Our students — along with their teachers and parents — are the best source of information about our program and how it supports and influences the work of student journalists around the country. Here are some testimonials that we’ve received:
Lexy Medema (second from left) and the members of the Inquirer news team gather for a photo while on a field trip to San Francisco during our Summer 2012 session.
“Overall, Newsroom by the Bay was an amazing experience that I’ll never forget. For 9 days, 71 people who came from diverse backgrounds and who have diverse passions were brought together by their interest in the field of journalism. I learned so much that I’ll take home to improve my own newspaper but also walked away with new relationships and a new perspective on reporting and the world in general that I’ll always value. I will definitely be recommending this program to others on LHS’s newspaper staff.”—Lexy Medema, senior, Lincoln High School, Sioux Falls, S.D.
Rising junior Deron Essex stops to work on a story during a visit to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. His website, The Flame, aimed “to recognize the contributions of all different cultures to American society.”
“I write to express my sincere gratitude to you and the Newsroom-by the-Bay community for making Deron and Malik’s summer experience so magical. Upon his return, Deron was charged with summarizing his experience and highlighted the interviews that took place in San Francisco; he’s currently considering journalism as a career pursuit. I’m most certain that this opportunity has and will be a transformative experience for Deron, Malik and many more Urban Prep students to come. Thanks again.”—Marshall Hatch, college counselor, Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, Chicago, Ill.
“On behalf of the other guys and myself, I’d like to thank you both for an amazing week. We’ll bring any lessons back to St. Benedict’s, and our newspaper and its website will be completely different as a result of coming to Newsroom by the Bay. Personally, I can say that here, I’ve found many of the answers I’ve been looking for. I always asked myself after we finished our newspaper and we distributed (it), why kids just kind of didn’t care, and many just threw it out. It hurt me a lot of time to see weeks of hard work, weekends and hours spent during production (end up) on the floor around school or simply in the garbage. Our website barely had any views, and I never knew why …. Coming to NBTB and meeting people … who gave us tools to attract kids, (were) super-energetic and would always challenge my way of thinking about how journalism works today was amazing. I’m sure we learned many, many lessons to make our paper count.”—Telmo DeMorais, senior, St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, N.J.
Patricia Jia and Ike Shehadeh, the owner of Ike’s Place, a popular sandwich shop at Stanford. Jia wrote her first-ever restaurant review for her website, The Current.
“Thanks again for such a great experience at NBTB! I’ll never forget the crazy week of connecting with editors, hunting for stories in San Francisco, and staying up past midnight with other journalism enthusiasts. Can’t wait to come back next year!”—Patricia Jia, sophomore, St. Francis High School, Fremont, Calif.
”I would just like to express my gratitude to you for all of your hard work and dedication. Your passion and love for all facets of journalism is one of an infectious nature. The amount of knowledge I was able to gain in a short one-week period of time amazed me …. In everyday conversations, I often mention my incredible experience at Stanford University with all of the people from Newsroom by the Bay. I cannot thank you enough for making my dreams a reality. I will never forget you or the things I learned.”—Morgan Skidmore, senior, Olathe South High School, Olathe, Kan.
Teagan Sebba, left, and Mary-Kate Engstrom, right, display the NBTB spirit during check-in last June. Sebba and Engstrom attended our Summer 2011 session as students and came back last summer as counselors.
