Ogden column: Happy new (school) year

Here we go again - another school year, another sports season, another year working with high school journalists.

This time of year brings about two emotions - dread that summer is almost over and excitement of what a new school year will bring, seeing old friends and making new ones.

Put me in the latter group.

This will be our third year of working with high school teachers and their students through our high school journalism program. If you are unaware of the program, it's pretty simple - we at The Gazette and KCRG open our doors to any high school students interested in media/journalism. We also hope to recruit a few more who are on the fence.

I will personally work with any teacher or student, offering story ideas, editing tips and mentorship. We will publish stories, photos and video at www.IowaPrepSports.com and a handful of stories and photos will be published in the paper.

We have opportunities for job shadows, internships and “TV work” with our daily Sports Desk at www.TheGazette.com and www.KCRG.com, as well as KCRG 9.2.

Last year, I visited students from nearly 50 Eastern Iowa schools, from Washington (Iowa) to Decorah, from BGM to Bellevue. We had more than 130 contributors from 31 different schools, including a whopping 210 photos from North Cedar's Emily Blake and 30 different writers/photographers from Xavier.

My goal is to improve on all those numbers in 2013-14, starting with my first visit of the school year to North-Linn High School on Aug. 19.

What we offer most is opportunity - a chance to get published, get professional experience and, we hope, a lot of encouragement along the way.

But programs like this are only successful with your help - the student journalists who want to participate, the parents who want to see their children take advantage of it and the teachers who see the many benefits.

One of my messages to each classroom is media still is important, the work we do still matters when people search for news. And, of course, writing well will help in anything a student chooses to do in the future.

So help me help you, help me get into your classroom and meet your students. Contact me at the email address or phone number below and set up a visit.

We also will have prizes again this year, including a pair of scholarships at the end of the school year. More on all that later.

l Comments: (319) 368-8696; jr.ogden@thegazette.com