Thanks to a generous grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation, 18 students who were selected for the Scripps Howard Foundation Emerging Journalists Program (SHF EJP) multimedia workshop at UNT worked in 13 media outlets across the state over the summer.

“My mentors are fantastic and I’m becoming very familiar with the newsroom,” said Genevieve Adame, a student from Ronald Reagan High School who worked at the San Antonio Report. “This is the most personal and up-close experience I’ve had with news and I’m very grateful that I was placed at SA Report.”

As part of the program, the 18 students participated in a June 12-16 workshop led by Leah Waters, a Dallas Morning News reporter, UNT adjunct professor and former TAJE state director, at the UNT campus in Denton. During the workshop, students produced multimedia team projects about coping in the Texas heat, how entertainment media desensitizes adolescents to school shootings and politics in Texas.

In addition to Adame, other students who completed the workshop and internships were Bridget Battenfield, Oliver Capito, Maya Contreras, Aubrey Dickinson, Alfred Dozier, Katie Gerbasich, Ava Jiang, Yaamini Lois, Angelina Liu, Iniya Nathan, Maya Palavali, Fatima Syed, Avery White, Ava Flores, Amanda Hare, Ashley Henderson, Keyla Holmes and Carl Hu.

In addition to the San Antonio Report, the student interns worked at a variety of media outlets including KERA, The Dallas Morning News, Texas Metro News, Dallas Free Press, Denton Record-Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Fort Worth Report, Fort Worth Business Press, Allen American, The Facts in Clute as well as the Community Impact newspapers in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas.

“We are extremely grateful to the Scripps Howard Foundation that UNT was one of only two journalism schools in the nation to receive this major grant,” said Dorothy Bland, the UNT SHF EJP program director, a journalism professor and former dean. “We also appreciate the collaboration with TAJE and teachers who have helped prepare these amazing students for  fantastic employment opportunities.”

In addition to helping develop young emerging journalists, Bland said the program seeks to partner with scholastic journalism, and that is why 19 teachers from across the state were selected as teaching ambassadors for the upcoming academic year. The 19 SHF teaching ambassadors are Nina Amedin-Skalak, PJ Cabrera, Daniel Carr, Taylor Cissell, Rebecka Frey, Haley Gluch, Carey McCarthy, Emily Meachen, Alicia Merrifield, Michelle Millhollon, Andrea Negri, Laura Negri, Megan Ortiz, Emily Pyeatt Arnold, Michael Reeves, Lisa Roskens, Lela Siegel, June Straight and Alejandra Valdez.

UNT and TAJE are hosting a free teacher workshop on Aug. 15 at UNT in Denton, and those who attend are eligible for TAJE in-service credit. Teachers from across the state are welcome. Contact Dorothy.bland@unt.edu to learn more.

Bland will be recruiting for student and teacher applicants for the 2023 cycle during the fall semester and at the TAJE Fall Fiesta, Oct. 8-10, in San Antonio. To learn more about SHF EJP, go to https://journalism.unt.edu/emergingjournalists