Just for commuters … information and daily schedule

Dear NBTB 2013 commuter campers and families,

We’re looking forward to meeting you in just a few weeks! Here is some information to help you prepare for your Newsroom by the Bay experience this summer.

TEAM LEADERS: First, we’d like to introduce you to Maytal Mark and Adrienne von Schulthess, the two team leaders who will be dedicated exclusively to our commuting campers. Maytal and Adrienne, whose bios you can read here, will be the first people you’ll check in with each morning, and the last ones you check out with each day. Maytal and Adrienne will be contacting you soon — please make sure you respond and keep their emails handy.

Most of our commuters are from the South Bay. Here is where they live. We also have a few campers coming from San Francisco and the East Bay. Campers will receive a roster with commuter family phone numbers at orientation on Sunday, June 23.

CARPOOLS: We recognize that many families will be interested in coordinating carpools. The maps at right shows the general locations of most of our commuting families. Maytal and Adrienne will meet with students after our orientation at 3 p.m. on Sunday to help coordinate carpools for the week ahead.

PARKING: Daily and weekly parking passes ($4.50 and $25) are available from the camp office. We accept cash or checks. Parking will NOT be enforced on Sunday, June 23 when you arrive for orientation or Sunday, June 30 if you come to say goodbye to residential students as our program ends. Parking WILL be enforced Monday through Saturday of our program week.

IPADS: We’ll be handing you a fully loaded iPad2 that will be yours for the week while you’re at camp. You are required to turn in your iPad to your team leader at the end of each day before you leave for the day or evening. We’ll store it overnight, and you will pick up your iPad the next day between 7:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. You will want to do this before the morning chalk talk begins, at 7:45 a.m.

HOMEWORK: Good news — there isn’t any. However, your residential peers likely will be working on their reporting projects late into the evening. Whether you choose to do so after you depart each day is up to you. Obviously, you’ll have more to show off at the end of the week if you put in extra hours, but we also realize that this is an 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. experience for you, so there is no expectation of nighttime work. We do suggest that you leave a little room in your schedules at home in case you get inspired!

SUNDAY 6/23 ORIENTATION: Orientation begins at 3 p.m. in the Adelfa Hall common room in Lagunitas Court at 326 Santa Teresa St., on the Stanford campus. Parking is available at nearby Tresidder Student Union or in the lots adjacent to Lagunitas. (Be mindful that Stanford is a big place, and it’s hard to find your way around the first time you visit. But the good news is that there is no parking enforcement on Sundays.)

After general orientation, you’ll have a one-hour team meeting with your team leader. Dinner is at 5:30 p.m. and as a commuter student you are welcome to join us at no charge. After dinner, teams will be working on setting up group sharing and social media accounts on your iPads, and on planning what your reporting focus and field trip will be for the week. We encourage you to stay for dinner and for planning time on Sunday. You can plan to be on your way by 8 p.m. To better facilitate team communication, we’ll be sending you instructions for setting up a special Gmail account in the next few days; for your own convenience, we encourage you to set up these accounts before camp begins.

WEEKDAY MORNING DROP-OFF: Our morning chalk talk at the Adelfa common room is at 7:45 a.m., and this is where you will have an opportunity to choose reporting opportunities for the afternoon and get other news of the day. Students depart for classes at 8 a.m. (our classrooms are a short walk from our dorm) and classes begin promptly at 8:15 a.m.

WEEKDAY EVENING PICK-UP: As of 4 p.m., after a long day of classes and reporting, we switch into rest and relaxation mode, with Team Leader Hailey Waller and her crew leading groups to swimming, volleyball, a walk around Lake Lagunita, a trip to get an ice cream at Tressider Student Union or just lounging around in Adelfa. Dinner starts at 5:30 p.m.

This is when many commuters choose to leave, but on some evenings you may choose to stay longer to collaborate with team members or to attend our Evening Speaker Series, which begins at 7 p.m. each evening and includes:

• Monday: 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner Adam Johnson on Journalism and Literary Fiction

• Tuesday: (1) Drone Journalism at Palo Alto High School and (2) Scott Landis on Social Media

• Wednesday: Michelle Quinn of Politico.com on politics and technology

• Thursday: Eric Burse on Building a Personal Brand

• Friday: Nick Ferentinos on 25 years of student free speech, after the Supreme Court’s Hazelwood decision

FIELD TRIP DAYS: The only exception to the weekly morning drop-off/pick-up is field trip day on Wednesday, June 26 (Year 1) and Tuesday/Thursday, June 25 and 27 (Year 2). On those days, you’ll be asked to meet up with your team for an 8 a.m. departure from campus to the CalTrain station in downtown Palo Alto. Field trips return at 5:30 p.m.

WEEKDAY BREAKFAST: Not included in your program fee, but meal tickets can be purchased for $9.55.

WEEKDAY LUNCH: Included in your program fee. You will receive a boxed lunch on your field trip day; otherwise, meals are at the Lagunitas Dining Hall.

WEEKDAY DINNER: Not included in your program fee, but meal tickets may be purchased for $16.60 apiece. There are many dining options near our dorm and you may choose to go out for dinner with your fellow commuters (many students do and it can be cheaper).

SATURDAY DROP-OFF AND PICK-UP: Saturday includes more flexibility than the previous days, with no morning classes. Year 1 students will be working together to polish their websites and reporting projects, while our Year 2 students will be pitching their stories in our “Editor Speed Dating” event. Our evening Multimedia Showcase is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and marks the final, celebratory event of our week together, capped by fireworks at 9:30 p.m. over Stanford Stadium.

SUNDAY: Sunday is all about check-outs and departures for our residential students. Commuters are welcome to come and bid their new friends farewell, but there is no formal camp activity on Sunday and all of our students and staff must leave campus by 11 a.m. under Stanford rules.

A final note: NBTB is an unusual camp in that reporting opportunities can arise throughout the week. For instance, we may be able to get unexpected seats to a Friday night performance of the Stanford Jazz Workshop; also, we’re working with the San Jose Earthquakes to arrange a handful of tickets for Saturday night’s soccer game at Stanford Stadium. The more flexible you can be about pick-up times the more likely you are to be able to participate in some of these activities.

We’re looking forward to seeing you all and to working with students and families to make sure that your Newsroom by the Bay week is one you’ll never forget. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions.

See you soon!

Paul and Beatrice