High school journalism program alive and well

It's reflection time.

We just wrapped up our fifth year working with high school journalist in our aptly named 'High School Journalism” program.

It was another fantastic year. One of the best, honestly.

If you are not familiar with this program, we encourage high school journalists to write stories or shoot photos and video and send us their work. We publish them at www.thegazette.com and share it via social media with the hope of growing a larger audience for these talented students. Many of these stories and photos also end up in print.

I visited 31 schools this year, including a couple of stops at West Delaware, Mount Vernon and Iowa City High. I visited Charles City and Vinton-Shellsburg for the first time and we had our first contribution from a Cedar Valley Christian student.

Our 'classroom” included 113 students contributing stories and/or photos and video from 21 different schools. Cedar Rapids Xavier was king of the hill once again with contributions from 37 different students. North Cedar had 22 students participate in the program, Mount Vernon 19 and Iowa City West 10. Washington (Iowa) High School hit a high mark with stories from nine different students.

I am passionate about this program for several reasons. Despite what you might hear on the campaign trail these days, good journalism still is very important and a vital part of our society. While the media landscape has changed and news is delivered on several different platforms, writing well and telling good stories remain important. News is important.

That's my basic message to the high school students I meet each year.

Showcasing their talent is another reason this program gives me so much pride. I have met so many talented writers with good reporting skills that I know good journalism will continue long after my pen dries out.

Another wonderful part of this program are the prizes The Gazette hands out each year. Every time a student submits a story, photo or video, their name goes into a drawing. Anamosa's Kyle Schepanski, who contributed a whopping 19 stories this year, was among the winners of a Kindle Paperwhite tablet. Sarah Longmire of Iowa City West and Tim Bell of North Cedar also won tablets. Bell had 31 photos published on our website. Benjamin Meyer of Dubuque Wahlert, Aaron Carter of Iowa City West and Jonathan House of City High were awarded $100 gift cards.

We will be drawing for two $500 scholarships in the next week. Xavier's Daniel Richardson won one of the two scholarships last year, but will receive his prize when he attends Notre Dame in the fall.

We hope the program will inspire journalists for years to come, so if you have a student who might be interested or know a teacher or school we should visit, contact me at the email address below.

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