By Tara Thoel
Special for The State News
Area eighth graders turned the tables on broadcast journalists from Lansing stations on Saturday, trying to push information out of interviewees.
Dan Ponce, the morning and weekend anchor and reporter for Channel 10 News, and Tanee Elston, the news director and accounting executive for WQHH-Q (96.5-FM), answered questions about why they chose a career in journalism and the steps they took to get their jobs.
The students wrote about Ponce or Elston as part of the Creating the Next Generation of Minority Journalists program, with the best stories being printed in the Lansing State Journal.
The program is aimed at teaching the basics of journalism and is a partnership between the Lansing State Journal, MSU's School of Journalism and the Lansing School District.
"The main goal of this program is to instill in the students a passion for writing and reading newspapers and knowing what is going on in their communities," said Stephanie Angel, the managing editor for the Lansing State Journal.
The program was designed by the former publisher of the Lansing State Journal, Michael Kane, and started in November with a $25,000 grant from the Gannett Foundation, which is sponsored by the owner of the newspaper, Gannett Co. Inc.
Angel and Rosa E. Morales, the director of Hispanics and Minorities in Journalism Programs, teamed up to write the grant. They're still looking for another $175,000 to fully fund the program for the future.
The program, designed to have one-on-one interaction with the students, has 20-25 eighth graders all from the Lansing School District.
"The key thing is to make it fun for eighth graders, not to make it totally like a school day, but to incorporate some hands-on skills like interviewing and writing," Morales said. "They also will be discussing what is happening in the world of news, what they are reading, listening, feeling, and getting their perspective on news coverage."
The students are selected by teachers or counselors, who recommend them based on the student's curiosity and passion to learn about current events and writing.
"We live in a diverse society, and all of us need to represent it and anybody who is in journalism recognizes that but it takes an effort," Angel said. "You can't just increase diversity without doing something to try to increase the diversity in our workplace."
The students meet every second Saturday of the month for a period of four to six hours as classes are conducted by the staff of the Lansing State Journal and some faculty members at MSU.
During this period the students learn about writing, journalism, interviewing, ethics, photography, Web design, blogs, graphic design and other skills.
Twenty of the students also will be invited to a Michigan Interscholastic Press Association workshop.
"I want to be able to ask people more questions and become a better writer," said Manuel Martinez, an eighth grader at Dwight Rich Middle School.
Each student is given a mentor who is a trained university journalism student or is part of the newspaper's staff. The goal for the mentors is to meet with the student a few times each month informally to keep reinforcing the skills learned in the Saturday classes.
Kevin Reeves, an eighth grader at Pattengill Middle School, said the program helps him organize his ideas and hopes it will help him get into college and other similar programs.
"We need these kids just as much as they need us, if not more," said Dawn Kettinger, assistant city editor at the Lansing State Journal and part-time journalism instructor. "If we don't have more diversity in the newsroom reflecting society, then newspapers won't survive."
