Students spread news through Rookie Reporters program
Courtesy of Sedalia (Mo.) School District 200
Journalism students in Sedalia, Missouri, are expanding their community’s knowledge of school-related news and events through a partnership with the local newspaper.
Rookie Reporters is a pilot program sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri-Columbia; the goal is to improve student communication skills while providing additional local content for the community’s daily newspaper.
Journalism students at Smith-Cotton High School report and write news, features and sports stories, as well as opinion pieces, which are published in the Sedalia Democrat and posted on the paper’s website. The paper gets more local content, making it more valuable for readers; subscribers learn more about what is happening in their local school district, and students get their work published with their byline, providing a valuable addition to their academic resume. Over the two years it has been in place, the program has been a winner on all fronts.
Before becoming S-C’s journalism teacher and the Sedalia district’s communications director, Bob Satnan was editor of the Democrat. He knew well the challenges of meeting readers’ expectations for local news coverage with shrinking numbers of newsroom employees. Also, S-C’s student newspaper went dormant about a decade ago, and Satnan wanted an outlet for his students’ work. After Satnan attended the Reynolds High School Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri, he came up with the idea for the Rookie Reporters program.
The students provide a list of story ideas to Democrat editors to ensure that the paper’s staff knows what the students are working on; this helps avoid duplication of effort. The students follow protocols for journalistic integrity and credibility in creating their reports, which are provided to the paper for use at its discretion. The stories are published with an information box and logo to indicate they are student-produced content.
S-C journalism student Victoriya Kondratenko was thrilled when the Democrat published her feature story about how teachers are using more creativity to engage students in their lessons.
“The whole experience allowed me to go out of my comfort zone and talk to many different people,” she said. “I learned to just take the chance and go for it even if it scares me to talk to people I didn’t know. I learned there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
This year, Satnan introduced the Rookie Reporter Awards to recognize his students’ efforts. He selected top examples in news, features, profiles, sports and commentary and enlisted professional journalists and communicators to serve as judges. Allison Elyse Gualtieri, senior editor for education at U.S. News and World Report, was impressed by the students’ work. In Satnan’s column for the Democrat on the awards, Gualtieri said: “I read a lot of work by both professionals and experts, and was gratified at both the quality and the scope of the students’ work. Glad to see kids out there asking questions and exploring their community.”
Democrat readers and S-C journalism students both have found value in the program. In a poll, 83 percent of readers said Rookie Reporters stories are a good addition to the Democrat, while 68 percent of students said seeing their work in print was an important part of their journalism class experience.
Examples of stories by Rookie Reporters:
