Free Online Course: Responsible Reporting on Suicide for Journalists
As part of my masters’ in public health program at Johns Hopkins University, I helped develop a free, online course to teach journalists how to responsibly report on the topic of suicide. The course, which is available worldwide on Coursera, can be started and completed at any time.
It is based on an extensive body of research that shows certain methods of reporting on suicide deaths can increase the number of subsequent suicides among the public. Conversely, responsible methods of reporting can increase the likelihood of people seeking help. The WHO and CDC have both identified training journalists in responsible suicide reporting as a key mechanism for suicide prevention. This course aims to give journalists the concrete tools they need to fulfill that goal and make a positive public health impact with their reporting.
I coordinated the overall curriculum design and was the lead instructor for the third module of the course. I’ve spoken about the course at national journalism conventions and international suicide prevention conferences.
Acel Moore High School Journalism Workshop
During my time at The Philadelphia Inquirer, I served as a committee member for the Acel Moore High School Journalism workshop, which has been running for more than 35 years. The program brings about two dozen high school students from the Greater Philadelphia area into The Inquirer newsroom for four weekends in February to learn about journalism and write their own article to be published in an Inquirer supplement.
In addition to helping the committee review applications for the program, plan educational sessions and select scholarship winners, I also served as a mentor, working one-on-one with a student over the four weeks as he brainstormed ideas, conducted interviews and wrote his very first journalistic article.
More information on the program and samples of student work can be found at https://acel-moore.com/.
Paper Airplanes Journalism Course
In October 2017, I began volunteering as a mentor for Paper Airplanes. Started as an e-learning nonprofit to teach English to refugees from the Syrian Civil War, the organization is now piloting a journalism course. The course aims to help those affected by the war develop the skills to tell their communities' stories and highlight refugee issues for the rest of the world.
As a mentor, my role is to work one-on-one with a Syrian student throughout the 12-week program. I consult with student regularly on weekly assignments, providing support with brainstorming article ideas, finding sources, conducting interviews and writing articles.
Huskies for Journalism
In the fall of 2015, I, along with two other Northeastern University students, launched Huskies for Journalism - a service project to create an after-school newspaper club at a Boston public high school. We forged a partnership between West Roxbury Academy, a majority-minority school with only a handful of other clubs and extra-curricular offerings, and the Northeastern University Scholars Program, a full-tuition, merit-based scholarship program that emphasizes civic engagement.
We traveled to WRA once a week to lead the newspaper club, teaching lessons on the basic principles of journalism, mentoring student reporters and editing copy. We also designed the school newspaper and coordinated with local publishers to get it printed.
Our goal for the project was to reduce the “activity gap” and give access to quality journalism programs and publications to high school students throughout Boston. Participation in extracurricular journalism programs has been linked to improved ACT scores, confidence and college performance. They also provide students with a plethora of skills from writing and editing to interviewing and networking. Having reaped the benefits of newspaper clubs at our own high schools, we wanted to bring these benefits to under-served high school students in the Boston area.
During the year-long project, the high school students published three issues of the newspaper, even landing interviews with Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Diaz. Click on the pictures below to see the full newspaper.
After that school year, the club was converted into a formal class, and many of the students planned to continue working on the newspaper throughout their high school career.
