Local Teacher Selected
as
National Journalism Fellow
A High School Redirection teacher was one of 35 teachers selected nationwide as a fellow for an intensive summer journalism institute at the University of Maryland designed to enhance the school’s newspaper.
Albert B. Nickerson, an English teacher at High School Redirection in Brooklyn and advisor to Eye on Redi, was a fellow in the American Society of Newspaper Editors High School Journalism Institute at Maryland from July 14 through July 26.
Nickerson and the other fellows participated in hands-on workshops on newspaper writing, reporting, editing, photography, management, layout and design as well as seminars on journalistic ethics, law, diversity and the First Amendment.
“What an enriching experience,” said Judy Christie, editor of The Times in Shreveport, La. and chairwoman of ASNE’s High School Journalism Committee. “The teachers have become better because of the things they learned in the institute.”
Guest lecturers at the institute included leading journalists and journalism educators from The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The (Baltimore) Sun, USA Today, The Oregonian, ASNE, the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Student Press Law Center, Hampton University and the University of Maryland.
“The slate of guest lecturers for the intensive two-week institute better prepared the fellows to deal with journalistic principles and skills affecting scholastic press,” said Marchelle Payne, director of the program.
The Institute, now in its second year, is sponsored by ASNE and funded by the John S. and James L. Knoght Foundation.
The fellows received graduate credit from Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, which hosted the program in collaboration with the Department of Mass Media Arts at Hampton University.
Student Artwork Commissioned by International Law Firm
In a unique initiative the Alternative Superintendency collaborated with the New York office of Allen & Overy to launch the law firm’s Values into Community Action Art Project. Ellen Kirschbaum, the Director of Arts and Cultural Literacy from the Alternative Superintendency, and Rebecca Parkhouse, Senor Marketing Manager from Allen & Overy, facilitated the project.
Students, ages four to twenty years old, from twelve different alternative schools were challenged to devise an art collection to decorate the firm’s new law offices at 1221 Avenue of the Americas. Allen & Overy not only provided the students with a range of art supplies but framed and transported the finished pieces, and hosted an opening reception for the students, their families and teachers last April. The final collection included paintings, drawings, collage and pottery all permanently documented in a professionally published catalogue of the students’ work.
The project included visits by some students to Allen & Overy’s new offices as they were being built, as well as meeting with some of the firm’s lawyers and other staff. In addition, staff from the New York office visited the schools to meet the students and to share experiences about each other’s work.
Currently, students are creating new pieces by January 13th for an additional floor of offices. These young artists are enthusiastic about their involvement in the program because it gives them exposure to the public through the catalogue as well as the display in Adam & Overy’s office space.
As a result of Ellen Kirshbaum,s energy and dedication to this project, our district’s young artists are seeing their own artwork from a different perspective.