Print edition

Here's the story workshop participants AmberLynn Anderson and Victoria Liu wrote for the Roanoke Times.

The story ran in the Extra section on July 7.

Workshop introduces students to journalism

Writing stories, taking notes, listening to others and building character. Those are just some of the many things participants did during The Roanoke Times' annual Minority Journalism Workshop.
From June 20 to 25, a group of eight Roanoke and New River valley high school students worked closely together. They learned the ropes of journalism from professors at Washington and Lee University, and by speaking with Roanoke Times reporters and editors.
They also observed a court case, visited Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and participated in writing exercises.
The program began in 1983 under then-president and publisher Walter Rugaber. He founded the program based on a similar one at the Greensboro News & Record, one of the company's sister papers, in Greensboro, N.C.
Debbie Meade, current president and publisher of The Roanoke Times, said that the workshop is a way to encourage young people, especially of color, to get a look at journalism firsthand.
This year's students were from many different backgrounds. Ethnicity is not the only diversity factor considered in the application process; the program aims to include students with differences in other life experiences.
Though not every participant this year wants to become a journalist, the students do have career goals, including engineering and psychiatry.
Journalism gives students the opportunity to uncover the truth while meeting people in new places, which can be exciting, students said.
"There's always going to be news," said Todd Jackson, a Roanoke Times metro editor. "There's always something new and something in the community that other people need to know about."
Every year, the workshop is organized by a volunteer committee of news staffers. The program is free for participating students, and includes lunches and necessary transportation as well.
To see a blog about what the group did this year, visit www.roanoke.com/mjw. For more information, call Kathy Lu, workshop coordinator, at 981-3224.

More information about the program and participants is in this post on the From the Newsroom blog.

Finale

MJW end of the week from Katelyn Polantz on Vimeo.

To the students:
Thanks for a great week, and congratulations!

We loved getting to know you, and everyone brought something special to the group.

You're talented, smart and learn fast. Even if you don't choose to go into journalism, we hope you learned things this week that will help you pursue your careers.

Good luck in finishing high school and into college. Please keep in touch with us; we would love to help you in the future.
--Jorge and Katelyn

Hospital article: Technology

The students visited Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital for a tour and a chance to interview hospital staff. Two groups of students wrote stories, and Darius Smith took photos.

By AmberLynn Anderson, Shaniqua Anderson and Victoria Liu

A woman lies on her kitchen floor, struggling to reach the telephone. When she calls 911, an Emergency Medical Service team is sent to her house, and treatment immediately begins before she even reaches the hospital.

This image of quick, effective care is the vision that Tammy Kemp, a director at the hospital, sees for Carilion Clinic’s future in the Roanoke Valley thanks to novel technology.

In 2006, Carillon began to implement what is called electronic medical records, or EMR. The hospital contracted with the Wisconsin-based medical software company Epic, which installed the multi-million dollar system 18 months later.

It is an electronic database for patient history and documentation that will phase out the use of paper records; it also allows different departments to “talk to each other,” Kemp said.

With EMR, employees can access information anywhere, which allows treatment to be more efficient.

“It’s a lot more hours in a day,” said Kemp. “It helps by making communication easier.”