On Saturday, Dec. 9, dozens of students from the New York City area traveled to Cardozo High School to attend a youth journalism conference hosted by the Journalism Education Association (JEA). Cardozo was chosen as one of two schools in the United States by the JEA for this program. The program was a 3-day workshop in which trained journalism educators worked alongside staff and students to strengthen their skills in a variety of journalism areas, such as broadcasting, social media storytelling, reporting, photography, and the yearbook.
The Dec. 9 workshop was open to both Cardozo High School students and students from other middle and high schools in New York City. The conference, which was from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., was sponsored by the JEA in association with Press Pass NYC and News Hound. The professionals who spoke at the conference were from prestigious schools around the country, whose students have won national recognition for their journalistic work. A.J. Chambers from Horse Creek Academy, Justin Daigle from Brighton High School, Sarah Nichols from Whitney High School, and Digital Producer Carolyn Adams all hosted information sessions for the youth journalism students in attendance.
New York State Assemblyman Ed Braunstein of District 26 stopped by and spoke to students about the importance of the press to keep politicians in line and hold them to high standards. He relayed to students that their jobs as professional journalists help to keep the everyday people informed, in order to make good choices and help better serve their communities.
In addition, State Senator John Liu also attended the youth journalism conference, speaking to students about his own relationship with journalism, and how it inspired him to get into politics. He shared that headlines depicting Asian Americans had truly shaken him up several years ago, leading him to run for local politics, to prove the headlines wrong. Today, he says that there is nothing more important in government and politics than the media, in order to research and fact check individuals on a regular basis.
At the conference, students had the option of attending several different workshops, in which they learned how to better put together a broadcasting segment, take compelling photos for an article, write engaging copy, and produce a visually appealing layout for the yearbook. In addition to sitting in workshops, the students in attendance were able to speak freely at round tables with each professional who was there.
Students who attended the event shared that they learned a lot from the small workshops. Some students learned about how to better strengthen their photography skills for broadcast and print. “I learned a lot about photography angles and how to use them to the best of my advantage,” shared Cardozo junior, Sameera Pasha.
And, others were more focused on reporting and storytelling “At the conference, I learned to use gentle commands in interviews to increase the efficiency of my questions,” explained Cardozo junior, Jonathan Too.
Despite the warm, beautiful weather for a Saturday in December, students were happy to have spent their weekend learning and contributing to their budding careers in youth journalism.