Gift funds 70 scholarships for HSJI’s 80th anniversary workshops
Birthday wishes do come true.
A $25,000 gift from the Brooks and Joan Fortune Family Foundation made The Media School’s High School Journalism Institute’s milestone 80th anniversary celebrations this summer even sweeter, enabling 70 students to attend the program on scholarships.
The precollege program welcomed 265 high school journalists to IU for two weeklong sessions July 6-16. Students attended classes, guest lectures, and hands-on workshops to strengthen their skills in all fields of journalism, including photojournalism, social media, filmmaking, reporting and writing, podcasting, and more.
Tatum Robertson, a freshman at Edgewood High School in Ellettsville who aspires to become a professional documentary filmmaker, attended the Documentary Filmmaking session at no cost thanks to the Fortune Family Scholarship. The course introduced him to a model of camera he’d never used before, as well as the editing software DaVince Resolve.
“The projects were fun and engaging, while still allowing room to learn and grow throughout the process,” Robertson said. “I loved the time to spend with new friends, playing volleyball and board games, but I also legitimately enjoyed filming and editing my three videos.”
Founded in 1946, HSJI started out as a small summer workshop designed to aid high schoolers in their reporting skills. Forty-three students attended the first year.
While the curriculum has evolved with the industry, the institute still functions the same way today, allowing high school students to stay on the IU campus for one to two weeks and receive hands-on, invaluable reporting skills.
“It’s a long tradition, and there have been many people,” said HSJI Director Teresa White, a senior lecturer in The Media School. “One of the main differences these days is that students are much busier than they used to be. It’s hard for students to get away from all their other activities and responsibilities, but the institute at one time was four weeks long.”
Lillian Dawson, a sophomore at St. Mary’s Dominican High School in New Orleans, attended both weeks of HSJI. She heard about the program through her aunt, a photojournalist.
Dawson said attending HSJI helped her become more interested in journalism.
“Growing up around someone who did photojournalism, I knew journalism was important, but HSJI taught me about all the different ways journalism is important in our day-to-day lives,” Dawson said. “I learned about the fact that there are so many subcategories of journalism that impact different aspects of the world around us.”
For Dawson, the most valuable aspect of the program was learning how to properly use her camera.
“As a beginner photographer, who was previously using YouTube videos to learn, being able to have an instructor’s guidance was extremely helpful,” she said.
Delilah Lasen, a junior at Bethpage High School in New York, also attended both weeks of HSJI and wanted to explore journalism and broadcasting. She received a scholarship for the first week of the program.
After two weeks of experiencing IU, she said she is planning to apply to IU and thinking about majoring in global journalism or public relations.
“My favorite part of the week was meeting so many amazing people from around the world. I met Nina, my roommate, and she is one of the nicest people I know,” Lasen said. “It also taught me the rules of news writing and how to make a package.”
White said she believes the most beneficial aspect of HSJI is the opportunity for students to meet other students who share similar interests.
“There is just this collective energy. It’s very fun for them to be with people who like the same things they do,” she said. “You build some kind of confidence and group spirit out of that that just energizes you.”