Teens at Cummings High School in Burlington, N.C., published a newspaper this week for the first time in four years after meeting every Monday throughout the fall for guidance from Elon University faculty, staff and students.
The first issue of THE VOICE: Not Your Average Outlook was distributed to students on Dec. 10, 2008. No current students at Cummings have memories of the newspaper that was discontinued four years ago due to staffing issues.
The increase in remedial courses made it impossible to offer a journalism class, the class that typically produces the school’s newspaper.
Assistance was provided to Cummings students by Deborah Long, a professor of education and director of the Elon Academy; Colin Donohue, coordinator of student media and an instructor in the School of Communications; and Eric Townsend, director of the Elon University News Bureau. Elon students Myra Garcia, Olivia Hubert-Allen and Alyse Knorr also worked on the issue.
Aeron Sizemore, and Elon alumna, serves at Cummings as faculty advisor for the paper.
Elon Academy scholars led the efforts to relaunch the newspaper. They are: Frank Garcia (Alpha Class), Lorenzo Davis (Beta Class), Yael Peralta (Beta Class), Desmond Harrell (Beta Class), and Gabrielle White (Alpha Class).
“There may be many students at Cummings High School who never imagined a career in journalism who might now realize that this is a possibility and a passion for them,” Long said. “Not only that, the students at Cummings have a voice, and that voice is being heard. The impact of the Elon Academy goes beyond the scholars in the program. Academy scholars are making a significant difference in their high schools.”