Journalism

Generation J High School Journalism Day

November 2, 2015

Generation J
Gary Metzker leads a hands-on presentation about techniques students and advisers can use when creating a publication using InDesign.

 

 

More than 250 high school students attended workshops and writing competitions while their advisers received tips and insight on a recent Saturday at CSUN at an event celebrating the importance of journalism.

Generation J High School Journalism Day was hosted Oct. 24 by the CSUN Journalism Department in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times High School Insider, Society of Professional Journalists Greater Los Angeles Professional chapter and the Southern California Journalism Education Association.

“We want to welcome them into the profession and let them know how many opportunities there are for young journalists,” said Dr. Elizabeth Blakey, event leader and assistant professor of journalism. “We want to open the pipeline from high school journalists to college journalists to professional journalists because journalism is burgeoning with digital, social and multiplatform opportunities.”

Participants began the day with a short presentation by Kyle Finck and Daniela Gerson of the L.A. Times, who spoke about High School Insider, a new program that helps students find their journalistic style and post their stories on the L.A. Times website. 

“That’s what’s really exciting about what we’re doing at HS Insider. It gets me very excited when I see all of you representing different places, different experiences and bringing them together,” said Gerson, who will join the CSUN Journalism faculty in Spring ‘16. “What I’m really hoping to get out of today is to learn from you about how we can work with you better as well and how we can improve your high school journalism experience.” 

 The main events of the day consisted of news, opinion and feature writing and photojournalism competitions, followed by informational sessions.

 The news-writing competition was based on a weekly address by Vice President Joe Biden, and students, like Elizabeth Liu, a 10th grade student at Temple City High School, watched and covered the recorded speech.

 “News writing is important because it allows students to share what is going on in the world. It also allows students to understand what is going on,” she said. “I wanted to come not only to see how far I’ve been getting in school but also get feedback from judges and see what I can improve on.”

 Zereen Ahmed, an 11th grade student at Whitney High School in Cerritos, participated in the opinion-writing contest. She currently writes for a website and attended the event to learn new techniques.

 “I’ve always had a passion for writing,” she said. “I wanted to explore the topic… I feel that it is important to put your opinions our there because everyone’s opinions matter.”

 The submissions from high school students during the competitions were scored and ranked by CSUN journalism professors, students and outside professionals. 

 Participants in the opinion-writing contest wrote about the helpfulness or harmfulness of legalized marijuana, a topic chosen by Professor James Hill, who also scored the stories. After receiving the topic, students researched several studies, some of which were attributed in their story.

 “I choose a current opinion topic and something I think young people will be interested in writing about,” Hill said. “I want to make it relevant to them and also want to make it kind of fun.

 “I think it’s important that we read good, strong editorials from various viewpoints. It helps us understand and respect the fact that other people will disagree with us,” he said. “You become more comfortable in this environment of diversity of opinion. You become more likely to respect people that disagree with you.”

After the competitions, students as well as high school teachers and advisers chose from a variety of workshops to attend to learn techniques of digital journalism and information about the field, including sessions about InDesign, sports journalism, broadcast, entertainment public relations and the future of newspapers.

 Daniel Reitz, a 9th grade creative writing teacher at Whitney High School, participated in the workshops to learn how to implement journalism in his high school. He said that when he assigned a literature review to students last year, he saw that they had an interest in writing and reporting.

 “This will be big for networking. I’ve met quite a few people giving me tips,” Reitz said. “The networking aspect is very beneficial—being around like-minded people.”

 

 — Yvonne Zimmerman 

 

Winners for the writing competitions are listed below:

NEWSWRITING

1st -- Janeth Inatomi, Temple City High School

2nd -- Katie Burke, Temple City High School

3rd -- Fidelity Ballmer, Foothill Tech High School, Ventura

Honorable Mention -- Jamie Kim, Beverly Hills High School

 

FEATURE WRITING

1st - April Zhon, Temple City High School

2nd -- Hannah Schoenbaum, Corona del Mar High School, Newport Beach

3rd -- Jodi Parker, Corona del Mar High School, Newport Beach

Honorable Mention -- Bonnie Wong, Mark Keppel High School, Alhambra

 

SPORTS WRITING

1st -- Alexander Liu, Temple City High School

2nd -- Darline Radell, Port of Los Angeles High School, San Pedro

3rd -- Miquel Moran, South East High School, South Gate

Honorable Mention -- Vanessa Centeno, Hollywood High School, Los Angeles

 

OPINION WRITING 

1st --  Catherine Tran, Temple City High School

2nd --  Gabriel Avalos, Whitney High School, Cerritos

3rd -- Nirav Desai, Beverly Hills High School 

Honorable Mention -- Alexia Sambrano, South East High School, South Gate

Cartoonist Recognition -- Emmanuel Maresca, San Gabriel High School and Carla Figueroa, Rancho Dominguez High School, Long Beach

 

PHOTOJOURNALISM

1st -- Amber Lee, Temple City High School

2nd -- Adrianna Rojas, Daniel Pearl Magnet High School, Van Nuys

3rd -- Veronica Goday, Daniel Pearl Magnet High School, Van Nuys

Honorable Mention --  Jaelene Galaz, Port of Los Angeles High School, San Pedro