2nd Edition2nd Edition

inside

Getting the ball rolling at

Take a Look:Student paper undergoesan ‘extreme makeover’

page 9

Sleep In:Students get their first taste of the college experience

pages 6-7

Stand Out:jCamp builds up a legionof loyal journageeks

page 2 JEA/NSPA Kansas City National Convention

114untilDays

jCamp

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Third jCamp trip proves as helpful as the first two

I left home Sunday excited for the upcoming week at jCamp. The Chocolate Cookie Dough DQ Blizzard I got on the drive down helped me handle the four-hour car ride. I spent most of the time

wondering whether my stuff would fit in the resi-dence hall and whether the food would stand

up to my expectations.After arriving, I learned that the Virginia

Tech dorms were big enough for the immense amounts of clothing, bed-ding and newspapers that accompanied me.My first track was Advanced News and

Feature Writing. I hoped that whatever writing abili-ties I had compared to the other people, most of whom

had been to jCamp once or twice before. I was complete-ly ready to embrace whatever the instructor wanted to throw at me. All I had to do was walk into one of the many rooms of the graduate center and find the name tag. Seems easy enough, right?

Wrong. It wasn’t anywhere I looked. I felt a little stupid walking aimlessly around

the room. Luckily, someone called me over to the Advanced Reporting table; I guess the original title

wouldn’t fit on the program. Oh, how I love design.We jumped right into assigning articles, which, for

some newbies, might be overwhelming, but, for me, it was something I had gotten used to over the past couple of years.Although this was my first year at jCamp, I was starting

to realize that it was run the same way a newspaper is: with deadlines and plenty of work. With this common ground both new and old campers were able to jump right into the rhythm of deadline.

Day one at camp ended in excellent fashion, considering the food in Dietrick Hall was delicious. I ate something from a different country each day: pasta, teriyaki chicken, a cheese-burger. Some of the veterans to jCamp informed me that it wasn’t even the best food on campus, and I was in awe.

The classes and food may have been easy to get used to, but the Tech campus was completely different. The jCamp veter-ans seemed to be able to find their way to different buildings with their eyes closed while I was unable to take my eyes off of the map. The crowds of teenagers wearing maroon lanyards soon became my unofficial tour guides.

Being at jCamp made me feel more con-fident in my writing and editing abilities. I can’t wait to go back to class and share with all the staff members of my paper the different things that I learned. All of it will be very useful information to have.

I first heard about jCamp from my older sister, Nina, who attended jCamp the first time it was at Virginia Tech, four years ago. She described it as one of the greatest experiences she ever had and encouraged me to go the following year.

I technically wasn’t in journalism my fresh-man year, but I still took many photos for the school paper, The Smoke Signal. When jCamp registration opened both my sister and adviser, Sue Gill, encouraged me to attend. I was somewhat reluctant at first but the cajol-ing of my adviser managed to sway my mind. I signed up for the Photojournalism track and was prepared for anything.

I had little knowledge of photographic techniques when I first came to jCamp but left feeling like a professional pho-tographer. I learned so much, yet wasn’t too overwhelmed and all of the teachers and counselors were incredibly nice. My photojournalism teacher, Scott Chandler, was one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. He knew almost everything about photography and was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I had such an enjoyable experience that when jCamp ended, the only thing I wanted to do was come back again.

I became a staff photographer on The Smoke Signal during my sophomore year and all the skills I learned at jCamp proved very helpful. I even taught some of the other students about photography. After that year I did not need any encouragement to sign up for jCamp.

I signed up for Design, a track I had almost no experience with, but one I wanted to learn about. The teacher, Chris Waugaman, was a great instructor, and showed us how to use InDesign and showed us the principles of designing. We created a new layout for our paper and the flag I created ended up being chosen to replace our older one. Once again, when I left jCamp I felt like a professional.

During my junior year, I no longer did only photography, but also designed pages. I signed up for jCamp once again this year, but this time, for Advanced Photojournalism.

This is my third and final year at jCamp, and it is just as full of knowledge. Bradley Wilson, the photojournalism teacher, is one of the most knowledgeable photographers I’ve met. He’s also one of the most humorous teachers I’ve had at jCamp. I’ve learned even more about pho-tography this year, and once again, I will bring this back to my fellow staff members at The Smoke Signal.

My senior year lies ahead and I join the group of editors who lead and guide the paper. I will miss attending jCamp next year, but the memories and knowledge obtained in my past three years make up for it.

Initial year at jCamp brings

confidence boost

FRANCISCO GONZALEZTHE VETERAN

LINDSEY JEFFREYSTHE NEWBIE

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Virginia

DC

0 60 12030 Miles

Maryland

[Alexandria: 266 mi][Chantilly: 244 mi]

[Centreville: 240 mi]

[Fairfax: 247 mi]

[Falmouth: 208 mi]

[South Riding: 236 mi]

[Sterling: 251 mi]

[Vienna: 250 mi]

[Lorton: 239 mi]

[Prince George: 280 mi]

[Harrisonburg: 135 mi]

[McLean: 256 mi]

[Newport News: 290 mi]

[Owings Mills: 297 mi]

Gloucester: 268 mi][Bluefield: 63 mi]

[Ashburn: 245 mi]

The Average Mileage for Students: 235.8371 mi

Campjj

NEXT EXITNEXT EXIT

JCAMPJCAMP

More than 100 participants made the trek to jCamp at Virginia Tech this year. Here’s a look at how far they came to be part of the workshop.

JPAPERstaff Elexxus Brown[Stafford High School]

Koorosh Massoudi[Oakton High School]

Kerstin Felton[Stafford High School]

Lindsey Jeffreys[Freedom High School]

Gabriela Driscoll[Oakton High School]

Johnathan Maza[Freedom High School]

Taylor Hovey[Stafford High School]

Mary Beth Mitchell[Briar Woods High School]

Ashlee Melda[Graham High School]

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Virginia’s loss will be the country’s gain as jCamp director Kelly Furnas becomes the new executive director of the Journalism Education Association.

Furnas, who has served as the first editorial adviser for the Educational Media Company at Virginia Tech, will be relocating to Manhattan, Kan., next week as he joins the faculty of Kansas State University.

In addition to his position with JEA which is housed at K-State, Furnas will also be an assistant professor and the associate director of Student Publications Inc.

“Even though it is a loss for Tech, it is going to help so many journalists,” said Zach Crizer, a rising Tech junior and managing editor of the Collegiate Times. “It will be a win for the coun-try.”

Furnas came to Tech in 2005 from the Las Vegas Sun where he worked as the assistant business editor. Raised by parents who were both journalists and newspaper reporters, he grew up reading the newspaper.

“[It was] instilled into me very early on to respect journalism and the work that journalists do,” Furnas said.

That respect led him to get involved with student media in high school.

“Once you are involved, you really never want to leave,” Furnas said.

His involvement in student media has expanded during his time with EMCVT, where he has not only advised the Collegiate Times but has worked with the yearbook, literary & art magazine, photo staff and television and radio stations. Furnas also helped start jCamp through his outreach to

high school journalism students and teachers in Virginia. Now in its fourth year, the workshop has grown from 64 participants in 2007 to more than 100 in 2010.

Harrisonburg High School’s Valerie Kibler, who is the director of the Virginia Association of Journalism Teachers and Advisers and has worked with Furnas on the planning of jCamp since its inception, believes much of its success can be attributed to his quick wit, fair and unbiased demeanor, abil-ity to listen without judging and pas-sion for the students.

“He’s an all American good guy —Andy Griffith,” Kibler said. “He cares a lot about kids and growing better journalists.”

Those are also the qualities that will make him hard to replace, accord-

ing to the students and teachers with whom he has worked.

“I know everyone is replaceable, but it’s hard to replace him,” Kibler said.

Furnas said that no decision has been made on his replacement but he thinks the workshop will continue to run well.

“The people who I am leaving behind are enthusiastic about jCamp,” he said.

While Furnas is optimistic about the future of jCamp, he also realizes that his leaving will be a “very emotional departure.”

“When you teach and when you are in an instructional capacity you develop a relationship with students,” Furnas said. “I really consider the stu-dents here to be my kids, and the thought of leaving them is sad.”

However, the thought of returning to

K-State, where he earned his batchelor’s degree in 2000 is equally exciting.

“(I am) much more interested in the position than going back to my alma mater,” Furnas said. “I don’t feel that I’m going home in any way. I just feel like this is a new opportunity.”

He also has been humbled by the outpouring of support from high school teachers.

“The most exciting aspect is to know that there is a large mass of people that want you to succeed,” Furnas said.

And no one wants him to succeed more than his friends and colleagues in Virginia.

Kibler said that even though Furnas will go on to a national job he “won’t forget where he came from.”

— Mary Beth Mitchelland Taylor Hovey

Camp’s director moves on to national organization

PEO

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QUESTIONS

CAMPCOUNSELORS

FORDAVID HARRIES

Q: How did you get involved in jour-nalism?A: I started doing online stuff for the CT.

Q: How many years have you been a jCamp counselor?A: This is my third year

Q: What college/university do you attend?A: The College of William and Mary.

Q: Are you close friends with any of the other counselors?A: No, I didn’t meet any of them until the first day, but they’re all really hospitable.

JUSTIN MILLER

LIANA BAYNE

Q: How did you get involved in jCamp?A: I actually attended jCamp in high school.

Q: Would you like to come back as a counselor next year?A: I would definitely come back next year.

Q: What’s your favorite part of jCamp?A: Watching all the students interact with each other and seeing you guys hang out. It’s pretty cool.

Q: What are your duties as a jCamp counselor?A: It’s pretty easy, just making sure you guys don’t get lost, making sure you’re on time and making sure you’re in bed by midnight.

KATIE HAGAN

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Students get break from class, but not weather

Surprises greet instructors

When jCamp veteran Nikki Kaul first ferociously pounded on her Jeopardy buzzer it was a sign that Journalympics had begun.

Journalympics are intended to pro-vide a fun break between classroom time, however, a combination of weather and lack of enthusiasm cre-ated a disparaging environment for competition.

Many campers had strong opinions on the series of contests which began with Jeopardy, followed by puzzles, a game of kickball, and finally bingo.

“Sudoku . . . that was ridiculous,” first-time camper Koorosh Massoudi said. “The puzzles were sort of like, ‘Why are we here?’”

The original plan was for field games, such as bean-bag toss and Frisbee throw. However, that was called off when early morning rain left the fields wet and unplayable. The counselors improvised and moved the campers inside for a round of puzzles, word searches, crosswords and Sudoku.

Although some were unimpressed by Sudoku and the other puzzles, the rounds of journalism Jeopardy were

a hit with many campers including Regis Brett, who seemed to have all the answers.

“We went over a majority of those questions in class and I just remem-bered them,” Brett said. “I was excited I could be a help to my team right away.”

Next up was the highly anticipated game of kickball, which got off to a promising start but was interrupted by Mother Nature. Campers hung around waiting for the skies to clear, but by the time the rain ended, most were on their way to classes.

Many unhappy campers have sug-gested changes that would, in theory, make the games more exciting.

Camper Parnia Zahedi suggested that more hands-on activities should be included and was disappointed to see a decrease in spirit since her trip to camp last July.

“The tracks were a lot more passion-ate last year,” Zahedi said.

Many campers seemed to long for an experience similar to last year’s Journalympics such as a water bal-loon toss, which soon became a water

balloon fight, M&M bingo and field games. Also the competitive nature, which could be found in abundance last year, seemed to be missing.

“Everyone’s been kind of chill about it,” Kaul said. “Last year everyone was so riled up.”

“The Journalympics have been slight-ly disheartening because of the weather and lack of participants,” Brett said.

The apathetic attendance to the games may have contributed to the absence of passionate campers.

David Harries, along with the other camp counselors, was faced with the ominous task of attempting to enter-tain over 100 campers who would rather be texting and hanging out in their rooms.

Camp counselor Liana Bayne said that a good amount of planning time was allotted to organize the activities for the campers. However, if Bayne could have it her way, she would pre-fer to focus on the academic side of jCamp. “I would rather have kids working,” Bayne said, “than playing kickball out in the rain.”

— Tommy Orme and Jason Kelly

A. Kelly Furnas B. Matt Johnson C. Valerie Kibler

D. Robin Sawer E. Zach Crizer F. Tracy Anne Sena

G. Chris Waugaman H. Bradley Wilson I. Camilla Domonoske

All of the jCamp teachers had to handle some drama during the workshop. Can you match the instructors with the issue each one had to face?

Kelesy Kook, a junior at Langley High School, tosses the ball during a

kickball game. Students at jCamp participated in the Journalympics

where they had to play out on Virginia Tech’s Drillfi eld, but the game

was cut short because of the rain.

1. “I froze my first night. It was so cold in my room. I had my gym shorts on, I got up and wrapped a towel around my legs. I slept in my hoodie, too.”

2. “Five minutes before I was supposed to give the opening speech, I walked through a torrential downpour and had to give my speech soaking wet.”

3. “My Blackberry charger got thrown in the trash can. On the first day of spring cleaning my charger was gone.”

4. “Chad Rummel used to plan this with us and he’s in a conference this week. Kelly Furnas is leaving, that’s my horror story.”

5. “I’m working with three different programs for Adobe Photoshop: CS3, CS4, and CS5.”

6. I spent six hours at the hospital. I picked up a bug and I’m diabetic. I was hooked up to an IV, and they just kept putting bag after bag on.

7. “I got lost on the way here because my navigator can’t navigate. I missed the faculty meeting and I felt really bad about it.”

8. “When I got to jCamp, I found out a man named Bradley Wilson was living in the room next door. As soon as I found that out, I knew that I was in for a week of corny jokes, foolish tricks and immature shenanigans. What a horror.”

9. “My laptop wouldn’t work in any room, no matter what anyone did. We had all the techies on it and no one could fix it.”

Key: 1) D. 2) A. 3) E. 4) C. 5) I. 6) G. 7) H. 8) B. 9) F.

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0 5 10 15 20

East Side Deli (Subs and sandwiches)

Salsa's (Mexican)

Pan Asia (Asian dishes)

Gaucho's (Brazilian meat kiosk)

Eden's (Soup and salads)

Olives (Vegetarian/Vegan)

Mangia (Italian)

WHERE WAS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO EAT?Survey taken by Gabriela Driscoll and Koorosh Massoudi.

I like to chill with the bros, do ‘Bro-adventures,’ make signs and posters, and since we have less time to hang out, we stay up late.Koorosh Massoudi Oakton HS

“We have this ‘Bro-cave’ where we fool around and we place signs everywhere and chill with our ‘Bro-Skittles.’ Kevin Chung Westfi eld HS

“

After classes, I like to go back to my room and chill. Also, I like to read the newspapers, like the Collegiate Times.Wayne Epps Prince George HS

“During my free time, I like to people watch.Kristina Varela Stafford HS

“

OUT OF THE CLASSROOM INTO THE COLLEGE LIFE

While editing photos on his computer at

jCamp, Ryan Holtz, a junior at T.C. Wil-

liams High School listens to music. “The

bros down the hall are funny,” Holtz said.

Francisco Gonzalez, a senior at Stafford

High School, shaves as part of his early

morning routine in Payne Hall at

jCamp.

Elexxus Brown, a junior at Stafford High

School, focuses on getting her eye liner

just perfect before she leaves the dorm.

Brown was enrolled in Advanced News

and Feature Writing during jCamp.

Following the Monday night

secondary track session,

Kevin Chung, a junior at

Westfi eld High School,

Bryan Kress, a junior at

McLean High School,

Koorosh Massoudi, a senior

at Oakton High School,

and Justin Miller, a camp

counselor, watch a video in

Payne Hall.

Sitting on the bed in her dorm room,

Bridget Phillips, a sophomore at Stafford

High School, burps loudly as she waits

for her computer to turn on. All of the

jCamp participants were housed in Payne

Hall for the workshop.

I like to surf the web while I’m on break from my classes.Jay Adams Westfi eld HS

“

Where do you like to hang out aft er classes?JAY ADAMS JOHN KOVALCHIK

KERSTIN FELTON

HARPER LOVEGROVE

WAYNE EPPS

TIM

E O

UT TIM

E OU

T

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8 Editors set to take the leadA room full of students sits at their

laptops working over a multicolored spread sheet. They are the Editorial Leadership track, planning for their schools’ papers, assigning who will write for what page in what issue.

“Editorial Leadership is for students who are going to be editor in chief at their paper next year, so they can transition from being a page editor to in charge of it all,” said teacher Valerie Kibler.

Kibler has been leading this work-shop for the past four years.

Students learn how to plan for the year ahead by creating staff manuals and calendars, and exchanging story and design ideas as well.

“We traded newspapers with our other track members and we learned what to look for, like type and appeal-ing layout,” said Jane Muir, a senior at Chantilly High School.

“I’ve learned different ideas from looking at their papers, such as ideas for graphics or story ideas and also leadership ideas,” said Sam Riehl, a senior at McDonogh High School.

Both Muir and Riehl will be edi-tors in chief at their respective schools. However, not only future EICs can benefit from this class. Senior Eden Zekarias of Fairfax High School is tak-ing the class as well. She helps out with yearbook and is part of her school’s

Student Government Association. Though she isn’t an editor in chief, she is enjoying the class and “learning a lot about what editors do.”

“It will probably help me out with SGA a lot because I have to do leader-ship as well. It’s about taking charge and leading others,” Zekarias said.

Most of the students who take the class seem to really enjoy it, including students from previous years.

“I came to jCamp last year. I was in Advanced News and Feature Writing and I was really, really excited. I saw the old Editorial Leadership class, they had such a good time and they learned a lot. My editor in chief was in this class,” Muir said.

Kibler said the goal is that the stu-dents will take the skills they learn in this class and apply them to their papers back home next year.

— Ama AnsahEditorial Leadership student, senior Nikki Kaul of McLean High School, discusses staff coaching with her classmate, McDonogh

School senior Sam Riehl. “I like the informal format of the class; open discussions and ideas are welcome,” Kaul said.

Students get one-on-one training in journalismA group of seven students who have never

worked on their school newspaper before composed the Newspaper 101 class where the basics of journalism were taught.

The class began by learning the definition of news. After that, they were taught about laws and ethics, and then learned how to put a story together using ledes, story structure and different types of writing such as fea-tures and editorials.

“I survey the students and try to get a feel for what they already know and what they want to know. From there, I try to mesh that with what I think they need to know,” said Robin Sawyer, the Newspaper 101 adviser.

Sawyer, a journalism teacher at First Flight High School and second-year Newspaper 101 adviser, has 20 years of experience in teaching budding journalists.

“I teach beginning journalism in my school, so I have a curriculum that I use. However, I have a lot more time to get through it all at my school,” Sawyer said.

The class examined front pages of various newspapers to see what makes news, and took a look at different types of stories to see which audiences they fit.

In order to study skills necessary to conduct a successful interview, the class

watched interviews on YouTube, discussed what was done well, and discussed what could have been done better. Students expe-rienced an interviewing environment in their press conference with camp director Kelly Furnas.

“A conference is much less intimidating for a first interview than just sending them out to get interviews,” Sawyer said.

After the press conference, the students wrote their first story with the information they collected.

According to Sawyer, as long as students know how to conduct successful interviews and put together a story with the correct structure, they have the knowledge neces-sary to be a valuable member of a staff.

“I don’t really structure our classes very much. I like to go with the flow of the group instead of being so rigid. [I also] let the stu-dents work at their own pace,” Sawyer said.

Many of the students in the class have never taken a basic journalism class before, so this was their first look into how a story is put together.

“I took Newspaper 101 because at my school if we take it, we can go straight on to the newspaper staff without taking Journalism 1,” said Mary Beth Mitchell, a

sophomore at Briar Woods High School.Some students who took part in the

track have already taken a basic journalism course.

“I took this course to brush up on skills I have already learned and learn others that may not have been covered in my previ-ous class,” said Ashlee Melda, a senior at Graham High School.

Although it was not possible to cover a year’s worth of curriculum in this one- week camp, the ultimate goal was to make the students productive members of their newspaper’s staff.

“They will still be learning, but I hope this class will afford them the opportunity to become active participants on their news-paper staff,” Sawyer said.

Where most programs would not allow a class as small as seven, jCamp did not cut the program.

“To me, it’s a wonderful thing that jCAMP offers the opportunity for a small group like this to learn basic journalism,” Sawyer said.

“After taking this track, I feel more con-fident because we learned things I never learned before, like new terms and how to put an article together,” Mitchell said.

— Ashley Hamilton

VICTORIA WHITE

Ashlee Melda, a senior at Graham High School, and Taylor Hovey,

a junior at Stafford High, listen diligently to Robin Sawyer’s

Newspaper 101 lecture.

I’ve learned different ideas from looking at their papers. Different ideas for graphics or story ideas and also leadership ideas.SAM RIEHLMcDONOGH SCHOOL

“

EDIT

OR

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LEA

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SHIP

/ N

EWSP

AP

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Newsstreak adviser Valerie Kibler instructs editors in leadership skills for the upcoming production year

ANTHONY WHITTEN

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Advanced designers develop new skills, perspectives in newspaper production

Silence falls upon the computer lab as students from Advanced Design concentrate on crafting masterpieces.

Parnia Zahedi, Annie Cross and Kelsey Rook focus on making a new flag for their school newspaper, The Saxon Scope.

“You learn how to look at things dif-ferently; it teaches you how to develop new ideas to apply to new situations,” Rook said.

Ruta Trivedi, another Advanced Design camper, said she likes jCamp because it helps refresh her mem-ory after not using InDesign in a while.

“I’ve become more efficient in InDesign,” Trivedi said. “I’m learn-ing things to apply to our own paper.”

The Advanced Design adviser, Matt Johnson, wants the students in his track to take home something they can apply to their own paper.

“Given the demographic of high school journalists,” Johnson said, “design is really the solid foundation.”

While the Advanced Design track works on their design ideas on InDesign and Photoshop, the Design track focuses on the more practical aspects of InDesign and Photoshop.

Terra Holderman, a rising junior from Langley, said she loves the track.

“The Advanced track has more of a creative aspect to it, while the Design track shows us the basics,” Holderman said, “we are learning shortcuts and tools to make a visually appealing layout.”

During the track, campers also get to brainstorm with other members of their high school’s staff.

“jCamp is really helpful when peo-ple from the same staff come togeth-er,” Holderman said, “the staff can spread what they’ve learned to each

other.”Adviser Camila Domonoske says

the real difference between the two tracks is that while Advanced Design makes design ideas a reality, the Design track develops stronger basic design principles.

“The Design track is much more hands-on and practical,” Domonoske said. “I just want them to leave feel-ing comfortable working with InDesign.”

Both tracks are learning new ideas to bring to their own paper.

“It’s great to work with advisers you don’t have at home,” Holderman

said. “You’re able to learn new styles and techniques from different people.”

Both advisers, Johnson and Domonoske, hope campers take home the knowledge they’ve learned from their design tracks and apply it to their paper.

“I hope the kids in my track will transition to a more modern design,” Johnson said, “whether it is their flag, a change from a news-paper to a magazine, or anything else that makes their paper more appealing.”

— Caroline Mahoney

DESIG

NBefore After

franklin gothic& Minion Pro

new:

old:myriad pro

old:news front

newsmagazine front

new:

simple teasersnew:

old:three cover stories

This year, the Advanced Design Track worked to redesign their papers in an effort to improve their schools’ publication. Many different schools participated in this track. The

Freedom Flyer staff, of Freedom High School, went from a traditional news design to a more modern newsmagazine design. “I’m really happy with the way the new front page

turned out, it defi nitely shows that our staff is creative. Before, we tried to pack a lot of creative elements into one layout. In some cases, simple is better,” said Lindsey Jeffreys,

a senior from Freedom High School.

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10 Exploring new online technologies

Two separate examples of Web sites created by students in the Online Journalism track. The track, which was taught by Tracy Anne Sena,

learned tactics for using Wordpress and contact management sites to build an online home for their newspapers.

For the first year, jCamp offered Online Journalism as a primary track option for students and advisers inter-ested in bringing their school newspa-pers online.

With the recent advances in tech-nology, more newspapers and mag-azines are being offered online and have created a need for students to become acquainted with the tools of online journalism. Five students and three advisers took the class in hopes of learning more about the technological side of journalism.

“I think there was certainly a great demand from both students and advis-ers for online journalism. I also think for jCamp to stay relevant, we need to offer new media training,” said Kelly Furnas, Advanced Reporting instruc-tor and camp director.

Tracy Anne Sena, a California native, was chosen to be the teacher of the new class and is a new addition to the jCamp Staff.

“I’ve done a lot of work with InDesign and Illustrator, all the Adobe products, but with the whole idea of convergence and going online, I’ve been asked more and more to teach online journalism,” Sena said.

Sena, in addition to being the newspa-per adviser for Covenant of the Sacred Heart High School in San Diego, is the

department chair for computer science, which provides her with expertise in both the journalism and technology fields. She frequently presents or teach-es at many journalism and technology conferences locally and nationally.

“Journalists today cannot get a job by just writing. It would be nice if that could happen, but it won’t. You have to be able to do it all at this point in time. You have to know how to do multime-dia, you have to know how to blog, and you have to know that your cell phone is your best digital tool, because those people will be getting jobs,” Sena said.

Sena taught the students how to cre-ate their own Web site using Wordpress, a free, open-source software used in online journalism.

“The reason why journalists use Wordpress is because it is so user-friendly. Also because it’s open-source software, so it’s cheap and easy to use,” Sena said.

The students’ goal was to create a fully functional Web site, similar to what students will use on their own campus back home.

“I’m learning a lot to help make my school’s Web site better and help me become a better journalist,” said Matt Porter, a junior at Chantilly High School.

Although many schools already have WordPress sites, the Online Journalism class focused on multimedia tools that will help them succeed in future jour-nalistic endeavours.

“It’s a really good experience. It’s really good practice for when I get back to school, and I’m excited to get to use what I’ve learned when I get back home,” said Koorosh Massoudi, a senior at Oakton High School.

The class, like many others, was not attended solely by students. Three advisers took the class with hopes to improve what was already at their school.

“We already have our newspaper online but we’re planning on changing our Web site. I really want to get our online newspaper more user friendly,” said Susan Spengeman, newspaper adviser for Freedom High School.

The class opened doors and showed the students the importance of online

journalism and all the opportunities available to them.

“I think taking a class has illumi-nated, for me, the possibilities in terms of connecting all the existing forms of communication in our building, and can serve as an outlet for information and help connect and further create cohesiveness in our school commu-nity. My experience with Tracy has been great, it’s really illuminated all the possibilities. She’s really made me comfortable with using all the technol-ogy and examining all you can do with online newspaper. It’s incredible; the possibilities are endless,” said Amy Taylor, newspaper advisor for McLean High School.

— Michaela Reardon

Instructor’s dehydration causes trip to hospital Between uncooperative weather

and an instructor’s trip to the hos-pital, the sports writing track was forced to overcome many obsta-cles at jCamp this year.

The small group of only five students began their week writing profiles on one other’s interests in various sports and athletics. After completing their profiles, students were then asked to find a feature sports story on campus to write about. However, this did not go completely according to plan.

On Monday, their morning les-son was interrupted when instruc-tor Chris Waugaman said that he wasn’t feeling well and was forced to go to the hospital mid-lesson where he was admitted for dehy-dration and put on an intravenous drip.

Yet, class didn’t stop when the counselor left and the remain-ing students continued to work as they walked throughout cam-pus in search for interesting bios

on student athletes and coaches. They were successful in their search finding people such as the woman’s basketball coach and the person responsible for sports maintenance at Virginia Tech.

However, once again plans were interrupted when rain on Monday and Tuesday stopped the students from doing a planned side piece on game story writing for the paper.

Yet, even without ideal condi-tions, sports writing students still appear to have appreciated their time here.

“Sports writing is a smaller class, but I think because it’s smaller, Chris [Waugaman] can focus more time and energy on us than if it were a larger class,” said Langley junior Tommy Orme.

Waugaman also enjoyed his time teaching sports writing this year saying “There was lots of interest and active work. … They were a great group.”

— Chris RomanWAYNE EPPS

Instructor Chris Waugaman discusses a sports track assignment with students Tommy Orme and Jason Kelly.

New track and teachers are spreading knowledge of new technology to jCamp students

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July 22, 2010Students learn the odds, ends of journalism

Of the 15 students who applied, 10 were given the privilege to participate in the Advanced News and Feature Writing track and the responsibility of contributing to two newspapers.

Kelly Furnas, the instructor, who is also the camp’s director, has been teach-ing the class each year since jCamp started in 2007.

At the first track meeting on Sunday, Furnas assigned each of the 10 writers two assignments, one for the camp’s jPaper and one for the Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech’s student news-paper. The reporters were to set up interviews with the appropriate people and complete their assignment by a certain deadline.

The next time they met, Furnas gave the students a lesson on interviewing skills, along with a few tips and tricks. “I am really glad I chose this track,” said

junior Caroline Mahoney, a student at Langley High School. “I will be able to bring back a lot to my high school newspaper, mainly new writing tech-niques and reporting skills.”

After the lesson the students went off to work on their articles, completing interviews and writing drafts.

At the third track meeting on Tuesday, Furnas gave the students another lesson, this time on writing. The students also discussed issues they faced working with their own school publication and as a group, they col-laboratively came up with ways to solve those problems.

“I really like Kelly. He is really nice and we learn a lot of valuable informa-tion [in his class],” said Lindsey Jeffreys, a senior at Freedom High School.

Although Furnas is always available to answer any questions, the students

are expected to be self-motivated and capable of going through the reporting process without abundant supervision.

“It is a matter of how much the stu-dents want to be self directed,” Furnas said.

Aside from classroom time, the group also participates in Journalympics, an intracamp competition. After having known that the Advanced Reporting students from the previous year won the jTrophy, the 2010 group fought to keep the title. After a disappointing night in Jeopardy, the group worked with the Editorial Leadership track to complete five puzzles.

“Even though we didn’t do that well in Jeopardy, the Journalympics were fun,” said junior Kerry Quinn, a junior at Westfield High School. “It brought us closer because we were bonding.”

— Elexxus Brown

Advanced reporting practices independent study

Stafford High School student

Elexxus Brown interviews

Caroline Mahoney, a junior at

Langley High Schoo,l about her

project for the jCamp newspaper.

“Interviewing is really easy if

you’re an outgoing person,”

Brown said.

The news and feature track, composed of 18 students, focused on learning writing skills that would help the students become overall better reporters.

“It gets to the real heart of journalism, which is the writing. The first thing that has to happen, even with broadcast and radio, is great writing and that’s what this class gets at,” said Zach Crizer, the teacher for the news and feature track.

Crizer was an assistant for the class last year and this is his first time being a full-time instruc-tor.

“I want to give other students in high school the same enthusiasm for journalism that I got in jCamp when I came here,” Crizer said.

Part of the class was dedicated to learning the techniques used in writing stories, such as con-ducting interviews and writing ledes.

“We’ve learned how to conduct an interview, and just be an overall good reporter,” said Leland Brooks, a junior at Stafford high school.

Students then had to put those skills to practi-cal use when they paired up and were assigned to report on a Virginia Tech organization or club’s upcoming events.

“I enjoy actually going out and experiencing journalism. Instead of just sitting in class, we have to create a story,” said Karri Chestnut, a junior at Stafford high school.

For Samantha Drew, a sophomore at Westfield High School, this was the first time interviewing someone outside of high school students.

“It was really nerve racking because I’ve never interviewed someone like that before, [some-one] who was a professional and wasn’t one of my friends,” Drew said.

The first draft of the story was due at the end of Tuesday, allowing students only two days to write their stories.

“It’s going to help me to learn how to get stories done sooner, since we’ve had such a short dead-line,” said Emily Hargreaves, a senior at Chantilly High School.

Students made sure they got to work on their stories immediately.

“We made sure we didn’t procrastinate and made our appointment as soon as we could,” Brooks said.

With little time to finish the story, most

groups were forced to conduct interviews on the phone.

“[The short deadline] meant that we couldn’t do in-person interviews, but it also meant that when it was convenient for our sources, we had to be,” Drew said.

While seven groups were confined to phone

interviews, two others were able to conduct interviews in person. Brooks and Chestnut, who were paired together, went to the Women’s Center for an in-person interview.

“We got a lot of information. It was easier to understand what she was saying in person,” Brooks said.

However, Crizer hopes that students learned more than specific reporting skills.

“I hope they take away the same enthusiasm that many of the teachers and staff have here, they learn new skills, and their overall writing improves,” Crizer said.

— Kerry Quinn

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Instructor Zach Crizer guides his students, Molly Podlesny and Bridget Phillips, sophomores from Stafford High School, while they

work to fi nish their article on Tuesday morning in Torgersen Hall.

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Stick your head into a photojournal-ism class, and it can sound like gibber-ish. ISO, f/stops and aperture are just three words of the alien language that are used to describe snapshots.

However, John Kovalchik, senior at Stafford High, knows there is more to it. His favorite part of the class, he said, was “realizing pictures need some sort of meaning beyond compo-sition and technical quality.” In short, knowing that a good picture signifies something.

Photojournalism instructor Bradley Wilson lives for these revelations.

“I like being there when it all hits,” he said, “when the light bulb goes on.”

This realization is not unique to Kovalchik. It happens, (“hopefully,” Wilson said) to every student in the class at some point.

A typical photojournalism class

begins in the classroom, not out tak-ing pictures, said Jay Adams, junior at Westfield High.

Wilson begins the class with instruction before sending them out for pictures. When the students return, they critique one other’s photos.

“I think that’s where the most learn-ing takes place,” Wilson said.

Every student has their own reason for taking Photojournalism.

Adams finds taking mug shots inter-esting while Kovalchik will be manag-ing editor of Stafford’s paper next year, and “[wants] to be able to manage the photographers.”

“[Wilson] is really cool; he likes to get the job done right,” Adams said.

“I think he’s one of those weird, eccentric teachers you always like,” Kovalchik said.

— Patrick Willette Healey

It sounds simple — go take a mug shot. Newspapers and yearbooks use them all the time to get more faces in a publication. And readers like them. They pull people into stories.

But they aren’t simple.Even taking a mug shot — some people like calling

them portraits — requires a grasp of the fundamen-tals of light, including quantity, quality and direction, composition, including the rule of thirds and other concepts such as depth of field and avoiding distract-ing backgrounds.

In the Photojournalism track, taking mug shots was one fundamental assignment we covered repeat-edly as a way to review the basics of photography. We shot mug shots of each other. We shot mug shots of the faculty and staff of the workshop. We edited the pictures and reviewed the fundamentals.

It was a simple assignment, but it got everyone to participate in the class and gave them all a chance to interact with each other and with other people at the workshop.

— Bradley Wilson

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SnapShot

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Photography instructor Bradley Wilson explains lighting and mugshot

photography to Stafford High School senior John Kovalchik.

WRONG RIGHT

Stafford senior and jCamp photography student

John Kovalchik takes Stafford High School

senior Emily Churchill’s mug shot in front of

Torgersen Hall.

Photography instructor Bradley Wilson

and Stafford High School senior John

Kovalchik review a mug shot. Students

learned that the ISO needs to be set low

when outside and to keep people six

feet away from the wall behind them.

Misjudging focal points or shadows can result in

mug shots that, quite literally, cast your subject

in a bad light.

Following fundamentals provides

a crisp and clear image and helps

readers put a face to a name.

photos by Alex Sanchez and John Kovalchik

Photojournalism students learn the basics of photography, as well as pick up a few cool fi st bumps and handshakes along the way