Ten Ravenscroft students attended the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association’s Summer Institute held on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill, June 14-17.

They enjoyed hands-on work in newspaper and television reporting as well as design, and took home several NCSMA awards for their work this year on The Nevarmore.

The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sponsors the Institute. The program is designed to give aspiring journalists a taste of the real world of journalism and deadlines.

Helen Velk, journalism instructor and Nevarmore advisor, accompanied the students. Velk will serve as Vice President of Newspapers on the NCSMA board next year. She served previously as Northeast Piedmont representative.

Velk provided a few notes about the students and their work at the Institute:

Summer Institute Organization:

Olivia Nastasi set the tone as the President of the NCSMA board.  She took care of all the details and did a magnificent job with her public speaking to a large crowd at the opening session, awards night, and awards brunch.  Olivia was also awarded a $500 cash scholarship as one of the top three journalists in the state of North Carolina in 2010.  The Nevarmore received a $250 award because of Olivia’s scholarship.

Peyton Burgess, 2010-2011 Nevarmore Editor-In-Chief, was appointed a seat on next year’s NCSMA’s board as Vice President of literary magazines.  Although not on the magazine staff, she will represent those students’ voices from across the state at the board meetings next year.  Peyton will assist in the planning and implementation of the ’11 Summer Institute.

Rush:

Eric Scheier & Peyton Burgess took part in producing the official newspaper of the Institute, The Rush.  They did a fabulous job with their articles and now understand the feeling of a true deadline.  Peyton wrote an article titled, “Fans closely follow favorite World Cup teams,” in which she conducted many interviews and presented balanced, well-researched coverage of the topic. 

Eric covered the press conference that turned into an article titled, “Kirschner defends Twitter limits,” and produced an informative article about UNC’s policy regarding athletes and the information that they post on the social network, Twitter.  Eric’s article was also published in The Daily Tarheel on Thursday, June 17^th. 

Advanced Desktop Publishing:

Emily High won first place for her work at the Institute!  She set her eye on that award the very first day and she worked diligently towards her goal.  Emily was always on time and completely engaged in her magazine design and it certainly paid off for her!

Advanced Newspaper:

Caroline Swetlitz was extremely dedicated to her course of study. She worked through breaks and was determined to get as much as she could from her instructors. 

TV News:

Garrett Bird was awarded the Artist Eye Award for his camera work for the TV News division! Garrett was infectious with his energy and excitement and he brought life into the news room. He was so focused on the shooting and splicing process and his segment about construction turned out to be awesome.  

Jordan Jeter won the role of reporter for a segment about the state of journalism.  Jordan did a great job with the story and he was also featured in the double truck in newspaper produced at the workshop called The Rush.

Kofie Yeboah was a shooter for the segment about the World Cup coverage.  He proudly pointed out his favorite shots as we watched the broadcast during the awards brunch.  Kofie woke up and met his team at 7 a.m. on Tuesday to shoot footage of a restaurant that adjusted its hours of operation to accommodate World Cup fans.

Beau Scheier also won the role of reporter for the segment about summer spending on and around campus. Beau’s team was the first to finish their segment and he displayed a lot of patience in recording - and re-recording - many parts of their clip. Beau probably has a new appreciation for TV news with the recognition that every one minute of news footage takes an average of one hour of editing.

Emily Velk was a shooter for the segment about summer camps. Last year, she volunteered to assist in TV News and this year she was thrilled to be a regular part of the team. Emily did a great job with her camera work, and walked 5-7 miles per day in the humidity while carrying a camera and a tripod.