A Jefferson City High School senior was selected to participate in a competitive nine-day journalism workshop at the University of Missouri in Columbia.
The 46th annual Missouri Urban Journalism Workshop will take the 20 participants through a hands-on experience as a professional journalist with print and broadcasting assignments.
Veronica Townsend, who will be working for her second year at the JCHS Red & Black newspaper, was thrilled to find out she was selected from 52 applicants from around the nation.
"In journalism, you're always trying to get to the next step, and the summer is a great time to do workshops that you can't do during the year," she said.
Every year the work revolves around a theme. This year, the students will focus on "covering a divided community," said Stephanie Green, workshop coordinator and editor for the program. Students will delve into issues including racism, gun rights, immigration and other sensitive topics often covered by journalists.
Part of the application process was an essay about how the local and national news covers issues of race, sexuality and people with disabilities and how that coverage can be improved.
Students on the print side of the program will write two articles, and the broadcast side will create a multimedia piece and write an article. The work will be published in the Columbia Missourian, broadcast on KOMU and published online on the Urban Pioneer, the workshop website.
The workshop includes some instruction time, and the participants will spend a day at the Reynolds Journalism Institute learning some "cutting-edge" journalism practices.
An $1,800-per-person scholarship to attend is paid for by the Dow Jones News Fund, another perk to participating in this workshop, Townsend said.
She is interested in a several different majors upon graduating next school year, and she's using the workshop to determine whether journalism is the career for her.
She's also considering majoring in business, political science or education.
"I'm interested in journalism because I can do something different every single day, and it's not like the same thing every month," she said.
"I get to do stories and meet so many people and work with great people at the high school and in the community. I enjoy that interaction with the community every day."
The workshop begins Friday and lasts until July 17.