Beyond the classroom

Education has always been a basic function of newspapers, from the use of printed publications to circulate public notices to journalism’s more general function of informing audiences about happenings both local and abroad.

Through Newspapers in Education, Missouri Press Association’s members have a chance to be in their community’s classrooms. NIE as a program is really only possible because of the work newspapers have been doing with and for their local schools for much longer than NIE has been around.

Melissa Jerome, in her essay “Unlocking the Power of Newspapers: A Valuable Resource for Research, Teaching, and More,” writes that newspapers serve as primary sources that provide students with varying perspectives on historical events. Designed for mass consumption, newspapers offer accessible and engaging content that can help students understand historical contexts more effectively.

Newspapers also hold significant value for K-12 education, Jerome adds. By promoting their use as primary sources, teachers can facilitate discussions on how newspapers can enrich classroom lessons and materials by providing firsthand accounts and diverse perspectives.

With the significance of newspapers as educational tools established, it’s up to local publications to make themselves indispensable to the community. The biggest draw for a community newspaper is that often it is the only outlet covering their community, so news about local people, including students, can only be found in its pages.

Training future community journalists

Like many others, Call Newspapers in south St. Louis County publishes a spring section featuring local high school graduates, and the Call’s fall varsity sports preview goes back literally as far as the newspaper’s founding in 1989.

News Editor Ellie Marshall says Call Newspapers consistently covers the students in its eight local schools and their accomplishments. More than just reporting on them, though, students from the Call’s coverage area are tapped to engage with the newspaper on a working basis.

Last school year, the Call’s news department took on a Lindbergh High School student, Sebastian Rosas, as an intern. Focusing specifically on photography, Rosas’ work accompanied several Call stories, with topics ranging from feature stories to hard news, and was so successful the internship was extended over the summer.

Marshall said Rosas wasn’t the only local student who received hands-on learning at the Call, either. Maria Cann, a student at Notre Dame High School, shadowed the newsroom last school year in the fall and contributed to multiple projects for the newspaper.

And, as of this writing, the newspaper has started publishing a monthly economics column by Byoungho (Roy) Jang, a student at Thomas Jefferson School. The topic of Jang’s first column focuses on teenagers as unexpected economic actors and why their role in the economy should be taken more seriously.

“We’re so excited and hope that it inspires the next generation to remain connected with local news,” Marshall said. Jang’s first column can be found here. 

Giving students real-world working experience is one of the greatest ways a newspaper can support schools and the community. By doing so, young people learn skills that can be applied to a student newspaper, yearbook club or possibly inspire a future career in journalism.

Kim Combs said the Wayne County Journal-Banner has also benefited from an eager student intern.

“My high school intern is also very active in the community, volunteering to help with the Rotary Auction, build a float for the holiday parade, participate in fundraising trivia tournaments, and much, much more,” Combs said.

And the Journal-Banner has offered for both its local schools to write a weekly column. Last year, one school took the newspaper up on the offer and had a student writing during the entire school year.

Missouri Press News has covered at length the efforts of Warden Publishing and Hannah Spaar at The Odessan to revive student newspapers in local schools. Spaar and Warden Publishing’s Roxie Murphy are now working to create resources that other newspapers will be able to adapt to assist their own schools with developing a student newspaper program, and more information about those resources will be shared when it becomes available.

The Odessan works directly with the Odessa High School newspaper class to publish The Growler, as well as working to revitalize Wellington-Napoleon school district’s The Paw Print and the Panther Times at Oak Grove High School.

The Odessan is given to every fifth-grade student at both Odessa R-7 and Wellington-Napoleon R-9 Schools as part of the newspaper’s NIE program. Similarly, the Focus on Oak Grove is given to every fifth-grade student at Oak Grove R-6.

While “giving back” usually means the newspaper does or provides something for free, that’s not always the case. For example, Kay Wilson and the Nodaway News Leader (NNL) have taken a page out of the booster club playbook offering community groups a new way to raise money by selling newspaper subscriptions.

Advertised as being for sports teams and youth groups, among other organizations, NNL provides signage, registration materials, support and the necessary forms. Each new or renewal subscription earns groups $3.

Wilson said the offer to organizations helps them make money and keeps their neighbors reading the NNL. “This works great for three schools, and we usually send about $500 in cash out at year’s end,” she said.

Community connections

And sometimes, the support a newspaper provides is less tied to the actual publication and more to the experience that comes from staff who are well connected in the community.

Spaar in Odessa is youth programs chairs for her local Rotary Club, through which she helped develop, charter and continues to oversee the Odessa High School Interact Club, a high school version of Rotary, which this past year had more than 80 students.

“It’s believed to be the largest Interact Club in northern Missouri and likely the state,” Spaar said.

Ron Kinzler, publisher of the Unionville Republican, is chairman of the board for Lifeline Services. Lifeline is a pregnancy resource center serving northeast Missouri that assists with unplanned pregnancies. They have a program, Pure Freedom, which provides educational services to more than 60 area schools and teaches 6,000-plus students to make smart relationship choices.

“The feedback we get from the students and teachers at the schools we visit for our relationship classes is humbling but very gratifying,” Kinzler told Missouri Press News.

In addition to making the executive decisions that guide Lifeline, Kinzler and the other board members assist with fundraising and an annual banquet that sees more than 600 attendees, all of which is in support of Lifeline’s mission to provide services at no cost to clients.

“There is no greater blessing than seeing a baby whose mom came to Lifeline with an abortion in her plans only to decide to keep the baby knowing that she had the entire staff at Lifeline to support her,” Kinzler said.

Newspaper people are always going above and beyond for their communities, whether it’s sitting on the board of a non-profit group or helping to organize a fundraising event.

Whatever your publication and staff do, Missouri Press News wants to know and to share your ideas (and celebrate your publication and staff at the same time!) in future editions of your MPA’s monthly magazine. Send clippings, articles or even just a short note to Matthew Barba at mbarba@mopress.com.