News-Record.com

So Amy is still with the paper? You wrote on Dec. 2 that she had resigned to write books. What happened? You doubled her salary and convinced her to stay?

Kinda sorta, Jason. We turned around and hired her as a part-timer to create this page and run it for us. And we're happy to have her back.

I love your newspaper's plans to create a weekly page for and by high school students.

While it may be logistically challenging to set up, it is well worth attempting. I am excited about the possibilities. I look forward to the debut of this addition to your newspaper!

You may have already forwarded the information, but I went ahead and sent a copy to Dr. Grier. I suggested that he forward the information to high school principals and that he consider posting it in his Friday Notes that are sent to all staff members.

I would definitely encourage you to publicize it within the newspaper also. (If it's already in today's paper, I have not had a chance to read it thoroughly enough to see it.)

I was an active member of the Greensboro Youth Council, and while this particular program did not exist while I was a member (1986-1990), I do recall reading about a regular page that high school students had had in the News & Record. I do not recall ever seeing any historic samples. And I'm not exactly sure how the relationship between the News & Record and GYC worked with these high school pages. But I believe there was some connection and relationship.

When you start the "new" high school pages in the newspaper, it might be interesting to have a reporter do an article about the past project's history. I'm not sure if the high school pages appeared during the 1960s, 1970s, or early 1980s (or a combination of those decades). Have you heard of such a past joint project between the News & Record and GYC? I want to say that the project was called something like "Teen Record." But that doesn't quite sound right. My memory is failing me here. If I can find out the exact name of the project, I will let you know.

Also, a former student shared copies of mini-newspapers that the News & Record printed of the work by students involved in your summer journalism program for minority students (all high-school age, I believe).

I remember thinking that it would have been neat if you had printed copies of these pages within your newspaper, either integrated within your pages or as a separate pull-out.

While I would guess that the students in the program appreciated seeing their work professionally printed, it might have been even neater for them to know that your regular subscribers and buyers would see their work too.

Also, it would have provided readers evidence of the positive efforts being made by many of our young people.

And it would have also increased the community's awareness of your efforts to reach out to minorities who are less represented on your staff.

Unless I missed it, I only became aware of these summer publications after a student shared them with me.

Your current plans for a weekly high school page sound incredibly promising. I hope that many students will apply and that you will have the challenge of having to choose from many highly qualified students. (Regardless of the talent levels, you can provide a wonderful opportunity for students to learn and grow.)

Finally, before I forget, are current eighth graders eligible to apply? When I first saw the May deadline, I thought that this might be a likely possibility. I noticed the corrected deadline (February 28th) and am partially guessing that you would prefer current 9th-12th graders. But I thought it would be worth asking. I have a few students (eighth graders)who might compete well against older students in the application process. I thought it would be worth asking. And even if you're not seeking soon-to-be rising ninth graders, I will still let students know to pay attention to this opportunity for their futures.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Again, best wishes all around with this project!

"And, anticipating a question I always get whenever we announce something specifically targeted to a demographic group, no, we're not going to start a section for political conservatives."

Oh come on, why not? You could call it the funny pages. ;-)

Oh, boy, SHF. Why did you have to send this notice to Terry Grier? There are only two possible outcomes:

1) he keeps the schools from participating

2) he likes the idea and claims he thought of it first

Either way, this innovative program now will have a harder time succeeding.

SHF, I like that. Anyway, I'm not aware of any other collaboration with the GYC, but my memory is going. (And I'm a lot older than you so you can't claim to have memory problems.) Our minority workshop kids do excellent work.

As for the eighth-graders, I say encourage the good ones to apply. What the heck? We're new at this and we're trying stuff. If they can write, they have a good chance.