Workshops


For high school students


Illinois Press Foundation/Eastern Illinois University
High School Journalism Workshop - July yearly


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. Professional journalists provide most of the instruction. 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, 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 typically 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 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), interviewing medical professionals at a hospital, 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, hiking through Turkey Run State Park, 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 in 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 may be filled earlier, depending on the quality of applications.

Need more information? Call Sally Renaud, workshop director, IPF/EIU High School Journalism Workshop, phone at 217.581.7867, FAX to 217.581.7188 or e-mail to <serenaud@eiu.edu>.


July 2010 IPF/EIU workshop

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