Newswise — High school journalism and English classes are often a student's first glimpse at what a career in writing, broadcast, or the media entails. The experiences they have in and out of the classroom can have a profound effect on their future careers. In its fifth year, The George Washington University's Prime Movers Media Program pairs veteran and retired journalists from leading news media companies with students in elective media classes at Washington, D.C., high schools to help them create or strengthen student-run media. Students and GW Prime Movers Media Program interns meet during school hours over the course of the academic year " several weeks of which are complemented with the expertise of professional journalists.
"The Prime Movers program gave me hands-on experience of what it is like to work as a broadcast journalist," said Chiron Hunt, a 2007 graduate of Ballou High School in Washington, D.C., and a three-year student participant in the program. "The professional mentors who came into my classroom brought real life experience that you can't get in a normal class."
Sam Ford, general assignment reporter with WJLA-TV (ABC-7) in Washington, D.C., and two-time professional mentor with the program, said, "The Prime Movers Program is not only good for journalists because it gets you back into the schools but helps you to get in touch with the lives of these students who live in Washington, D.C. The rewarding part is to see the switch turn on when these students put together their stories and really see how to do it."
Hunt added, "At first, I just took the course as an elective. After a while, I got a feel for what I was doing and started to feel comfortable on screen and was enjoying it. Now, I'm majoring in broadcast journalism at the University of Nebraska and hope to someday work for ESPN as a sports broadcaster."
"Prime Movers Media is opening an ever-widening pathway for diverse high school students to work in the expanding 'information highway' and creating a pipeline for ensuring racial diversity in the new media era," said Dorothy Gilliam, founder and director of GW's Prime Movers Media Program. "In addition to preparing the best and brightest for media careers, participating high school students also benefit from this program through enhancing their reading comprehension, graphic design skills, critical thinking, problem solving, leadership abilities, teamwork, and writing and oral communications. These skills will contribute to their development as media savvy news consumers and will better prepare them for competition in the global marketplace." Gilliam is a prize-winning journalist who retired from The Washington Post after 33 years to start the program at GW in 2003.
Undergraduates at The George Washington University also complete internships and work in the local high schools and, in turn, learn from the professional mentors and the students. Marie Zisa, a GW sophomore majoring in political communication and former two-time intern with the program, said, "The first semester I interned with Prime Movers, I was helping an advanced class, and I had had no prior camera experience. At times, the students were the ones teaching me, and we were able to work together and find a solution to the problem. What I most learned from Prime Movers is how rewarding stepping out of your comfort zone can be."
Former professional mentors with GW's Prime Movers Media Program include Bruce Horowitz, USA Today; Felix Contreras, National Public Radio; Seth Stern, Congressional Quarterly; and Pat Wingert, Newsweek. Current professional mentors include Don Hecker, The New York Times, and Tamara Jones, Yvonne Lamb and Sylvia Moreno, The Washington Post (retired). Organizations or individuals interested in making donations to continue the work of GW's Prime Movers Media Program can contact Dorothy Gilliam at (202) 994-0761 or visit www.gwu.edu/~primemovers.
The Prime Movers Media Program was created in 2004 with funding from the James S. and John L. Knight Foundation to help create and strengthen media programs in Washington-area schools to attract students to media careers. Last year, the program expanded to Philadelphia. More than 2000 high school students in the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and Philadelphia have participated in the program, and an estimated 30,000 high school students have been exposed to the student media they have created as readers, viewers, and listeners. Additionally, some 70 college interns and 50 professional journalists representing prominent major-market print and broadcast media outlets, as well as smaller ethnic outlets, have served as mentors. Since its inception, Prime Movers has received almost $1 million in grant funding from the Knight Foundation to support the Washington, D.C., area and Philadelphia programs. In the past year, the program has received funding from D.C. Public Schools and the William Penn Foundation for the Philadelphia program.
The George Washington University's Prime Movers Media Program is part of the University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences' School of Media and Public Affairs. GW's School of Media and Public Affairs is a dynamic, interdisciplinary program based in the heart of Washington, D.C., where media, public affairs, and politics intersect. The school's undergraduate and graduate programs combine elements of strategic communication, journalism, and political communication with contemporary issues in domestic and international politics.
For more information about The George Washington University's Prime Movers Media Program, visit http://www.gwu.edu/~primemovers.
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