North Campus Creates High School Journalism Summer Program

Many high school students slept late, lounged at the beach or worked part-time jobs this summer.

But a curious group of high school students opted to learn more about writing and reporting while serving as part of the inaugural staff of the Miami Dade College Summer High School Journalism Institute.

The program, an intensive six-week dual-enrollment summer program for high school students interested in careers in journalism, took place from June 19 through July 28.

“I learned that it’s a little bit [of] a nagging career because you have to be out there on the job almost 24/7,” said Eric Forteza, a sophomore at Hialeah Senior High School, who participated in the pilot program. “You have to be very determined and you always have to go after [stories] even if you’re becoming a little bit annoying.”

During the program, students learned how to conduct interviews, write stories, structure content and take photographs. They also visited various newsrooms including Univision, the Miami Herald and WLRN. Guest speakers included Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Nicholas Nehamas of the Miami Herald,  WSVN 7 morning news anchor Alex de Armas, Miami Herald municipal reporter Monique Madan, NBC 6 reporter Melissa Adan and Gregory Castillo, the multimedia producer at the Dallas Museum of Art.

“I wanted to fill a void and give an opportunity to students that might not have an opportunity to learn more about journalism,” said Manolo Barco, who created the program.

Barco currently serves as the media adviser to The Reporter, the award-winning student newspaper at Miami Dade College. He has worked as a criminal justice reporter at the Dallas Morning News in Texas and as a staff writer at the Miami Herald. His work has also appeared on the sports pages of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

During the Institute, the students logged 90 hours. They received mentoring from Barco and took the College’s basic reporting course with Robert Wile, a journalist who has previously written for Fusion and Business Insider and whose work has also been featured in Newsweek, Slate and The New Tropic.     

The team of student reporters who participated in the Institute hailed from Miami Norland Senior High School, the School for Advanced Studies at Wolfson Campus, Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Ronald W. Reagan/Doral Senior High School and Hialeah Senior High School

At the end of the program, the students produced an eight page newspaper that included news and feature stories, arts reviews and opinions articles.        

Allessandra Inzinna, a 16-year-old student  at Palmetto Senior High School, who served as the paper’s editor-in-chief, said the experience was eye-opening.

“You need to be flexible. You need to be versatile. You need to be motivated [and] be educated,” Inzinna said. “You have to have an open mind [and] be objective”

For more information about the MDC High School Journalism Institute or to learn how to participate next year, contact Manolo Barco at 305-237-1255 or at mbarco@mdc.edu