This past summer, four Chelsea High students participated in the 25th anniversary of the New England High School Journalism Collaborative (NEHSJC).
Bryan Guzman, Emrah Fejzic, Quinnee Valenzona, and Julie Huynh worked with 13 other students from 10 different high schools for a week to put together their very own newspaper. The theme of the paper was to compare Boston 25 years ago to Boston today.
NEHSJC is a program founded by Carole Remick and is annually held at Regis College. It allows students to work with professional journalists from The Boston Globe to help them put together their own newspaper. Students had to be recommended by a teacher and be accepted through the application process. During the program, they stayed at Regis College, but would drive down to The Boston Globe every day to work with Milton Valencia, the program director, and other Globe reporters.
“I really enjoyed the program,” said Guzman. “I got to work with professional journalists and really see what it takes to write an article with a deadline staring you down. Getting to know the other students was also great, but the most interesting part was talking to a number of important people like former Secretary of Transportation Fred Salvucci.”
Once the newspaper was printed, a banquet and award program was held at Regis to honor the founder of the program, Carole Remick, and to celebrate the hard work of the students. Fejzic and Guzman won best article for their transportation story on the Big Dig. Valencia called it a “meat and potatoes story” and said it was one that “you could find in The Boston Globe.”
The students have expressed their interest in doing the program again and are excited about keeping the school newspaper, the Devils Advocate, alive. The NEHSJC newspaper can be found online at nehsjc.org/quarterly.