May 2004

The Lemke Journalism Project, a high school journalism workshop presented by the Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism at the University of Arkansas, has been honored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, a non-profit, educational association of journalism and mass communication faculty, administrators, students and media professionals with some 3,500 members around the world.

The Lemke Project was awarded first place in the “Innovative Outreach to Scholastic Journalism” competition, sponsored by the Scholastic Journalism Division, a division of the AEJMC. Dr. Patsy Watkins, chair of the journalism department, will talk about the project at the AEJMC meeting in Toronto in August.

The Lemke Project, directed by Katherine Shurlds of the journalism faculty, completed its third year in April with the publication of The Multicultural News, a newspaper written by Latino high school students from Rogers and Springdale. The newspaper was distributed in La Prensa, as well as through other local outlets. The publication followed a series of eight Saturday-morning workshops where students met with leaders from the community and worked with journalism professors and professionals to write stories for the paper. In addition, two students from the program worked with Jacqueline Froelich, KUAF news producer, on programs for the station, and other students produced TV news segments for UATV.

The project was funded this year by grants from the Wal-Mart Good Works Foundation, on behalf of local Wal-Mart stores, Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Clubs; the Office of the Provost; Tyson Inc.; and The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas.