat the class on Photojournalism since the short 45-minute tutorial was so densely packed with useful strategic information. “I would probably choose the Photojournalism class because I want to start using pictures to tell stories,” responds Alexis. “The photojournalism class helped with editing ideas, and taught me some of the laws around taking pictures.”
Mr. Kwan audited the “Climate Change” workshop and Mr. Jimenez sat in on the “Law and Ethics” panel. Ms. Cooper, our Newspaper Club advisor, appreciated both the “Layout and Design” workshop, and the “Story Incubator” workshop as classes geared towards helping her make the MCSM Rampage a better publication. All in all, this one-day conference was a great educational opportunity to share the love of journalism and news media with like-minded students and educators from all around our city.