Here’s the “Secret”: Empower Student Leaders to Lead
Assemble a group of enthusiastic students to take on a task, “empower leaders to lead, and get out of their way.”
That’s what I learned a decade ago from education thought-leader Esther Wojcicki and Paul Kandell, who built Palo Alto High School’s award-winning journalism program in Northern California. Esther and I later formed a nonprofit to spread Palo Alto’s approach, which became the Journalistic Learning Initiative. Since 2015, JLI has served more than 4,500 students at 18 schools in Oregon and California.
If you’re wondering how to cultivate enthusiasm, it organically emerges when students engage in self-directed project-based learning. Journalism offers students opportunities to explore their intrinsic interests — the subjects they are innately curious about. Also, we find that all students can arise in some way as leaders and significant contributors when given a chance.
Student leadership remains one of JLI’s guiding principles, and it has informed my own teaching. I recently recruited five talented University of Oregon journalism undergraduate editors to launch and manage The Student Voice, a new national digital publication of curated high school journalism.
Beginning January 15th, on Fridays, from noon to 1:30 Pacific time, they’ll lead a team of twenty other undergraduates in facilitating weekly virtual newsroom mentoring sessions for high school journalists from across the nation. We will discuss current headlines, take story pitches, and coach students on improving their writing and multimedia skills. We will also encourage mainstream media companies to republish the best stories, and we will honor excellence by facilitating The Student Voice Awards in late May 2021.
Although Esther retired from classroom teaching this past spring, she continues to advocate for innovation in education, and her legacy continues at the high school where it all began. “Paly,” as locals know it, boasts more than a dozen publications, including a newspaper, two feature magazines, a sports magazine, a science magazine, a yearbook, a multi-camera newscast, and regular podcasts — all led by teams of students. Nearly a third of the school’s 1,800 students participate in some form of journalism or media arts.
With Stanford University across the street and Facebook and Google nearby, it would be easy to dismiss the program’s success to privilege and affluence. However, meeting Esther and three of her students for the first time in 2010 at an academic conference led me to believe there was more to this story.
Two years of study for my dissertation confirmed that Paly’s approach can benefit students in socio-economically challenged communities. Subsequently, JLI has seen transformative results in its Oregon programs and in Los Angeles and San Jose, California. In 2015, I wrote a book about our research-based and standards-aligned work, published by Columbia University’s Teachers College Press.
Student publications can be established for free using WordPress or half a dozen other online tools. If there isn’t an established journalism program at your child’s school, parents encourage them to start a blog about their choice of topics. It gets them researching and writing — and allows them to discover their voice. And if you are a teacher who is intimidated by technology, let the students teach you.
Esther’s philosophy continues to inform JLI’s growth and development. I returned to Palo Alto High this past year to engage students in focus group sessions about The Student Voice project. We wanted its creation to be guided by members of the generation it will serve. Students provided invaluable feedback about the publication’s name, logo, and editorial tone, which will be reflected in its debut.
In addition to The Student Voice, in the fall, JLI will launch Effective Communicators, a new stand-alone course in thirty new communities.
JLI works in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication and College of Education. The University’s Williams Council and a generous gift from Nancy and Dave Petrone have provided initial funds to launch the project. Private donors, corporate partners, and foundation grants make our work possible.
Students and teachers interested in The Student Voice can sign up here. The editorial staff will accept materials from US-based high school students that have been reviewed before submission by a licensed teacher.
For more information about Esther Wojcicki’s forthcoming Master Class series and JLI’s other programs, write to info@journalisticlearning.com.
