Carol Stark: Students find their voice

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November 14, 2009

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sat Nov 14, 2009, 07:54 AM CST

Rhiannon Riesenmy’s life calling probably won’t lead her into the world of journalism.

She has a few other careers in mind, none that include a reporter’s notebook.

But that doesn’t mean the Thomas Jefferson sophomore is passing up the opportunity to write for her school’s newspaper. I met Rhiannon last week during The Joplin Globe’s 21st annual High School Journalism Workshop.

She’s young, bright and idealistic. She’s writing for her school newspaper because she says she loves to write.

I’ll say that again. She loves to write. And so does Adrianne Elliott, another Thomas Jefferson student, and Kelsey Williams, of Columbus, Kan., and Kirsten McGuirk, of Carl Junction.

In fact, I got the idea that many of the 60 high school students who attended the workshop had only recently discovered the power of words.

They and their student newspaper advisers traveled from throughout the area, just as they do every year. They bring their newspapers, they seek advice and hopefully they walk away with a list of story ideas, or at least a better understanding of what a journalist’s job is.

Usually, I spot about 10 students who I figure might stay on the newspaper career path, and I try to spend some time talking with each of them, hoping perhaps that some day their resume will come across my desk.

And, I did talk to the serious hopefuls who are planning on attending journalism schools or majoring in communications.

But I listened more carefully to students who said they just wanted to work on their school newspapers because they thought it was fun. They liked to take photographs. They liked to write poems. They were artistic and could design a page. Or they were passionate and had no problem communicating their opinions.

I fear that in the past, I’ve always been too single-minded about the purpose of a school newspaper. Last week, I learned that those school newspapers don’t just launch the careers of young reporters and photographers, but they give students a place where they can be heard.

One young lady had wrestled with illness, but said she was using her writing as a way to work through some of the pain she was experiencing.

Another said she enjoyed research, and looking up facts and records for her school newspaper was a challenge for her.

Still, another young man said he was just trying to find a place where he could excel. He never knew he could write a story until he started working on the school newspaper.

My point here is that it would be a shame if funding shortages caused schools to stop their printing presses. There were several advisors who mentioned those concerns.

The newspaper industry is so absorbed in its own problems, I’m afraid it hasn’t been a good advocate for our younger counterparts. But last week, I realized that we would lose more than just budding journalists if there were no student newspapers. We’d lose one of the few venues where kids feel they still have a voice.

Carol Stark is editor of The Joplin Globe. Address correspondence to her, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802 or e-mail cstark@joplinglobe.com.

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Carol Stark: Students find their voice

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