Journalists in training

After five months with Union-tribune staffers, students at South Park’s Mcgill School of Success try their hand at publishing an article Over five months, the Mcgill students were taught about the importance of journalism in today’s world as well as the d

Journalism is alive and well in the next generation of young writers at Mcgill School of Success in San Diego’s South Park neighborhood. From January through May of this year, editors, reporters and staff of The San Diego Uniontribune visited the campus to teach the fundamentals of journalism to 22 aspiring young writers, most of whom were the the fourth or fifth grade.

The U-T Tuesdays Junior Journalist Program was conceived by Mcgill School board vice president Robert Brown, CEO and principal Joseph Mendoza and music director Roberto Sanchez, with the support of fourthgrade teacher Linda Yoo and fifth-grade teacher Harriet Bundley. Luis Cruz, the Union-tribune’s director of community and public relations, coordinated the program with the U-T newsroom staff.

Over five months, the Mcgill students were taught about the importance of journalism in today’s world as well as the different styles of journalistic writing, reporting techniques and editing skills by Uniontribune managing editor Lora Cicalo; digital creative director Michael James Rocha; public safety editor Dana Littlefield; opinion editor Matthew T. Hall; arts editor Pam Kragen; columnist Lisa Deaderick; and lead visual journalist Alejandro Tamayo. U-T publisher and editor Jeff Light supported the project and attended many of the events, which concluded May 23 with a junior journalist “graduation” ceremony.

The 22 students who took part in the program each wrote a few sentences describing the highlights of their school days at Mcgill School, and those sentences were combined by Mcgill faculty in the story below.

The junior journalists are: Abella Hernandez; Damian Bogarin; Valentina Robles; Sebastian Violante; Jonathan Medina; Joseph Solis; Magddys Gil; Za’riyah Thomas; Aaron Vazquez; Jazlyn Dobkins; Nahyeli Aguirre; Jordan Segura; Jaidyn Buggs; Kendall Hidalgo; Jadiel Camarena; Hannah Fuentes; Daniel Caple; Maximilian Branch; Julian Guardado; Adrian Olmos; Mikaela Gomez; and Matthew Jacob Mora.

MICHAEL JAMES ROCHA U-T In April, Union-tribune editors Dana Littlefield and Michael James Rocha spoke to Mcgill students about how to write a story.

ALEJANDRO TAMA YO U-T PHOTOS Staffers from The San Diego Union-tribune present the students at Mcgill School of Success in South Park with certificates for completing the monthslong “Think Like a Journalist” program.