SUMMER 2012
Adviser Update
Finding common ground
By ELIZABETH WILSON
y two weeks in China were life
M
changing. I had previously never
been that far around the world or in
black
P03.V53.I01
Annandale HS
senior David
Hookey helps a
student edit the
lede of a news
story for page
1 of the Chinese school’s
student newspaper. Each
Chinese school
group had one
American student who served
as a peer mentor throughout
the process
of creating a
four-page newspaper.
cyan
Everywhere, there was a mixture of
the traditional and the new. One night,
the students from North West Normal
high school invited us to a traditional
hot pot meal, but afterwards we went
and did karaoke.
It was incredibly encouraging to
remember that in spite of our cultural
or political differences, ultimately people are people regardless of where they
are in the world.
There is no doubt that this trip has
and will continue to influence me and
my perspective on China. As my generation works to cooperate with this country, I know that experiences like this
will help both Chinese and Americans
to find common ground and understanding. Ultimately, this is what I will value
the most from the trip.
Throughout the
camp, professionals from the
Chinese press
spoke to the
students about
editorial and
feature writing.
The subject
of censorship
was lightly
addressed, and
the speakers
often replied
with “know your
audience.”
magenta
Elizabeth Wilson with Bin Lee. Each
American student was paired up with a
Chinese school to help students in that
school produce their first newspaper. Elizabeth served as webmaster for The
A-Blast.org her junior and senior years.
She redesigned the site to take advantage of new software features enabling
better interaction with content. The new
design and site layout provided efficiencies allowing more and fresher content.
The site won both the NSPA Pacemaker
and CSPA Gold Crown awards.
On the final
day of the
7-day journalism camp, the
students held
a gallery walk
to see each
school’s fourpage newspaper posted on
the wall of the
lecture hall. The
teache