"Why we do this workshop"

Wilmar Monge of Parkrose High School and Vanessa Kemper of Cleveland High School work with Bruce Ely, a photographer with The Oregonian who served as an instructor at the workshop

by Pam Cytrynbaum and David Austin, Workshop Coordinators

Editor's note: what follows is reprinted from The Mercury, the newspaper of the Summer Journalism Workshop for Minority High School Students. The workshop brings students of color from high schools throughout Oregon to the UO campus for an intense nine days, during which they learn--and do--everything it takes to produce a newspaper. Made possible by The Oregonian and the S.I. Newhouse Foundation, the workshop, which ran this year from June 17-25, is in its eleventh year.

They came to the Summer Journalism Workshop for Minority High School Students with dozens of questions.

What do I ask in an interview? how do I write a profile? What's a deadline?

Twenty-five students, nine days and 36 pages to fill. Not exactly a recipe for sleeping in at the start of summer vacation. As they scoped out Eugene and the University of Oregon campus for stories, they learned that journalism doesn't always leave time for sleeping.

Not with the early morning interviewing of a radio station intern. or the late night spent photographing at a local cemetery. Or the days of checking and rechecking facts culled from interviews. The ride wasn't always smooth, because sources fell through, photos didn't turn out right and and schedules changed. A lot.

But the students came through. The impressive work they did speaks for itself. Read their stories. Their profiles reflect a perspective missing from so much of the journalism in this country. These students represent voices, ideas and communities that aren't always represented in a newsrooms across the country.

More than 40 percent of newspapers do not have a single person of color on staff. A number of the larger daily papers have few--if any--minority representation in management or decision-making positions.

The sponsors, directors and instructors of this workshop are committed to identifying and nurturing the kind of talented young journalists of color whose work you hold in your hands. We've seen some of the former workshop participants go on to successful lives in journalism. We'd like to see more.