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PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES
In December 1988, a group of Latino journalists decided to unify and establish the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists (CAHJ), a non-profit professional organization committed to the highest ideals of journalism. We have set forth a number of goals:
Since 1991, the association has organized a writing, journalism and photography contest for Latino high school students in the Chicago area. This has proved to be a successful annual event encouraging students to consider careers in journalism and to pair them with professional journalists who serve as mentors. The contest is complemented by an annual high school journalism workshop called Presente in which students spend eight consecutive Saturdays during the school year studying the basics of interviewing, reporting, writing and broadcasting under the guidance of association members.
Many of the contest winners have gone on to become participants in Presente and, the association is happy to say, to study journalism at Northwestern University, University of Illinois, and Northeastern Illinois University. Presente was implemented in 1993, two years after the writing and photography competition.
Since the contest's inception, an average of 300 students has submitted entries each year. The contest has enjoyed success because association members have established long-term working relationships with teachers throughout the Chicago area and with parents. Both the contest and the workshop hold award ceremonies, attended by students, parents and teachers.
The categories of competition are English language essay, Spanish language essay, photography, and published newspaper article. Contest organizers develop an essay relating to topical events or trends about the Latino community; the essay theme is developed each by the association. Students of any racial and ethnic may enter the contest (indeed, many have done so and been winners). The photography category has a more open-ended criteria: any them relating to the Latino community.
CAHJ awards a small cash prize, which serve as educational scholarships. The association also has an arrangement with the Chicago Tribune to publish the winning entries in a special tab section that is inserted into home delivered copies of the newspaper.
Winners of the CAHJ contest have in the past competed at a national level through a similar competition sponsored by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The Chicago contest, however, remains perhaps the best-organized program of its kind within the National Association of Hispanic Journalist and has served as a model for other national affiliates seeking to organize similar contests. CAHJ members promote the contest by visiting high schools and initiating mentor-protege relationships with youths. CAHJ members serve as contest judges. The student winners, their parents and teachers are honored at an awards luncheon.
II. PRESENTE
The Presente workshops are held in the newsrooms of a local media outlet. For example, the workshops were held at Chicago Sun-Times one year, then at the Chicago Tribune another year, and then at WMAQ-Ch. 5 the next year, and so on. Those media outlets allow Presente to use their facilities in training the students on the basics on newsgathering. Students spend six hours each Saturday on exercises in writing, reporting, story development and production. Students also receive guidance from CAHJ members serving as guest speakers, production coaches and mentors. They are also given field trip to newsrooms of Chicago's major media outlets.
Students are involved in media production as well. In January 1999 to March 1999, the class of 12 students was subdivided into three media teams. Seven students in the TV team produced a 10-minute newsmagazine, Presente TV. Three students produced Presente Radio, a five-minute broadcast. Three students on the print team published the spring edition of the CAHJ newsletter, Chicago Hispanic Review. Three years ago, one of the Presente video segments won a local award for excellence. We find that many students are overly interested in broadcast, and we intend to stimulate their interest in all media.
IV. CONCLUSION
CAHJ currently has about 80 members, and after several years of significant growth, its membership has been holding steady. We have lost some members because at mid-career, they feel they have hit a glass ceiling and have no room for advancement at their companies. The association sees this as a serious problem and is striving to address that issue in conjunction with its national affiliate, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and more broadly, under the umbrella of the Unity organization, which is a consortium comprising the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists, Asian American Journalists Association and Native American Journalists Association.