Dobson students contribute to book

Work by student reporters included in Healthy NewsWork publication

MANAYUNK >> With the help of some aspiring journalists from Manayunk, Healthy NewsWorks recently produced the fifth edition of “Leading Healthy Change in our Communities.”

Marian Uhlman, founder and director of Healthy NewsWorks, is passionate about the school health initiative. She said the project started in 2003, and it evolved to produce a book.

“This is our fifth book, and it grew out of the newspaper project, and it allows some of our reporters — this year we had roughly 300 elementary reporters—... to go above and beyond and really interview some amazing people in the Philadelphia area who are making communities healthier and safer for kids,” Uhlman said.

As a former reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Uhlman used her journalism background to help lay the groundwork for students to develop writing skills while learning healthy habits. She said these student reporters are the “public health messengers.”

Uhlman said there are amyriad of topics that the student journalists cover in the newspaper and book.

“Our newspapers are very broad in terms of the definition of health,” Uhlman said. “It could be everything from asthma to bullying prevention to stress reduction. This year we had a focus on dental health.”

Jayla Clark, Sophia Collazo and Angelo Fara belli, who just finished fifth grade at James Dobson Elementary School in Manayunk, all contributed to this year’s edition of the book.

James Dobson Elementary School Principal Patricia Cruice said the school has been involved with Healthy News Works for thepast “couple years.”

The student reporters got a crash course in journalistic methods: reporting, interviewing, writing and editing. They revealed said with the Fit-Fin — Dobson’s Healthy News Works newspaper — as well as the book helped cultivate their journalism knowledge.

“One of the things that I liked about the Fit-Fin is I re-- ally liked writing the stories and like going over themand editing them to go into the book and the paper,” Jayla said.

“So when the teacher asked, ‘Does anyone want to be a part of the Fit-Fin reporters?’ pretty much everyone in our class said yes,” Clark explained. “So we all went on small interviews and then we wrote up stories, and the best stories picked out of the whole class got to be a part of the actual news group to go into the book.”

Sophia said working with the book helped expand her horizons and improve her writing.

“Some people, they write an article, and it may not be as good as other articles, but when you join the Fit-Fin, you learn more about articles than you did before,” Sophia said.

For student reporters like Jayla, having a communications background through this project could help later in life.

“If I were to write an article again, say in high school or college, and I was the reporter, then it would be a lot easier to write the articles without having to go through more editing and rewriting,” Clark said.

While writing was rewarding, the three agreed they also enjoyed learning about the content they were producing. The student journalists said the book covered a variety of topics including Cystic Fibrosis, dental hygiene, sun protection and eating right.

Uhlman said this project serves an educational purpose.

“Everybody has a role to play in making communities [healthier],” Uhlman said. “We all can make communities healthier.”