By Lorie Hearn, CEO & Editor of inewsource
I recently wrote about the surprise, colossal success of our Documenters program in college classes. Today, we are taking the program to the next level: Into a class of enthusiastic high schoolers!
This is another first-in-the-country move for the San Diego Documenters, a program that trains and pays community members – from students to seniors – to attend public meetings, take notes and hold public officials to account.
Our high school pilot is running in North County.
Allow me to introduce you to Carlsbad High School Television Broadcasting (CHSTV) is one of the premier high school broadcasting programs in the country with a boatload of awards that testify to the quality of their work. And the Documenters program is excited to partner with the students.
It’s a great collaboration.
CHSTV is what is called a Career Technical Education (CTE) pathway program, and that means their teacher, Kurt Kohnen, provides some 70 students students, grades 9 to 12, with opportunities to learn real-world job skills through training and internships, including opportunities to learn from industry speakers and partners.
Students produce a live broadcast every weekday which is 100% student-run. They produce human interest stories, live sports broadcasts and a video news magazine. Public speaking, writing, and technology are just a few of the life skills students learn in this program. CHSTV grads have consistently gone on to some of the top broadcasting schools in the country or straight into the industry.
And now, the students are helping to hold public officials accountable.
“This opportunity to forge a partnership between CHSTV and inewsource provides crucial real-world journalistic experience for my students and also speaks to their dedication and work ethic,” Kohnen said. “It is a collaboration that makes sense between the leading investigative news organization in the San Diego region and the No. 1 program in student broadcasting.”
Director of our Documenters program, Joshua Piedra, sees working with students as a way to “highlight and empower youth voice.” He said, “young people are more than capable of handling complex tasks and we should give them the opportunity to shine.” Senior Leah Poteet grabbed the first chance to attend a Carlsbad City Council meeting on Oct. 29. She turned those notes in 24 hours.
Here is what she said about the experience.
“The Documenters program is extremely important and beneficial to CHSTV students such as myself because it teaches journalism skills from industry professionals early on to better prepare students for future experiences, while also allowing them to explore a personal side of journalism at a pace that is perfect for students.
“Growing up in such a desensitized generation,” she said, “makes journalism more difficult for students, however, inewsource equips students with the skills they need to be a professional, accurate journalist.”
Also at the heart of the program are the human interest feature stories that strive to lend a voice to the voiceless. All 70 students (9-12th graders) work together to produce these stories every four weeks which air on CHSTV.
These young journalists inspire us and send our hopes soaring for the future of local news. We, at inewsource, envision broad collaborations with other newsrooms, community organizations, schools and local institutions to uplift the quantity and quality of local news that is available to the region.
This high school partnership is just the beginning.