FOR A SCHEDULE/SYLLABUS CLICK HERE

A generous grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation enabled the American Society of Newspaper Editors to support institutes at Kent State and four other sites. Selected through a highly competitive screening process, Fellows receive four continuing education units for the all-expense-paid workshop, which teams classroom pros with newsroom pros.

Kent’s workshop director, Candace Perkins Bowen, lead instructors John Bowen, Ohio; H.L. Hall, Tennessee; Susan Hathaway Tantillo, Illinois -- plus Ohio Scholastic Media Association board members Wayne and Georgia Dunn and Knight chair Mark Goodman – will enjoy support from reporters and editors of the Akron Beacon Journal, The Plain Dealer, The Washington Post and WKSU, the PBS station in Kent.

Mizell Stewart, editor of The Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press, will welcome the teachers at the opening banquet on behalf of ASNE and address them on their first day of classes. His plan is “to challenge the group to consider how young people are actually using media and devise ways for students to communicate with their peers in the ways they communicate with each other – in addition to a high school publication, Web site or television program.”

Frank LoMonte, director of the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., will spend a day at Kent State, covering current issues and concerns in the field of high school publications with a special emphasis on legal issues teachers should know.

Others will talk to participants about reporting and sources, Web sites, legal issues, InDesign and the future of mass media. This year’s emphasis will be multimedia storytelling with Susan Kirkman Zake, former managing editor for visuals at the Akron Beacon Journal and now an adjunct professor and student media adviser at Kent State.

Even the work will have its lighter moments. Trips to the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame and to Porthouse Theatre to see "The Odd Couple" will result in reviews and photography opportunities.

The Fellows from the past seven years often admitted they have never worked harder — or learned more. Watch this site as the 2009 group teams up to produce multimedia packages and get experience they can take back to their students in the fall.

Some call it the maestro concept and others “extreme planning,” but whatever the name, teamwork is important, especially with today’s multimedia options. M.L. Schultze of WKSU and Rick Sentfen, former newspaper editor now at Kent State, show 2008 fellows how it could work for them. They’ll be back to work with institute participants in 2009, too. (photo by John Bowen)