Nearly 400 students gathered Saturday, Sept. 28, for a day of journalism workshops and advising during NorCal Media Day at Palo Alto High School.
The students and their advisers came from 35 high schools throughout Northern California for an array of workshops presented by media professionals.
The event was hosted by the Journalism Education Association of Northern California, the regional branch of a national organization.
Volunteers help provide staffing for the presentations. Press Club volunteers included board members Edrie Blackwelder, Bill Parks, Ed Remitz and Alexis Terrazas. Parks, a journalism professor at Ohlone College, also enlisted teachers Gary and Victoria Kauf from his school to host workshops on broadcast news and documentary production.
Other participants included representatives from the California News Publishers Association, California Scholastic Journalism Initiative, California Press Women and League of Women Voters.
Workshops addressed such topics as yearbook design, photography, social media, investigative reporting, sportswriting, leadership and ethics. Professionals also hosted critique sessions with individual high school media teams.
“The benefits of an events like NorCal Media day are really two-fold, from my perspective,” says Brian Wilson, JEANC President and a Palo Alto instructor. “Of course, students have a chance to simply learn a ton more about journalistic topics from interviewing to feature writing to broadcasting to photography and everything in between. But the more hidden benefit is that so many publications’ kids have the opportunity to interact with others who are doing the same amazing work that they’re doing on their own campuses.”
“I love watching students from different schools connect on the issues that matter most to them, and I’m proud that we are able to provide a day for them to do that,” he adds.
“It’s always a pleasure to be able to give back to student journalists since they are the future,” says Alexis Terrazas, the club’s Education Coordinator and Editor in Chief of El Tecolote, a bilingual newspaper in San Francisco. “The journalistic talent that was on display was humbling — I’m amazed at what these students are doing.”