You can be a part of the LJP • Application information below
How do I apply for the Lemke Journalism Project?
The journalism department arranges with high schools to send recruiters into designated classes during the first part of January. The LJP recruiters tell the students about the workshop and hand out information for parents – in English and in Spanish. If a student is interested in participating, he or she fills out an application form and gets a parent to sign the permission slip. The LJP provides transportation for students who do not live in Fayetteville. Before students can ride the bus, their parents must give permission on the application form.
For your convenience, choose one of the two formats of the application.
- Apply using the Google Form
- Download the LJP Application PDF
Submit the completed application form to Director Gina Holland Shelton:
- Email (with the form as an attachment): ginas@uark.edu OR
- Postal mail to LJP, 116 Kimpel, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR 72701
Who can attend the LJP?
Each year, the program accepts about 25-30 students in 10th, 11th or 12th grade. Students who have attended before are encouraged to apply – there are special aspects of the program for them. Applicants who are accepted will be notified by phone and by their teachers or counselors. LJP volunteers will also call the students’ parents at home.
Students produce a newspaper, and they are coached in multimedia journalism. In the spring 2015 session for example, Veronica Torres of Fayetteville High interviewed Jacob Perry of the Cisneros Center for New Americans, at the UATV studios, as seen below. Other high school student video work can be found on the LJP playlist on YouTube.
What happens at the LJP?
The program usually runs each Saturday in February (sometimes we start the last week of January) and runs for six weeks until the second week of March. Students arrive on campus at 9 a.m. After some preliminaries, the first hour is usually spent on a discussion of news – what it is, why it’s important and how to gather it.
During the second Saturday, students will meet in small groups with local news professionals to talk about their story ideas. From these sessions, students are assigned a mentor from the pool of journalists. The mentors keep in touch with the students during the week to help with stories.
Twice during most Saturdays, the students hear from speakers from the community. Subjects have included health concerns among Latinos, Marshallese and African-Americans; immigration legislation; higher education opportunities for minorities; teen pregnancy; and racial profiling.
By the third week, students are spending every spare moment in the writing lab to work on their stories; photographers are meeting with the graphics teacher; and broadcast projects are under way.
The students get a snack break during the morning and lunch is provided around noon. At 1 p.m., the students board the bus to return to their towns.
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