Illinois Press Foundation/Eastern Illinois University
High School Journalism Workshop/July 11-24, 2004

Workshop Description

Program Description: The Illinois Press Foundation/Eastern Illinois University High School Journalism Workshop is a two-week residential program that provides students an intimate look at journalism as a career. The ultimate goal is to increase diversity in the journalism profession and in newspaper newsrooms particularly by sparking students' interest early. The workshop introduces students to the complete process of publishing newspapers: gathering information, writing news, editing it, designing and producing the paper. Participants will produce three newspapers during the course of the workshop.

Instruction: The first week is devoted to instruction and related exercises, including news-gathering field trips. Most of the instruction is provided by professional journalists. Dozens of reporters, editors, publishers, photographers and other journalists have taught in the program since 1993, representing more than 30 newspapers and news organizations throughout Illinois and from nearby states, including the Belleville News-Democrat, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Herald-News of Joliet, Citizen Newspapers of Chicago, Jet Magazine, National Public Radio, The Associated Press, the Peoria Journal-Star, The News-Gazette in Champaign), the Ft. Wayne (Ind.) Journal-Gazette, Indianapolis Star, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Daily Herald (Arlington Heights). The week culminates in the production of a weekly newspaper.

Internship: In the second week, students intern in pairs at several newspapers. Sites will include the Commercial News (Danville), the Herald & Review (Decatur), The News-Gazette (Champaign), The Pantagraph (Bloomington), The State Journal-Register (Springfield) and the Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.). For three days, students are driven to the participating papers by their college-student mentors, where they work with reporters and other journalists on assignments. These have ranged from coverage of murder trials to interviewing the governor to exploring county fairs. The remainder of the second week is devoted to production of two daily newspapers.

Field trips: For entertainment as well as instruction, students will participate in several other field trips. These have included touring the Lender's Bagels Bakery in Mattoon (said to be the largest bagel bakery in the world) or visiting CCAR Industries (a factory staffed largely by people with disabilities), meeting with county court judges and other officials in chambers and sitting in on court sessions or covering a Coles County Board meeting, touring an Amish community, canoeing down the Embarras River, and swimming at Lake Shelbyville.

Funding: The seed grant for the workshop is provided by Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, Inc. The bulk of the rest of the funds are provided by the Illinois Press Foundation, supplemented by contributions from newspapers Illinois and neighboring states and other organizations, including EIU. All expenses (including housing, meals and tuition, as well as transportation to the conference if needed) are paid from these funds.

Application requirements: To be considered, students must complete an application form, which is available from the Journalism Department, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL 61920. Other requirements are (1) completion of the sophomore year in high school by the beginning of the workshop, (2) a 500-word essay by the student describing his/her career goals and how the workshop would help the student achieve those goals; (3) submission of three samples of the student's writing, preferably published non-fiction or graded exercises; (4) two letters of recommendation from the student's teachers/advisers. Final application deadline is May 1, but entries will be judged and internship slots filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
Need more information?
Call Joe Gisondi, Director, 2004 IPF/EIU High School Journalism Workshop, at 217.581.6016, FAX to 217.581.2923 or e-mail to <jjgisondi@eiu.edu>.

Application available HERE: