This Monday was the first day of a new year of journalism workshops for middle schoolers – and the first day of the program’s second year. Through it, a collection of middle school students from Thomas Harrison and Skyline middle schools are introduced to journalism.

Journalism students from the Newsstreak staff stayed after school to help, along with Journalism teacher Valerie Kibler, and they were greeted by dozens of middle school students. The staff in turn greeted them back with gifts of interviewer’s notebooks, interviewing guides, and best of all from the students’ perspectives, food. Next, each of the children was paired off to a high schooler.

“[The purpose is] to get kids interested in journalism at a young age. Because there are so many things for them to choose from now, they need to know what is available,” Kibler said.

“It was great,” 5th grader Anya Newman of Thomas Harrison said.

The day’s focus was interviewing, and as such the students participated in a game in which they found other people around the room who could sign for a certain attribute: being left-handed, being able to recite the names of the seven dwarves, being thirteen years old, and so on. Next, the children were reseated and taught the basics of interviewing through a brief lecture with Mrs. Kibler. Having acquired the new skill, the students took their high schoolers outside and interrogated them for a story, and to end the day they were assigned homework for next week: to interview someone they didn’t know to make a story.

“There is something cool and interesting about everyone in this room. We live in a world full of stories, and I stand by my belief that everyone has a story to tell,” Kibler said.

The program’s goal is to instill a journalistic spirit in its attendants, and through this, more people will get involved in journalism, strengthening the expression of one of our first amendment freedoms even at such an early age. Moreover, students are able to catch a further glimpse into what it means to be not only a good journalist, but also what being a staff member of the Newsstreak entails. Seemingly, at least with the first meeting, the team was successful.

“I want to do journalism because I like writing stories and I like getting more involved in things and knowing more about things. It’s fun!” Newman said.

“…We’re exposing them to an activity they have never really been able to do before at school, so hopefully before coming into HHS freshman year they’ll know what the newspaper program is and be interested in helping with it,” senior and editor-in-chief of Newsstreak.com Luke Gibson said.

In addition to the middle school students, Kibler believes that this is an excellent place for Newsstreak staff members to learn leadership skills as well as pass down the art of journalism.

“[I brought in the high school students] so that I don’t scare them. They are intimidated by me, and by doing this they are able to connect while learning by teaching,” Kibler said.

“It helps my leadership skills — especially talking to different age groups. It also helps solidify what I know about Journalism so I can actually teach it to other people. It’s another level of learning for me,” Gibson said.

Workshops run every Monday, and each one offers free journalism education as well as providing food and drink for the students.