Be a high school reporter! national contest - High School Reporter - Programs

The Soros Foundation Romania organizes the national competition for high schools – “Be a reporter in your high school! Be an active citizen in the community!” in the frame of the project ”High school reporter”.

We are looking for 6 high schools to be part of the pilot project “High school reporter”

The project “High school reporter” represents a new initiative of the Soros Foundation Romania, the first of this type in Romania, initiative through which we aim to contribute to the increase of the young people’s involvement in civic actions, to offer a non-formal frame of learning, using the citizen journalism and the new media specific tools (WEB 2.0), to strengthen the connection between school and community. All with the involvement, in a first stage, of 6 high schools in the country, which want to work with us.

Citizen journalism represents that type of journalism that can be practiced by any citizen who monitors the community in which he lives. The citizen journalism is not a job, but a choice of civic participation. The potential of informing and the importance of the citizen journalism were acknowledged by big media companies such as BBC, Reuters, MSNBC, Sky News which develop programs of citizen journalism.

In Romania, the citizen/participative journalism became more and more of interest in the last years. The materials carried out by citizens are published and broadcasted currently in the Romanian mass media.

High schools with different profiles from the entire country can apply!

Who participates?

6 high schools, each of them represented by a team made up of four pupils in the grade XI and a coordinator teacher. The team will be involved in the project all through the piloting period (2010). Starting from September, other pupils will be drawn into the project, in order to give continuity for the years to come.

Which are the project’s activities?

In the spring holidays: training seminar for the participant pupils and teachers with experienced NGO activists and professional journalists.

Throughout the second semester, current scholar year: the participant teams will write and publish reports about the school activities (including meetings of the Administration Council, the Teachers’ Council, the Pupils’ Council), about the activities of the local administration public institutions, (including meetings of the Local Council) and about the events in the community. The Soros Foundation will place at each team’s disposal, on a personal server, a Wordpress platform, that the team will be able to personalize.

The teams will receive online consultations. Reports will be mainly used, avoiding conflicting positions.

In the summer holidays: summer camp where the results will be discussed and the acquired knowledge will be went thoroughly into. The coordinator teachers will start working together with a consultant on an educational package targeting the use of the report during the civic education classes.

In the first semester of the scholar year 2010-2011: Team work continues, within the same parameters. Other types of articles will be added, for example the interview.

The teachers will continue work at the educational package. Pupils from younger years will be co-opted into the project, to continue the activity after the initial members will graduate. Optionally, round tables will be organized with local actors from the school and the community, to discuss the utility of the newspaper.

In the winter holidays: awarding the best newspaper and the best authors.

The project will continue in the next years, extending the participation to high schools all over the country.

Which are the obligations of the participants?

Founding and developing the High school Newspaper – which will be published on the dedicated Wordpress platform.
Writing articles for the High school Newspaper – with focus on the actions in the high school and in the community. Each team will receive specific subjects from the mentors.
The participation at the training seminar in the spring holidays, which will be held by professional journalists in creative writing and project development.
The participation at the summer camp – which will be organized in the summer holidays, with the participation of the same mentors.
The coordinator teachers will draw up an educational package, with the support of a consultant on education, which will be used during the civic education classes. This will be published at the end of the pilot project (at the beginning of 2011)
The Soros Foundation will inform and will obtain the agreement of the Ministry of Education to implement this project. We recommend the participants to inform the school principals about the participation in the project.

Which are the benefits of the participants?

Free trainings for the 6 winner teams.
The opportunity to collaborate with professional journalists and with other professionals in the NGO environment (specialized on projects with common school - local authorities involvement).
Promoting the project in the Romanian press (and implicitly those involved in it) and amongst the big Romanian companies.
Fee for the coordinator teachers (the equivalent of 100 euro per month during April – December 2010).
Prizes in money: 300 euro for the best author, 300 euro for the best article, 1000 euro for the best newspaper. Throughout the project other sponsors will be searched in order to increase the award basis.

How are the teams selected?

Each team must consist of 4 pupils of Grade XI and a coordinator teacher (eliminatory condition). The coordinator teacher can have any type of specialization.
The members of the team must know how to work with WEB 2.0 methods (especially with blogs) and must be familiar to the concept of citizen journalism.
To the contest can participate more teams from the same high school, but only a team per high school will be selected.
Each team will fill in an application form. These will be evaluated by an intern commission from the Soros Foundation and the best teams from different environments will be selected. The evaluation will take into consideration the creativity, the critical, constructive way of thinking of the pupils, previous participation to community projects. For the teachers, previous experience in writing educational materials will be an advantage.

The participants must manifest a pro-active attitude, to be open to diversity, to have spirit of initiative, a high degree of responsibility and seriousness;

The participants should have participated previously to at least one extra-curricular project (optional);
The participants should be familiar to volunteering experiences;
The participants must be willing to gather additional information about citizen journalism, about other initiatives of this kind in other parts of the world
The participants will permanently communicate with the local SFR coordinator (who will also have the mentor role) and with the entire project team.
The participants will take part in all the projects’ activities during the period April – December 2010.

Which are the procedures that must be followed?

Each team will send a filled in application form until the 10^th of March 2010, 17:00 p.m. The application form is attached to this material or can be asked at the e-mail address rdl[at] soros[dot]ro or at the telephone number 021.212.11.01/02.

The form will be sent through e-mail at the address rdl[at] soros[dot]ro, in MS Word format.

The exact dates and the place of the events will be announced in due time. The first seminar will take place in the second half of the holidays week.

For more information please contact Denisa Ionescu, Program Coordinator.

The selected teams will be announced of the result on e-mail on the 23^rd of March 2010.

Good luck!