hosted by The Coat of Arms, Menlo's student press
MSJW 2021
The Menlo School Journalism Workshop in 2021 was a one-week summer program for middle schoolers run by The Coat of Arms. During the workshop, students learned about the basics of journalism, including news and feature writing, interviewing, news media literacy and more. Middle schoolers from Menlo and other schools joined for a total of 15 students. The program was led by four TAs from The Coat of Arms and the Menlo journalism advisor.
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Throughout MSJW, students participated in daily activities and interactive workshops on various journalism-related principles. They also had a chance to take two short electives. Elective options included photojournalism, video making, social media and marketing, copy editing and page design. Students also met three guest speakers who have been involved in the journalism field beyond middle and high school.
For their final project, each student wrote a full journalistic story. This involved brainstorming, interviewing, researching, writing and editing. The Shield is a publication of all their work.
MSJW students listen to Davis Rich during the guest speaker panel. Rich was the Coat of Arms editor-in-chief in 2016 and later attended Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
In one of their first MSJW activities, students used big whiteboards to collaboratively brainstorm story ideas.
Students take pictures near Menlo's Stent Hall during the photojournalism elective, with a TA guiding them around campus to practice their photography skills.