UA Journalism Project in Sixth Year

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Lemke Journalism Project at the University of Arkansas is a series of workshops for high school students from Northwest Arkansas who are interested in writing about diversity issues. The project will begin its sixth year on Saturday, Feb. 10, one week later than originally planned, due to the winter weather last week. The project is sponsored by the Walter J. Lemke department of journalism in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

The workshops, which run for five weeks ending March 10, allow high school students to meet with leaders from the community and work with journalism professors and professionals. The students write stories for a newspaper that is published at the end of the workshop and presented to the students during the annual Journalism Days at the department. The newspaper will be distributed as an insert by La Prensa and The Morning News in Northwest Arkansas.

 Twenty-two students are expected to arrive Saturday, including students from Rogers High School, the Sophomore Center in Rogers, Springdale High School, Har-Ber High School in Springdale, Fayetteville High School and Farmington High School.

Local members of the Society of Professional Journalists will participate, providing professional coaches for the students. The program is free to students. Lunch and snacks are provided, as well as transportation for Rogers and Springdale students.

Macarena Hernández of The Dallas Morning News, will be a special guest for the program this year, spending Saturday, Feb. 17, with the students.

Hernández was born in Roma, Texas, and raised in La Joya, about three miles north of the Rio Grande. Her family emigrated from Nuevo León, Mexico, in the early 1970s. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and English at Baylor University in 1996 and a master’s degree with emphasis on documentary filmmaking from the University of California at Berkeley two years later. Before coming to The Dallas Morning News, she worked as the Rio Grande Valley bureau chief for the San Antonio Express-News. It was during this time that a reporter at The New York Times, Jayson Blair, plagiarized a story of hers, which led to Blair's downfall. Hernandez and Blair had been interns together at The Times in 1998.

Hernandez is active in Latino issues and causes, as well as organizations that nurture the writer and the spirit. She has also worked with educational groups to get students more invested in the classroom.

She is one of eight children and the only one still single. “Aside from La Güerra, my faithful Chihuahua mutt, I adore my 17 nieces and nephews,” she said.

She enjoys reading, yoga, writing fiction and researching family history.