Adviser Update Summer 2012 | Page 3

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