By María Flores andMarcela Morán

The Bridge Contributors

During the course of a fullweek, Texas A & MInternational UniversityStudent Newspaper, TheBridge, along with two com-munication professors offereda summer camp to train thenext generation of journalistsand photojournalists. Thecamp, known as theSupermedia Patrol Camp, wasthe first newspaper camp forthe future journalists and pho-tographers of Laredo. Thecamp, proudly sponsored byAramark, The BridgeNewspaper, the South TexasWriting Project, and theDepartment of Language andLiterature, was offered fromJuly 12 to July 16 from 9:00AM to 3:00 PM. The summercamp participants were: SarahElizabeth Castillo, OliviaGalinzoga, Nisha Lakhiani,Andrea Martinez, and Mia

Morán. The camp was organized

into two major seminars: jour-nalism and photojournalism.The news writing class wasinstructed by Dr. MaríaFlores, Assistant Professor ofCommunication at TAMIU.Every morning participantslearned the different elementsof a news story with anemphasis on the 5 W's of jour-nalism (what, when, where,what, why, and how), leads,the inverted pyramid organi-zational pattern and closingstatement. In addition youngreporters gained knowledge ofthe different interview tech-niques and journalism ethics.Ethics was a major componentof the writing seminar, “Ethicsis the core of every journalist.Ethics should guide everyreporter on a daily basis”commended Dr. Flores.During the course of thecamp, young reporters wereasked to write 3 news stories.For the majority of partici-pants this opportunity was thefirst approach to a journalistic

experience. The first storywas about a profile of a class-mate, the second story was aprofile of a character and thethird story was a profile ofTAMIU's outstanding univer-sity leaders. Dr. Flores' grati-tude goes to Dr. FrancesRhodes-English professor, Dr.Irma Cantú-Spanish professor,Mr. Dan Lathey-AssociateDirector of Athletics, Mr. JohnMaxstadt-Head of PublicServices of Sue and RadcliffeKillam Library, and Mr. JoséSaavedra-Physical Plant foraccepting to be interviewed bya reporter in training. All thegirls' stories are being featuredin this special summer campissue of The Bridge newspa-per.

The afternoon seminar wasled by Marcela Morán,Assistant Professor ofCommunication, and focusedon teaching participants thebasics of composition and dig-ital photography techniques.Students were taught how to“make” a photograph ratherthan merely take a picture.

That is, they were instructedto pay attention to the qualityand direction of the lightsource, to include visual ele-ments, such as texture, con-trast, line, and shapes, and tofocus completely on the scenebefore them when making aphotograph. In addition, theywere assigned to make photo-graphs that would complimentthe stories they were writingin the morning seminar.Participants shot portraits andself-portraits, photographs oftheir alter egos, and photo-graphs of individuals theyinterviewed at TAMIU. Theirfinal photo essays dealt withtopics of their choice. Themost important requirementfor this final assignment wasthat they be passionate abouttheir chosen subject matter.The results proved incrediblyrewarding as participants suc-cessfully made powerfulimages that reflected theirenthusiasm for their subjectmatter.

Professor Flores and Moránwould like to thank The

Bridge staff for their supportand assistantship during thecamp, “we could not done italone! The newspaper issue isa team effort. The Bridge staffdid an outstanding job keep-ing the students focus andmotivated through everyactivity. They kept a smile onthe young reporters' faces atall times” said ProfessorFlores. The Bridge staff lent ahand with both seminars, “theBridge Staff was amazing!They fully participated in allthe photo assignments andtheir energy and optimismmade every moment a memo-rable one” stated professorMorán. The Bridge staff thatsupported the camp were:Lilia Eskildsen- InternationalEditor, Kimberly Hernandez-Sales/Marketing, DavidH e r n a n d e z - H e a dPhotographer, JessicaRodriguez-Sales/Marketing,and Christine Rojas-Editor-in-chief.

By Lilia Eskildsen,Kimberly Hernandez,

Jessica Rodriguez, ChrstineRojas

The Bridge Newspaper

As university students, weoften forget the importance insharing our experiences andknowledge with those that areyounger than us. Betweenschool, work, the newspaperand our extra curricular activ-ities, we find it very hard toparticipate in any communityevents.

Through the South TexasWriting Project, we were ableto engage in a summer campthat allowed us to use ourjournalistic abilities to teachyounger students. For a oneweek, we were able to takealready great writers, andmodify their skills to fit thejournalistic style.

Throughout the week, wemanaged to teach the studentsthe six most important ques-tions: Who? What? Why?When? Where? and How?They learned the importanceof deadlines and peer editing.

While dressing up like thealter egos of themselves, thestudents experienced what itwas like to step into someoneelse's shoes. The studentslearned to remove their per-sonal ideas and moral valuesfrom their conscious whileinterviewing different people.

This exercise was veryimportant for the students toparticipate in because itallowed them to practice whatthe interview process wouldbe like. As reporters, we usu-ally find that we cannot con-trol what other people believe

in and we could not possiblyinfluence them in any wayshape or form. The students also learned the

basics of photography anddiscovered the art of the photoessay. The students were ableto partake in the process ofmaking a publication and thestress that comes with it.Overall, the whole summercamp proved to be a whirl-wind of excitement, stress,adventure and extreme fun. As part of the newspaper, we

are glad that we were able toestablish our first summer

camp and have it be a success.As The Bridge StudentNewspaper, would like tothank the South Texas WritingProject, the Language andLiterature Department, andAramark for making this pos-sible. We also give a specialthanks to the people aroundTAMIU that allowed the stu-dents to interview them: JohnMaxstadt, Dr. FrancesRhodes, Dr. Irma Cantu, DanLathey, and Jose Saavedra.

July 19, 2010Vol. 17, No. 11Laredo, Texas

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Photo by Bridge contributor