Student Journalists Vie for Gold During ASPA’s Summer Workshop on UA Campus

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Scholastic journalists will vie for gold, silver and bronze at the Alabama Scholastic Press Association summer workshop, the Long Weekend, July 18-20 in Reese Phifer Hall on The University of Alabama campus.

The workshop begins at 1 p.m. Friday, July 18 and concludes at noon Sunday, July 20. Details, registration and scholarship information is posted at www.aspa.ua.edu.

With the Beijing Olympics just around the corner, the competitive theme offers a timely way to format ASPA’s event. Between the opening ceremony, when schools will parade into the auditorium wearing their staff tee-shirts, until the presentation of medals at the closing ceremony, there will be training in all the journalistic arenas.

The events include interviewing, writing, editing, photography, packaging, computer design, video technology, podcasting, Web site development and more.

“Phifer Hall is the perfect venue for journalism competition,” said Dr. Jennifer Greer, chair of the UA journalism department. “Students and advisers can train in our state-of-the-art labs and compete with the state’s top high school staffs.”

Foods and music from foreign lands will be provided. A teacher who has created Greek games for her physical education classes has been recruited to help with recreational planning. High school staffs are invited to bring talent and skits for free time at Byrd’s Nest dorm, so named for the workshop.

“We have a creative team at work on a program of fun and games that will permeate the atmosphere during times of work and relaxation,” said Marie Parsons, interim director of ASPA.

Trainers for the event are high-school journalism advisers known for producing prize-winning journalists and publications. Among them are Bruce Watterson of Rome, Ga., Beth Fitts of Oxford, Miss., and Monica Hill of Chapel Hill, N.C., joined by UA communication professors.

Other guests are Irene Latham, Alabama’s 2006 Poet of the Year, and Jay Deas, trainer of Deontay Wilder, a 2008 Olympic boxer.