Young reporters gain first journalistic experience with J-School
Click to view the 2018 J-School Journal, a collection of all the J-Schoolers’ written work.
Evelina Gavoronskaia | Staff Writer
From interviewing their peers to writing captivating stories, young reporters got their first taste of journalism this week at the Chronicle J-School.
From May 29 through June first, Mason High School Chronicle hosted a camp for young journalists from fifth to eighth grade called J-School. The goal was to teach kids about the art of journalism and show them how to write their own stories.
During the four days of J-School participants learned how to conduct and transcribe interviews, write transitions and make visuals. Freshman Della Johnson, who was a mentor for the campers, thinks that J School is a great opportunity for young news writers to build the base of their journalism knowledge.
“I think J School is really important because it gets those basic skills in you,” Johnson said. “Even if you’ve already been there it helps to get those extra skills in you so you can learn more challenging things. It’s super important to know those things before trying to get on the Chronicle or going into a journalism class because once you know those things you can advance more.”
The goal of J-School is not only to help kids write news stories, but also to explore the many opportunities journalism has to offer. Eighth grader Krithika Sambamurthy, who attended J-School for the second time, learned to write an opinion article.
“Well right now Alex (Lisa) is teaching us how to do opinion articles,” Sambamurthy said. “I like reading them because I like seeing different people’s opinion. I like how they word it how they tell you what they think.”
At the end of the four days, J-School graduates finished their stories and receive a diploma that confirms them as news writers. The fact that the camp was run by an accomplished newspaper staff allowed the campers to learn a great deal about journalism, according to seventh grader Cody Allgor.
“I think it’s a really unique experience because you actually get to be with the Chronicle,” Allgor said. “They’ve won all these awards and you get to see a real winning newspaper and you get to learn from them.”
Click to enlarge and view in slideshow mode.
Photos by the Chronicle staff.