Email Article

Printable Page

Black College Wire Helps Train 15 Summer Interns

For Immediate Release

July 8, 2005

Details, details and more details: Find them, analyze them, write them. That's the life and labor this summer of 15 interns hired by Black College Wire to train as reporters at African American community newspapers and the Wire's own Internet-based news service.

"What I learned from last week was details, details, and more details," said Roberta Dooms of Clinton, Md., a Howard University student who is writing for the Black College Wire, based in Washington, D.C. "Details and descriptions make a story. I also learned that you have to be persistent and look at all angles when searching for a particular item."

As working reporters, many of the 15 interns are writing articles that take them beyond the scope of the academic affairs they typically cover for their campus newspapers.

For example, intern Artisha Lawson of Central State University has been interviewing candidates for mayor in Toledo, Ohio, where she writes for the Toledo Journal this summer. Alexander M. Ford of Hampton University, writing for the Atlanta World, found himself assigned to cover city redevelopment plans that include Atlanta's first planned African American residential community.

Each intern also must submit at least one article this summer to the Black College Wire, a news service funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The news service provides writing experience and training for student journalists, champions press freedom and improvements in journalism education, and produces an online news report available for publication by the campus newspapers of the historically black colleges and universities and other interested publications. It is a project of the Black College Communication Association, an organization of faculty members and advisers teaching journalism at historically black colleges and universities.

Four students are working this summer as staff writers or contributors for the news service. School may be out for the summer, but college administrators keep making news, as intern Teesa Johnson, a graduate student at Florida A&M University, discovered when she attended a Board of Trustees meeting. She produced a daily story containing fresh details about the university's continuing financial housecleaning and discovery of payroll irregularities. She is working on a follow-up article related to budget cuts affecting the athletic department, which were also announced at the meeting.

All 14 interns and one student freelance writer prepared for the internships by participating in training sessions and writing exercises June 1-5 at Black College Wire's 2005 Internship Training Institute, held at the Freedom Forum's Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University. Their training was made possible by a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Through writing assignments and workshops on such topics as word usage and writing mechanics, finding the news, writing leads and covering crime stories, the students readied themselves for their 20-hour-per-week summer jobs. Guest speakers included editors and reporters from The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, trainers from the Diversity Institute's staff, faculty from Tennessee State University, former interns and the staff of the Black College Wire.

Two highlights of the training week: Students covered a live news conference and later were sent out into the streets of Nashville ? to the city bus hub, a nearby mall and the Vanderbilt campus -- to find and develop stories.

Asked what she has learned so far in her internship at the Black College Wire, Joi Gilliam, a Howard University student, put this at the top of her list: "Before moving forward with a story, make sure you know what the news is. This can save a lot of time . . . you know what the news is and who to speak with."

The participants in the Black College Wire summer class of 2005, and their assignments, are:

• Scot E. Kirk
  Central State University
  Washington Afro-American

• Darryl D. Smith
  Grambling State University
  Dallas Examiner

• Emily Quartimon
  Albany State University
  Albany Southwest Georgian

• Shannon Pittman
  North Carolina A&T University
  Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.)

• Diamond M. Washington
  Florida A&M University
  Miami Times

• Orneno G. Wright
  Grambling State University
  Chicago Crusader

• Alexander Marius Ford
  Hampton University
  Atlanta Daily World

• Nicole Starr Perry
  Lincoln University
  Chicago Standard Newspapers

• Kendrick Marshall
  Jackson State University
  Chicago Crusader

• Artisha S. Lawson
  Central State University
  Toledo Journal

• Shawnee Y. McFarland
  Dillard University
  Houston Defender

• Teesa Johnson
  Florida A&M University
  Black College Wire

• Roberta Dooms
  Howard University
  Black College Wire

• Joi Gilliam
  Howard University
  Black College Wire

• Mercy Chikowore
  Claflin University
  Black College Wire