June 2015…Healthy NewsWorks is deeply proud of the accomplishments of our student journalists during the 2014-15 school year (see highlights of the year in pictures). We wish them a fun, safe, and healthy summer! Here’s a sampling of their work and the tremendous support they’ve received this year from many individuals and organizations:
Some 300 students from 15 schools in Philadelphia, Norristown, and Upper Darby served as reporters this year on their schools’ health-focused newspaper staffs. About 90 students also contributed to our fourth book, Leading Healthy Change In Our Communities 2015.
The school newspapers were distributed to more than 6,500 students, teachers, and family members. In total, the reporters produced 45 unique school and community newspapers, including a special Healthy Neighbors community edition focused on “Healthy Futures,” which will be distributed with the help of Quest Diagnostics, Einstein Healthcare Network, and other community partners. “Why I liked being a part of the Healthy NewsWorks team is that I learned how to look up things on the internet, research, and put my thoughts down on paper,” said a fourth grade reporter.
In addition to the fabulous 2015 health leaders interviewed for the Leading Healthy Change book, student reporters interviewed hospital chaplains, nurses, police officers, dieticians, physicians, and even a zoologist who connected animal diets to human diets.
One of the winning “Acts of Kindness” posters
One of the “special topics” this year, Think, Don’t Fight, focused on what to do to help prevent bullying. One third grade reporter said, “I like being in the Healthy Press because I learned how to prevent people from being cyber bullied, myself included.” As a part of Think, Don’t Fight, more than 250 children participated in the Acts of Kindness Poster Contest. Twelve of their posters will be exhibited this summer in community venues.
Healthy NewsWorks students also took part in special reporting field trips to a Quest lab in Horsham, Einstein Medical Center-Montgomery County, the Healthy Futures National Conference hosted by Independence Blue Cross Foundation and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, and Longview Farm in Collegeville. “I learned that being a reporter isn’t just interviewing and writing stories; it is about being able to listen to someone and finding the most important things they said and turning it into a story,” said a fourth grade reporter.
Students from Highland Park Elementary School initiated a fundraising drive to help support special-needs students in a school in South Africa.
We also heard reflections from a Fit Fin reporter, several book authors, a radio reporter who served as an adjunct faculty member, and the advisory board chair on how the Healthy NewsWorks program has affected them.
In addition, a Healthy NewsWorks teacher won an award from the Penn Graduate School of Education and the Healthy NewsWorks director moderated a panel on food insecurity.
Many thanks to all of our individual donors, our foundation and corporate supporters, volunteers, students, teachers, and our community partners including Quest Diagnostics, Einstein Healthcare Network, and Eagles Youth Partnership for making Healthy NewsWorks possible.
Please contact Marian Uhlman if you are interested in getting involved in Healthy NewsWorks as a donor, volunteer, or community partner.
