Founded in 1987, the New England High School Journalism Collaborative has introduced hundreds of high school students to the field of journalism, through workshops and programs that let students work directly with professional reporters, photographers and editors from area newspapers.
A longtime mission of the Collaborative has been to reach out to inner-city students and others in under-served communities to introduce them to careers in journalism and to help establish student newspapers in high schools throughout New England.
The Collaborative’s key program is a week-long workshop in June during which a select group of students gather for a week and produce a laboratory newspaper and a multimedia site. This is an all-expense paid program, sponsored in part by Regis College, and in partnership with The Boston Globe.
Students are housed at Regis College and work on stories throughout Greater Boston from a newsroom at Simmons University.
The collaborative was co-founded and directed by the late Carole Remick, who once declared, “Regardless of color, creed, or nationality, this program will continue to serve as a platform for students from many communities so that all different cultures will be represented in the media.”
The word collaborative carries a rich history that expanded the ongoing value and culture of the program from its earliest days. Carole generated several initiatives that helped advance the existing high school student workshop in the 1980s. These initiatives also brought on the need for a more encompassing title. News journalism was not Carole’s specialty as an English professor. Yet she still found ways to call in many levels of communication and publication that helped build the program. A few examples follow:
- When she wanted teachers better equipped to recommend student candidates, Carole organized sessions with the teachers. Ultimately, sessions became mini-trainings not only for the teachers, but interchangeably for Carole and others coordinating the program.
- When she needed ways to get the word out about the workshop to teachers and administrators, Carole saw the value of a brochure. She cobbled together a prototype and then found a way to offer a course in making brochures. The process continually enhanced the quality of her marketing tools.
- Carole built a collaboration between otherwise competitive local newspapers that supported the program. They not only contributed financially, but also provided professional staff who served as writing coaches and advisors for the students. Supporters included The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the Lawrence Eagle Tribune, the Patriot Ledger, the Associated Press, the Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today.