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Local High School Students Visit SLU for ‘Social Justice and Journalism Day’

About 45 journalism students from four local high schools attended Social Justice and Journalism Day, which was presented by the professors in the Department of Communications Tuesday, Dec. 6.

Journalism workshop

Students from Grand Center Arts Academy and Clayton High School listen to Danny Wicentowski of the Riverfront Times as Kameel Stanley of St. Louis Public Radio looks on during a morning session where the reporters shared their experiences covering social justice issues, including Ferguson.

About 45 journalism students from four local high schools attended Social Justice and Journalism Day, which was presented by the professors in the Department of Communications Tuesday, Dec. 6.

Students from Grand Center Arts Academy, Clayton High School, Kirkwood High School and Horton Watkins High School in Ladue participated in breakout sessions with local journalists Danny Wicentowski of the Riverfront Times, Kameel Stanley  and Tim Lloyd of St. Louis Public Radio and Casey Nolen of KSDK, who hosts Stay TunedSTL.

In addition, assistant professor Amber Hinsley, Ph.D., and instructor Cynthia Granville, coordinator of the Communication Media Center, led an interactive session that introduced students to means of leveraging tools of data analysis and science to challenge injustice. Students created projects that examined publicly available documents reporting lead levels in the water in St. Louis Public Schools.

“The students found compelling stories in the data and visualized their narratives using infographic design software,” said Dan Kozlowski, Ph.D., associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Communications.

The material used for the session is supported by a National Science Foundation grant.