Student Reporting Labs (SRL), an education program of WETA and the PBS NewsHour, presents its first Student Journalism Challenge, made possible by funding from the XQ Institute. Students aged 13 to 18 years old from across the United States are invited to contribute print, video and audio pieces on key issues in education throughout the fall semester of the new school year until the December 2, 2022 deadline. Expert judges will select the best of each format and stories will be shared widely on local and national public media platforms.
The Student Journalism Challenge is an opportunity for students to build and utilize their research, critical thinking and storytelling skills to explore issues in U.S. education today. Read more in our press release.
About PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs
Now in over 180 middle and high schools, Student Reporting Labs (SRL) is a national youth journalism program and public media initiative that trains teenagers across the country to produce stories that highlight the achievements, challenges and reality of today’s youth. SRL creates transformative educational experiences through video journalism that inspire students to find their voice and engage in their communities. Since 2009, SRL youth media producers have helped students place over 100 video news reports on PBS NewsHour’s nightly broadcast and more on local media outlets. Visit www.studentreportinglabs.org and StoryMaker to learn more.
About the XQ Institute
XQ is the nation’s leading organization dedicated to rethinking the high school experience so that every student graduates ready for good jobs, successful careers and real life. XQ works with communities throughout the country—with schools, school systems, and entire states—to help them dream big about what equitable and rigorous high schools can be and turn their innovative ideas into action. Visit xqsuperschool.org for more information, and join the #RethinkHighSchool conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
About PBS NewsHour
PBS NewsHour is a production of NewsHour Productions LLC, a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of WETA Washington, DC. Major corporate funding is provided by BNSF, Consumer Cellular, Fidelity, Johnson & Johnson, and Raymond James, with additional support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Kendeda Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Skoll Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Friends of the NewsHour and others. More information on PBS NewsHour is available at www.pbs.org/newshour. You can watch and find NewsHour on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. NewsHour Productions also produces PBS News Weekend and Washington Week.
About Well Beings
Well Beings launched in July 2020 with the Youth Mental Health Project, engaging youth voices to create a national conversation, raise awareness, address stigma and discrimination, and encourage compassion. Well Beings was created by WETA Washington, D.C., the flagship public media station in the nation’s capital, and brings together partners from across the country, including people with lived experience of health challenges, families, caregivers, educators, medical and mental health professionals, social service agencies, private foundations, filmmakers, corporations and media sponsors, to create awareness and resources for better health and well-being. The documentary Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness is part of the Well Beings Youth Mental Health Project, the first major focus for Well Beings. Other featured Well Beings projects address rural health care, caregiving, survival of childhood cancer, and more. For more information, visit https://wellbeings.org. The public can join the conversation on youth mental health by using #PlainSightPBS and #WellBeings, visiting WellBeings.org or following @WellBeingsOrg on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
About WETA
Founded in 1961, the Washington Educational Telecommunications Association (WETA) is the second largest producing-station of new content for public television in the United States, with productions and co-productions including works by filmmaker Ken Burns and Florentine Films, such as The U.S. and the Holocaust; and by scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., including the series Finding Your Roots and the forthcoming documentary Making Black America: Through the Grapevine; as well as PBS NewsHour, PBS Washington Week and The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize. More information on WETA and its programs and services is available at www.weta.org.