June 20, 2006

Carolina Journalism Institute changes bring rave reviews

Change is usually good, and change for the Carolina Journalism Institute brought rave reviews from the more than 200 participants attending June 14-19.

“We moved our housing facilities from the Holiday Inn across the street from the Coliseum to Capstone dorm,” Karen Flowers, director of the Institute, said. “This move was one of the best things we could have done. The evaluations were positive. The students said they had a real college experience staying in the dorms, and they thought that part of campus was beautiful.”

All classes except three were taught in the BA building. Desktop publishing and photojournalism were taught in the Coliseum and broadcasting was taught in both.

“We wanted to try to get all the classes in the same place, but we needed computer labs for desktop, photography and broadcast,” Flowers said.

A curriculum change also received positive comments.

Desktop publishing and newspaper design were team taught by Jake Palenske (Texas) and Susan Massy (Kansas).

“Having students learn the software (InDesign) by learning how to design, proved one of the best changes we have made lately,” Alison Shuman, assistant director of CJI, said. “We owe the change to our innovative faculty members who taught them. Their excitement about the possibilities was contagious, and thankfully we were able to overcome the problem of lab space. The classes were crowded at times, but that didn’t seem to matter to the students and advisers in them because the team teaching of Susan and Jake was so good.”

Another change that has been good for CJI is the partnership formed with the Carolina Master Scholars. Carolina Master Scholars is a recognized pre-college summer academic activity that is rapidly gaining acclaim on par with Duke TIP and other nationally-recognized youth programs. By registering under the course title “Adventures in Journalism,” students can have their enrollment in CJI count toward attainment of the designation “Carolina Master Scholar.”

“Having these students in our classes brought a depth of diversity we had not had before,” Flowers said. “Sernetta Williams and Mike Kelly, both with the Carolina Master Scholars, were wonderful to work with, and we look forward to working with them in the future.”

Flowers said the reason CJI remains one of the best summer workshops for scholastic publications in the country is the excellent faculty and staff: Kathy Craghead (Missouri), advisers; Beth Fitts (Mississippi), newspaper section editors; Nancy Hastings (Indiana), yearbook editors in chief; Kevin Kneisley (Kansas), broadcasting; David Knight (South Carolina), journalistic writing; Susan Massy (Kansas), newspaper design; Amy Medlock-Greene (South Carolina), broadcasting; Mark Murray (Texas), photojournalism; Lori Oglesbee (Texas), yearbook elements; Jake Palenske, (Texas), desktop publishing; Becky Tate (Kansas), yearbook design; Dow Tate (Kansas), newspaper editors in chief.

Martha Rothwell (North Carolina) is the Director of Student services. Her staff consists of six director’s assistants: Carmen Boyd, Leslie Dennis, Megan Herring, Jessica Nielson, Adam Peake and Stephen Stanton.

CJI, an intensive five-day regional workshop, helps junior high/middle and high school students and advisers enhance their knowledge of editing, writing, designing and production techniques for all scholastic publications and productions. It is part of the Southern Interscholastic Press Association, part of the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies and housed in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

In addition to attending large group lectures, students and advisers spend time in individual classes in advertising/business, broadcast, desktop publishing, literary magazine, newspaper, photojournalism, yearbook, and journalistic writing.

Newspaper and yearbook classes are further divided into classes for advisers, beginning and advanced students/editors, editors in chief and design.

Advisers can attend the individual classes for newspaper and yearbook advisers, or they may also attend individual non-adviser classes in broadcast, business, design, literary magazine, photojournalism and desktop publishing.

CJI 2007 will be June 13-17.

Click here to view Inside CJI, the photojournalism slideshow and the desktop publishing slideshow.