This newspaper is the product of high school students from throughout Kern County who enrolled in the Bakersfield College Summer Multicultural Journalism Workshop from June 7-24.
The workshop, now in its 18th year, is sponsored by The Bakersfield Californian, The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund and Bakersfield College.
The print version of this color newspaper was generously donated by Castle Print and Bakersfield Envelope & Printing.
The California Chicano News Media Association also assisted by promoting the program.
The workshop is a crash course in journalism that is offered at no cost to students. It is designed to encourage high school students from all ethnic backgrounds to consider journalism as a career. Students are given the chance to try all aspects of newspapers, including photography, repoprting, cartoons, copy editing, headline writing and page design. They name their newspaper and choose their own story and photo assignments.
Workshop students owe a special thanks to George Ramos, chair of the Journalism Department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Ramos, a winner of three Pulitzer Prizes for his work at the Los Angeles Times, donated a week of his time to work with students as a writing coach and mentor.
Numerous photographers, editors and reporters also donated their time and expertise to work with students or appear as guest speakers.
Robin Johnson, workshop business manager, gave up her vacation time to help with the program; Carol Barnett, workshop photo adviser, helped students learn how to handle cameras and improve the quality of digital photos; and Renegade Rip editors Victor Garcia, Jarrod M. Graham, Julianna Crisalli and Ian Hamilton worked with students on page design and computer pagination.
Kathy Freeman, BC journalism adviser, was the workshop instructor.
This program would not be possible without the grant support of The Bakersfield Californian, a longtime supporter of journalism education.
At the June 24 workshop awards luncheon, seven students received $100 scholarships for their outstanding work during the program. Scholarship winners were:
* Emily Davis, Liberty High School
* Maria Krauter, East Bakersfield High School
* Dariane Nabor, Delano High School
* Randy Newton, Liberty High School
* Jillian Sanchez, Centennial High School
* Valerie Urso, Bakersfield High School
* Kirsten Wirth, Bakersfield High School