Left to right, Worskshop participants Stacy Austin and Jennifer Mattila work on a story with David Austin (center) from The Oregonian.

The latest issue of The Mercury is out, and as far as newspapers go, it offers few surprises. Flip through the pages, and you’ll find in-depth, intelligent coverage of the UO campus. You’ll read features on community issues and events. You’ll also find profiles of 17 talented and motivated high school students. What may come as a surprise is that the paper was put together by these same students in just a week, start to finish—interviewing, writing, photographs, layout and design.

The Mercury is the result of the University of Oregon’s Summer Journalism Workshop for minority high school students that was held from June 24-30.

The workshop for Oregon high school students ages 14-18 was developed in 1994. The workshop is possible thanks to a generous multi-year grant provided by The Oregonian, through the Newhouse Foundation.

The workshop was developed in response to a need for more minority journalists in the community. Associate Professor John Russial, who has been director of the program since 1995, said he sees the workshop as a link in this process of creating professional journalists.

“We are trying to increase the diversity of newsrooms. One of the ways to do that is to aim at high school students,” he said. “The workshop is effective because it can track students while they are still making decisions.”

George Rede, director of recruiting and training for The Oregonian, also sees the workshop as a way to diversify Oregon’s newsrooms. He has been instrumental in recruiting students from the Portland area and in the development of the program.

“Oregon has a great untapped resource in terms of the growing proportion of students of color who can be part of tomorrow’s workforce in newsrooms,” he said. “Newsrooms reflect the communities we come from. We’re really not doing our job if we are not cultivating our own best young people.”

Throughout the week, Oregonian staff members served as mentors and presenters and helped plan coverage.

In July, high school students from this year’s workshop were invited to The Oregonian, where they stayed with and shadowed staffers for additional exposure to professional journalism.

The commitment of the workshop staff combined with the hard work of the workshop students is evident in the quality of The Mercury.

The workshop may be an excellent introduction to professional journalism, but it is also a chance for high school students to preview college life.

Current UO student Oscar Arana attended the summer journalism workshop as a high school student and came back to the workshop this past summer as a student chaperone. Many of the questions students had for him were about college in general. Arana knows first-hand how important the experience can be in deciding where to go to school.

“I decided to come to the UO because of the workshop,” he says.

University of Oregon teaching staff included Russial, Adjunct Assistant Professor Clyde Bentley, Internship Coordinator Pam Cytrynbaum, and doctoral students Dennis Dunleavy, Jane Marcellus and Andi Stein. Visiting Assistant Professor Kellee Weinhold gave a presentation on working with photos in Photoshop and Dean Tim Gleason presented a lecture on libel and writing fairly.