Adviser Update Adviser Update Spring 2017 | Page 14

WHAT I
LEARNED FROM
SCHOLASTIC
JOURNALISM
By Lori Keekley
A
Lori Keekley, MJE, teaches at
St. Louis Park (Minnesota)
High School where she has
advised the Echo online and
print for 14 years. Keekley
received her undergraduate
degree from Indiana University
and master’s degree from the
University of Missouri.
She was named the 2016 Dow
Jones News Fund News Adviser
of the Year, the Minnesota
Journalism Adviser of the Year
(2010) and a NSPA Pioneer
recipient (2012).
dvisers and journalism
students know that
student media provides
more than the traditional
journalism skills of writing,
photography and design. Student
media teaches the “soft skills”
employers desire.
Students learn teamwork,
interpersonal communication,
deadlines, organization, creativity
and adaptability. However,
journalism advisers often are asked
to explain the value of journalism
— especially this time of year when
the next school year budget gets
decided.
I’ve included seven responses and
left them in their own words. They
answered the question: How did
being part of a student-run media
program help you in whatever you
are doing currently?
Kelsey Reid
CURRENT: Program associate,
Vera Institute of Justice
GRADUATED: 2011
High school journalism was one of
the first contexts where I experienced
not only the value of my own voice,
but I also got to grapple with how my
work and the resources available to
me could best support others’ voices
and experiences, particularly, those
most often silenced. While covering
stories ranging from transgender
students’ access to bathrooms to a
student involved in a violent crime,
my peers and I learned how to think
through how to do both our audience
and the individuals whose stories
we were telling justice. As a public
servant and policy maker, I’m always
working to balance personal narratives
and statistical analysis to inform
and mobilize an audience on issues
that matter. The foundation for how
I go about that was built years ago,
proof-by-proof and story-by-story, in
collaboration with my peers on our high
school newspaper staff.
Solly Kane
CURRENT: Management consultant
GRADUATED: 2007
I actually think my experience at the
Echo and in student journalism in
general is possibly the most influential
educational experience I had in terms of
skills I use every day. (To remind you: I
graduated from SLP in 2007. After Park,
I went to UW-Madison for journalism
and political science, including writing
for the student newspaper there and
working on a student-produced TV
show for the Big Ten Network, worked
at a non-profit for six years, got an
MBA at NYU, and currently work in