The News School Is a Great Experience

The News school is a news organization that teaches marginalized young people how to write. The News school has two separate organizations. First is the monthly newspaper, the Chicago Leader, and the online news website called Guardian Liberty Voice. The News School offers this opportunity to youth from the ages of 16 to 24. My name is Kenneth Mazerat and I started at the new school around June of this year. I have grown in many ways from my time at The News School. My writing endurance was heightened, I was given opportunities to grow and help people, and I became a paid writer which was a major career goal for me.

My Experience With The News School

Before The News School, I was, and still am, a college student. I occasionally struggled with more long-form papers because of a lack of writing endurance. The writing was fun and I enjoyed it, I just couldn’t do it for long periods of time. However, meeting the mark with daily published articles I have been primed and prepped for the college experience. I am a political science major at DePaul University.

My degree requires a high level of writing endurance to make it through to the finish line. The News School amplified my ability to write for longer periods of time through what is essentially progressive overload. Progressive overload is the concept in fitness science that when a person is strength training, an optimal structure is one that increases the weight slowly over time. This helps with overall hypertrophy, which is muscle growth, and strength. Much like progressive overload in the gym, my skills as a writer and my writing endurance improved. Since I started I have published over 40 articles.

Additionally, my general social-emotional growth as a human being was heightened as well. I was offered the opportunity to be the lead project designer on the capstone project for The News school. I designed a project and everyone worked on it. In the end, a significant portion of the community came out to see our project. We brought politicians together and asked them important questions about our community. All in all, it has been an incredibly successful project. Beyond this project, I have been helping in other ways as well. I write breaking news articles that help people in my neighborhood become informed on the breaking news.

Accomplishing Goals

Along with being able to help people in meaningful ways, I accomplished a goal I didn’t even know I had. My main goal in life is to make a comfortable living with my writing. Writing is my favorite of the skills I have developed over the years, and I don’t intend on doing anything else. So, becoming a paid writer at The News School helps me take one more step towards that goal. Becoming a writer at a newspaper allows me to get used to things like deadlines and writing assignments. This experience means that if I continue walking down the path that I tread I will be much more acclimated to things like publisher deadlines. In the future I seek to self publish novels, and the News School has been a great step towards that direction.

All in all, The News School has something for everyone. It has things for college students that are already experienced with writing. It has things for people that are just starting their writing journey. The News School is a great opportunity to explore writing and journalism. If you or someone you know is around the age of 16 to 24 then I highly suggest The News School as a premium opportunity for you or someone you know to learn the inner nuances of writing as a skill, and journalism as a way of life.

Written by Kenneth Mazerat

Sources:

Guardian Liberty Voice: Youth Empowerment Through The News School by Cynthia Thomas

TheNewsSchool: Review of The News Schools Agriculture Program by Myshona Phillips

TheNewsSchool: About The News School’s Summer Program