FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A group of 19 northwest Arkansas high school students spent six weeks at the University of Arkansas this winter, learning how to report on multicultural issues in their community. They’ll see the results of their work on Thursday with the publication of Multicultural News. The 16-page newspaper, reported and written by the students, and edited by professional journalists, is being distributed as an insert in The Morning News and the Spanish language paper, La Prensa. Total circulation will be 50,000.

The students are all members of the Lemke Journalism Project, which for the past five years has trained high school students to report on multicultural issues in northwest Arkansas, and then published the results. The program, which is free to students, is sponsored by the Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism at the University of Arkansas and is funded by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and The Morning News.

For six consecutive Saturday mornings in February and March, the students met with leaders from the community and worked with journalism professors and professionals to write stories for the Multicultural News. In addition, two students from the program worked with Jacqueline Froelich, KUAF news producer, on pieces for the NPR affiliate. Other students got a chance to produce some short television news pieces for UATV, the student television station. Members of the professional and student chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists coached the students in their story ideas and writing.

Cynthia Rodriguez, a columnist for the Denver Post, spent a Saturday morning coaching the students and talking with them about their stories. Other journalists who shared a broad range of experience with the students included Michael Zamora, a Morning News photographer; Natalia Pizarro, a Lemke graduate student who worked for Univision; and Dusty Higgins, cartoonist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Other speakers included Mustapha Ajbaili, a UA journalism student from Morocco; Alene Bryson, a local immigration lawyer; Matt Goodwin, director of the Northwest Arkansas Interfaith Workers Justice Center; Ana Hart, community relations manager for Tyson Inc.; Will Louden, publisher of Northwest Arkansas Living; Shawn McGrew, representing the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens; Joshua Packwood, UA Admissions Office; Margarita Solorzano and Amos Garcia, from the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas; Angela Schnuerle, office of Sen. Blanche Lincoln; Rajiv Vakharia, a UA journalism graduate; and Natalie DiMaggio, a UA graduate student.

University journalism department faculty who took part in the project included Larry Foley, Gerald Jordan, Kim Martin, and Patsy Watkins. Katherine Shurlds has directed the Lemke Journalism Project since its inception.

“Support for this project has certainly grown, both among the professional journalists and members of the community,” Shurlds said. “The journalists tell us when they teach they’re also learning from the students, gaining fresh insights into their community. We’ve also seen more and more community groups who are eager to help make the project work.”

Proof of that can be seen in the list of groups that helped provide lunches for the students during the Saturday sessions: the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas, the University of Arkansas Admissions Office, the UA Office of Institutional Diversity and Education and the northwest Arkansas chapter of LULAC. Shurlds said others who deserved thanks are Carlos Amargos and Sue Kelley of the Rogers School District; and Jo Ray, Jose Torres and Al Lopez of the Springdale School District.

The students are obviously also getting something positive from the Lemke Journalism Project. Seven of them returned for a second year: Jose Garcia, Laura Gutierrez and Stephanie Marave, all seniors at Rogers High School; Guadalupe Aguilar, Marco Cruz and Ranjith Pesaru, all seniors at Springdale High School; and Shirley Vega, a junior at SHS. The dozen students taking part in the program for the first time came from four area high schools: Raquel Aguilar, Anthony Berroa, Erika Flores, Kayla Garcia, Violeta Mendoza, Jessica Mosquera and Jennifer Peñate from Rogers; Bianca Peña, Yamil Reyes and Sayra Rodriguez from Springdale; Fernie Bustamante of Fayetteville; and LaDuska Person from Berryville.

Sponsors, students, their writing coaches and guests will attend an awards ceremony at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 6, in Kimpel Hall, Room 111, as a part of Journalism Days at the Walter J. Lemke Department of Journalism. Anyone with an interest in the project is welcome to attend. The second year students will receive a special leadership award and the seniors in the group will be offered scholarships to major in journalism at the University of Arkansas.

This is the final year of a five-year grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to help fund the Lemke Journalism Project. The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation whose mission is to improve the lives of Arkansans by funding programs and projects that improve education; economic development; and economic, racial and social justice. In 1974, the trustees of Governor Winthrop Rockefeller’s estate endowed the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to continue the work of The Rockwin Fund. Gov. Rockefeller set up The Rockwin Fund in 1954 and, on an annual basis from 1956 until his death in 1973, funded projects and programs he believed were important to improving the quality of life in Arkansas.