Editors: A list of participating high schools, the names of the students and their school newspaper advisers is attached.
High school journalism students from around the state will convene on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus Jan. 29 to address the issues of alcohol use and abuse among high school students.
CU-Boulder's "A Matter of Degree" program and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication will host the one-day event starting at 8:30 a.m. in the Old Main Chapel. Students from 17 high schools are planning to attend with their school newspaper advisers.
"High-risk drinking among college students is well documented, but that same behavior among high school students is often less publicized," according to A Matter of Degree's program director, Bob Maust. "We聮re concerned that many high school students have become involved with high-risk drinking before they ever set foot on our college campuses. To be successful in dealing with the problem in college, we're reaching out in a collaborative effort to our future students who are now enrolled in Colorado high schools."
The workshop will include panel presentations from national, state and local experts on the topic of youth and alcohol. Student reporters attending the workshop will be given opportunities to interview these panel members and then given time to write their stories in CU's media lab in the School of Journalism. Students also will tour the campus and attend an information session about CU's journalism program.
A panel of judges will evaluate the workshop stories and prizes will be awarded before the end of the session. Gail Griffin, professor of English and women's studies at Kalamazoo College and a visiting scholar at CU, Monte Whaley, staff writer from the Boulder bureau of the Denver Post, and Bruce Henderson, associate professor of journalism at CU and former news editor for the Daily Camera, will evaluate the student stories on the basis of clarity, accuracy and consistency of theme or point of view.
Expert panelists include Barb Ryan, a senior adviser of the U.S. Department of Education聮s Higher Education Center who will offer a national perspective, Pamela Gillen, project coordinator for the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Program at the CU Health Sciences Center who will offer a state perspective, and Beverly Alexander of the Boulder County Alcohol Diversion Program who will offer a local perspective.
High school instructors also will meet to discuss the feasibility of establishing a statewide high school journalism network, a wire service type of operation that would facilitate dissemination of public health information written by Colorado's high school journalists.
CU-Boulder is one of 10 A Matter of Degree campuses participating in the grant-supported research project that addresses drinking problems at American colleges and universities. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the program applies a cooperative, public health approach to reducing high-risk drinking on campus. It addresses the total social environment that influences drinking behavior.