Caravan explores Medill School of Journalism

Some+of+the+staff+exploring+campus.+

Some of the staff exploring campus.

On Friday November 6, 2015, the Caravan Newspaper staff along with approximately 150 high school students from 12 different Chicagoland schools attended the High School Journalism Day at Northwestern University. The program, through The Medill School of Journalism, was hosted by Northwestern staff and focused on teaching the skills to succeed in the communications field, particularly in the areas of television, media, and marketing. The event included a keynote address by WGN reporter Marcus Leshock, and various breakout sessions on a number of topics related to media communications. The workshops in all, were exceptional, particularly the sessions focused on television news and interviewing.

In The TV News session, led by Ms. Ava Greenwell, the students learned the art of broadcasting. This program took place in the MFC Broadcast Studio and highlighted the skills required to operate a teleprompter, as well as voice projection. Greenwell also gave the students extremely helpful tips for those aspiring to work professionally in the field of broadcast journalism.

In the interviewing session at the MFC Forum, proper techniques for interviewing subjects were offered by Ms. Karen Springen. Various techniques were highlighted: arrive an hour early at your scheduled interview location; asking for personal information at the beginning of the interview; being careful to not talk too much as the reporter; knowing/checking and “triple checking” facts prior to publishing an article; clarifying any “off the record” statements;  and always listening for potential follow-up questions.

Following the morning workshops, the students broke for lunch.  During lunch, a few of the MC staff took an opportunity to explore the campus of Northwestern University. According to Mount Carmel junior Jack Lockard, “It was truly a sight to see.”

Following the tour of the campus, the Caravan staff headed back to Medill for the keynote address.  WGN’s Marcus Leshock offered an insightful look at his own career path, from initially dreaming about a successful position as a Hollywood director to ultimately pursuing a career  as a newscaster. Leshock’s experiences captivated the audience with a narrative which was extremely relatable – the underlying lesson being that everyone deserves a second chance.

After a hands-on morning fine tuning the high school students’ skills, and following the inspirational speech by the keynote speaker, the day concluded with a panel discussion featuring current Northwestern journalism students.   All in all, the experience proved invaluable to the Caravan staff.