New York Tabloid Slams API Letter-Writer (in National News) Top Dog Guaranteed Top Education (in Bay Area News) Get Ready for Cyberwars (in Business) Click. Click. (in A&E) The Flame and the Street Name (in Opinion)

Boot Camp by the Bay

Richard Kwon busy at work on a profile.

By Ethen Lieser

In the wake of the shrunken/plummeted number of minority journalists for the first time in over 20 years, the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is moved to action. Called the “Boot Camp by the Bay,” this one-week training program is aimed at training high school students who show outstanding potential in journalism.

The camp participants were selected through a competitive process nationwide. Over 40 high school students participated in this year’s camp, held at the University of San Francisco. For four grueling days, students woke up at the crack of dawn to hear lectures by renowned journalists like CNN anchor Joie Chen and former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres. The students also received hands-on training in journalism by doing some writing of their own, including interviews and profiles of each other.

A big fan of Fong-Torres, especially his former role as Rolling Stones editor — highlighted in the hit film Almost Famous, Meilee Wong, 16, was pleased that a journalism program that caters to Asian Americans even exists. A native of Davis, Calif., Wong said the program showed her how important journalists of color can be.

“As they have been telling us, … the minority journalist has become a dying breed,” Wong said. “And programs like this are probably needed to encourage minority journalists to enter this field. It’s a great experience to meet new people as well.”

Just 15 years old, Brett Okamoto of Windsor, Colo., attended this camp because his grandfather thought it would be a learning experience. “My teacher told me I was a good writer,” Okamoto said. After that clairvoyant assessment, Okamoto started to attend writing competitions. He went to state last year.

“Sometimes, some stories that aren’t told need to be told,” Okamoto said. “So, it is good to have a wide variety of people working in this field. The writing advice they give here is very helpful, but the one thing that I would get out of this is probably to not ever give up, stay focused, and don’t get discouraged because that is expected in this field.”

One of the instructors who helped lead the students, like Okamoto and Wong, through the camp program was Duchesne Drew, the education accountability reporter at the Star Tribune of the Twin Cities. Drew found out about this camp through his colleague Neal Justin, the chief television critic for the Star Tribune and a board member of AAJA.

Taking part in this program is nothing new for Drew, since he has been active with youth all his life. Drew has helped coordinate a summer high school journalism workshop for Twin Cities youth, and is also the president of the Minnesota chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The need for more diverse representation at his own paper, the Star Tribune, also fuels his involvement at the camp. “It’s not where it should be at.”

“I think it is a great program because if kids at this age want to do something like this, we should be there to support them,” Drew said. “There just aren’t enough kids of color going into journalism. If they can come out of this program with a better sense of what they can do in this business and this world, they will be more likely to pursue it in the future.”

Drew believes the students need to be exposed to the field before they can consider journalism as a career choice. “Personally, I didn’t know any journalists when I was growing up,” Drew said. “I think I met my first journalist when I was a junior in college. I think part of it is that we’re not really on the radar.”

With funding from The Ford Foundation and The Newspaper Association of America, the “Boot Camp” was conceived to develop the next generation of journalists. The camp combines the teaching elements of the AAJA’s successful Executive Leadership Program with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ popular Student Campus project, which focuses on sharpening journalism skills and the impact of how different cultures can benefit newsrooms.

“Even if they don’t pursue a career in journalism, at least they will seriously consider this in a way many kids never get to,” Drew said. “They should know that this is something they can do. Often times, professional jobs can seem intangible. And from the kids that I’ve worked with, I think they can see themselves in my shoes. The students come away from this experience with an idea on how hard this can be and how fun this can be. You know, one of these kids could be the next Ted Koppel.”

Reach Ethen Lieser at elieser@asianweek.com.