More than 4,000 high school journalists and their advisers were in San Francisco this weekend for a national conference of the Journalism Education Association. I was very impressed by the quality of the journalism these young people produce, not to mention how inquisitive they are. This next generation of journalists is very good, indeed.
I had a front-row seat as a contest judge and a seminar presenter.
I judged the editorial writing competition on Friday, and the students wrote excellent -- and extremely passionate --editorials about the topic they were presented with: Internet predators. More than 100 students wrote editorials on deadline. Our committee judged seven of them as superior-- the top category. Here are the winners. My prediction is that you’ll be reading them one day: Alexandra Garnhart-Bushakra, La Grande High School (La Grande, OR); Raphael Graybill, Great Falls High School (Great Falls, MT); Katie Heaton, Grace Davis High School (Modesto, CA); Neha Jaganathan, Cupertino High School, (Cupertino, CA); Maria Krauter, East Bakersfield High School (Bakersfield, CA); Lisa Larsen, Wenatchee High School (Wenatchee, WA), and Mai Nguyen, Charles Wright Academy (Tacoma, WA).
I also presented a seminar on editorial writing, and it was packed with more than 200 students. They offered dozens of ideas on subjects for editorials and columns. The topics included illegal immigration, racism, dress codes, cafeteria food, student drivers, junk food, closed campuses, curfews, underage drinking, campus bullies, lack of teen centers, restrictive rules at schools dances, abortion and evolution.
We had a great time debating editorial positions, and often there were several students arguing all sides of some hot-button issues. These young people are bright, well read and they have strong opinions. They'll make great editorial writers.
If you still have the editorials, please scan them in and link to them. I'd be fascinated to see what seven passionate viewpoints emerged.
Scott: Unfortunately, the judges don't see them after the judging. I think the editorials are returned to the students with the judges' comments. All the winners in all the divisions are listed on the Journalism Education Association's Web site. . . jea.org.
Jim
The reason that Jim was at the convention is because he was awarded the National Journalism Education Media Citation Award for his work with scholastic journalism.
Yeah, Jim, and thanks for all your help and work at the covention!
Diane Honda
Bullard HS