We will not let you down

I walked steadily to the table, trying to look as natural as possible.
My head was pounding and my hands felt clammy. I slowly looked down and — with a shaking hand — turned over the pages; there it was.
A grin crept onto my face as I took in the newspaper font, the enormous photograph and the freshly printed newspaper smell of my first first-person feature story.
It was more than a column about my eighth-grade Outward Bound summer adventure; it was my voice speaking to the entire Yakima Valley.
It was a Tuesday in the middle of August in 2006. And it’s a day that I won’t forget because it was the day I realized I can make a difference. I can make heard hidden voices in my community. I can tell stories that have never been told.
From that story forward, I loved every moment of reporting — from nail-biting interviews to the many hours I would sit in front of my computer writing articles. I often met wonderful and interesting people while doing interviews for Unleashed assignments and — in the process — learned so much about my community.
Last February, when I found out Unleashed was going to be cut in the middle of my junior year of high school, I was devastated. Even acknowledging the downturn in the economy, it was too difficult to understand. Why would anyone cut off teenagers’ voices?
How could anyone eliminate a 10-year-old, award-winning youth program? Was it really possible that other local teenagers would never experience the same feeling I did when I saw my story about Outward Bound published in the newspaper?
For three months after Unleashed ended, every student reporter, photographer and artist on the team had to learn to let go of their once amazing opportunity to share their ideas with the community.
Then, on July 10, our former Unleashed coordinator and editor, Adriana Janovich, sent an email to the old Unleashed team telling us to look out for some “exciting news concerning Unleashed coming out in the paper in the next day or two.”
And lo and behold, two days later, there was an article in the Yakima Herald-Republic reporting Unleashed was being revived, thanks to a new partnership between the newspaper, Educational Service District 105 and local school districts and high schools.
Speaking for the members of the new Unleashed team, I would like to thank every teacher, parent and community member that understood the importance of Unleashed and called or wrote a letter begging the newspaper to change its mind. It made a difference.
And thank you to the schools and school districts for coming together and providing the funds so local teenagers can be heard again.
You have given us back an opportunity we were — and now are again — so fortunate to have. You have put the smile on the face of that 14-year-old girl opening the newspaper and seeing her first first-person feature story in print.
Thank you. We will not let you down.

— Mia Walsh attends Davis High School.

Oct. 4, 2009: Unleashed returns

Important events happen on Oct. 4.
On that date in 1535, the first complete English Bible was printed. And on that date in 1777, the Battle of Germantown — a blow to American forces during the Revolutionary War — took place outside Philadelphia.
Mexico became a federal republic Oct. 4, 1824. And American baseball player Kurt Suzuki was born Oct. 4, 1983.
Oct. 4 is the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi. It’s also the first day of World Space Week.
And today — Oct. 4, 2009 — is the day Unleashed returned to the pages of the Yakima Herald-Republic.
Three years ago, I timidly descended the stairs to the basement of the newspaper building and walked into a room full of teenagers, newspapers and pizza boxes.
“Welcome to Unleashed” was scrawled across the white board next to that evening’s agenda.
I chose a seat among the few people I knew, careful not to be too close to the front of the room. I didn’t get pizza even though I was hungry; I didn’t want to have food in my teeth, as though I thought poor personal hygiene would get me kicked off the team.
Soon, these team meetings became a high point of my month. I looked forward to descending the stairs into the familiar conference room, grabbing a few slices of pizza and a pop, scanning the room for an open seat in the front, and chatting with anyone and everyone.
I’m far from the timid girl I was three years ago. And Unleashed helped change me.
With interviews and deadlines, I learned to embrace the stories people told me rather than shy away from them. Homework, sports, church and piano left me with little time for writing, but by learning to manage my time, I made it work. With a full plate, you need to learn to pick and choose the things that are important to you. For me, Unleashed was on the top of that list.
Last fall, as we slowly began to get fewer stories in the paper, I became less motivated to write. What’s the use if no one reads?
But read they did.
I have received numerous letters and emails — from friends and strangers alike — about my articles and columns, inspiring me to keep writing.
I’m ecstatic for this year.
As a senior at Davis High School, this will be my last year on Unleashed, and I want to make the most of it. I want to write about things I have never written about before. I want to interview people I never dreamed I would talk to. And I want to continue to grow as a person and a writer.
I also want to thank all of the readers who expressed support for Unleashed when the newspaper canceled the program last February. And I want to thank the Herald-Republic, Educational Service District 105 and the participating school districts and their superintendents for helping to make the 2009-2010 Unleashed team possible.
You won’t regret it.

— Colleen Fontana attends Davis High School.

Editor & Publisher article spotlights Unleashed

By Cynthia Mitchell
As Teen Sections Get Axed, One Returns in Washington

The following article, written by Central Washington University journalism professor Cynthia Mitchell, was published Sept. 2, 2009, by Editor & Publisher, a journal covering the newspaper industry in North America. It spotlights the return of Unleashed — through a partnership between the Yakima Herald-Republic and Educational Service District 105 — this fall. Visit Editor & Publisher for more information.

ELLENSBURG, Wash. The Yakima Herald-Republic’s award-winning teen section, which like several other such sections around the country was killed earlier this year for economic reasons, is coming back this fall thanks to a cooperative arrangement with schools and school districts in Central Washington.

The schools will provide $11,500 a year to pay a part-time coordinator and to pay student contributors and related expenses. The reincarnated “Unleashed” will publish on the front of the “Life in the Northwest” section every other Sunday, with pieces also carried elsewhere and on other days, according to Publisher Michael Shepard.

“Unleashed” had been published weekly since 1999 with the guidance of a Yakima Herald staffer, who supervised between 25 and 40 students from the region. Last fall, the newspaper opted to stop publishing the dedicated page on Tuesdays and instead started using the content throughout the paper and putting it online. But come late February, it was too expensive to continue at all, Shepard said. (Besides the coordinator’s time and newsprint costs, the paper was paying $10,000-$12,000 a year for the student staff and editors, he said.)

“The decision to curtail the program … wasn’t easy,” he said. “But because we were trimming staff, we didn’t feel as though we could devote a significant portion of someone’s time to that program, which was a chunk of money. We needed to recapture those dollars, in addition to being able to recapture a lot of that space.”

But the decision was met with a big response – not just from teens and “Unleashed” alums, but by area educators and readers of all ages, Shepard said. “It certainly wasn’t stunning, or news to us, that it was popular, but so many people took the time to write letters to the editor and to express concern and ask what they could do about it,” Shepard said. “It was more popular in the community than we had thought.”

Meanwhile, Ben Soria, then-superintendent of the Yakima School District, and Jane Gutting, superintendent of Educational Service District 105, a regional agency that provides services for school districts in Central Washington, decided to approach the paper about helping “Unleashed” return. Armed with a budget from Shepard, Gutting then got 11 school districts and two private high schools to agree to kick in money. Most are donating $500 each, with the intention that one of their students will be selected for the “Unleashed” staff. Two larger school districts are donating more money to fund more students.

Of the $11,500 pledged for this school year, $6,000 will go to pay the part-time coordinator. The rest will be used to buy food for the monthly meetings, to pay the student staff of 23 $15 for each story, photo or illustration that’s published, and to buy supplies and cover any other related training costs. Gutting’s agency is also applying for grants from local organizations to help underwrite the program, and the Herald-Republic has pledged to push for new advertising.

“The district superintendents were very open because they know it’s a great opportunity for students to connect with journalism staff and it was a very reasonable fee that we were charging for their participation,” Gutting said.

ESD 105 has set it up as a cooperative with a written contract, automatically renewable yearly, with a five-member executive committee, three of whom are picked by the participating schools, she said. The newspaper will make all publication and editorial decisions, and retains publication rights over the content. (Though students own their work and are free to have it published in non-competing markets.) The staff is recruited and selected by the coordinator in consultation with the paper and ESD105.

Gutting sees the potential for other newspapers and intermediate service agencies, which most states have in place to support school districts, to copy their model.

Adriana Janovich, a Herald-Republic reporter who’s advised “Unleashed” for the last six years, was contracted to be the coordinator. Unlike in the past, however, her “Unleashed” duties will be over and above her full-time Herald-Republic duties as education reporter.

“I am absolutely thrilled the program is being revived,” Janovich wrote in an e-mail, adding that the section “gives young people a voice. It gives them the chance to share their hopes and dreams and fears and concerns. It gives them an opportunity to be published, share their work, have a byline, and build their confidence…They get to experience freedom of the press. And they learn that with freedom comes responsibility…I believe ‘Unleashed’ changes lives.”

Teen sections around the country have been struggling, with several sections closing in the past year, according to Marina Hendricks, manager of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation, which supports teen sections with an annual conference, awards and training, among other things. (‘Unleashed’ took first place in Program Excellence for newspapers under 60,000 circulation in last year’s NAA Foundation youth competition, with student work taking first in the photograph, news and reviews competitions.)

The NAA Foundation doesn’t have any firm numbers about teen sections; it’s such a moving target that it wouldn’t be a good time to do a national survey, Hendricks said. But she said they know of several teen programs that have recently stopped publication. They include The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., the Tulsa World, The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., and the Missoulian in Missoula, Mont.

“These programs have been outstanding ones,” Hendricks said. “From our standpoint, they were doing all the right things.”

While the NAA hasn’t put out any kind of official proclamation, urging newspapers to try to keep the sections, they still believe it’s a good way to lure young readers and to train future journalists. “It’s not worth giving up on yet,” she said. “I think it just calls for being more creative and more patient and more willing to look at the long haul.”

Orlando Sentinel reporter Eloísa Ruano González says she’s so shy she doesn’t think she ever would have contemplated going to journalism school — much less pursuing a reporting career — had a high school teacher not pushed her to apply to “Unleashed” for her junior year in 2000-2001. Her parents, Mexican immigrants, had worked mostly menial-labor jobs, González said, so before “Unleashed” she’d never been around many professionals — except for her teachers.

“’Unleashed’ opened up a door for me. … It was a huge stepping stone,” said González, who returned to the Herald-Republic as an intern after graduating, then was hired on and covered immigration issues until leaving for the Sentinel in December 2007.

“When you’re fragile and you’re in high school, you need a comfort zone. And that’s what Unleashed did — they provided a comfort zone, ironically, to help me get out of my comfort zone.

“The experience I gained that one year clearly stuck with me forever.”

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Cynthia Mitchell (mitchelc@cwu.edu) is a former daily newspaper reporter and editor who is now an associate professor of journalism at Central Washington University, about 40 miles from Yakima. In 2006, she taught a story ideas workshop to the “Unleashed” staff and has twice written recommendations for “Unleashed” to earn awards. She can be reached at 509-963-1063, mitchelc@cwu.edu.

Unleashed will be back in fall

By LEAH BETH WARD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Unleashed, the popular journalism program for teens that fell victim to budget cuts at the Yakima Herald-Republic earlier this year, will return under a restructured format in the fall.

Educational Service District 105 in cooperation with area school districts will hire a part-time coordinator to oversee the program and supervise student news-gathering efforts for publication every other Sunday in the Life in the Northwest section of the Herald-Republic.

Additional content, including photos, will be published in the daily paper, according to Editor Bob Crider, who added that other details are being finalized.

“The educators in our schools agreed with the outpouring of community support for Unleashed following its loss,” Jane Gutting, ESD 105 superintendent, said in a Friday news release.

Each participating school district will fund at least one student for the first year. Additional money from grants will be sought to expand the program. Funding a bare-bones program for one year will cost about $12,000, according to ESD officials.

The Herald-Republic will make a new push for advertising support for the section and absorb other costs associated with publishing student-produced content, said Publisher Michael Shepard.

“Our readers told us just how important this content was to them and we are grateful the schools see the value of this journalistic effort as well,” he said.

Approximately 24 students will be able to work for Unleashed.

They will be supervised by the coordinator, who will be hired under contract with the ESD. A three-member committee representing ESD, the schools and the newspaper expects to select a coordinator soon.

In addition to Yakima, participating districts include high schools in East Valley, Ellensburg, Grandview, Highland, Mabton, Mattawa, Selah, Sunnyside, Toppenish, West Valley and White Swan. La Salle and Riverside Christian high schools are also participants.

The goal is to have at least one student from each participating high school.

Since its beginning in 1999, about 300 students have worked as Unleashed journalists. The program has received numerous national awards.

Students interested in working as journalists for Unleashed beginning in September can contact their local school district administrative office or David Goehner of ESD at davidg@esd105.wednet.edu or 509-454-3131.

Job shadow gives behind-the-scenes look at jobs in journalism

By STACI GOHL

WEST VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
Beginning sophomore year, students are bombarded with stories about the infamous “senior project.”
These are long-term, very involved projects that students must complete in order to graduate.
And now, for my class, the Class of 2009, it’s our turn to grapple with them.
This column is part of my project.
I chose to do an extended job shadow at the Yakima Herald-Republic with Adriana Janovich, reporter and Unleashed coordinator.
To be honest, I really didn’t know what to do, so I kind of just chose something. I knew I was a decent writer, so I just went with it, and in the end I learned more than I ever thought I would.
The following is a journal of the 20 hours I logged.
• Oct. 10, 2008 — This was my first meeting with my mentor. When I arrived, she briefed me on the code of ethics from the Society of Professional Journalists and how the newspaper and her job work in general.
We talked about the First Amendment and what it means to a journalist. She showed me around the newsroom and then we set out on my first interview. I didn’t really know what to expect at all.
We pulled up to Yakima New Hope Community Church of the Nazarene in Terrace Heights and walked in.
Adriana proceeded to interview the pastor and church secretary who were both organizing an outreach program to feed the homeless and hungry in Yakima. I got my first taste of reporting. This was an easy transition into something I’d never done before.
• Oct. 18, 2008 — During this meeting, Adriana and I went to the fourth annual Wapato Tamale Festival, where she interviewed some of the vendors, coordinators and others participating in the event.
This was decidedly more fun than our previous meeting. The people were friendly and the conversation was a little more light-hearted. Once we arrived back at the newspaper, she began writing the piece for the next day’s newspaper. She had me copy the tamale recipe for the newspaper’s Web site, and we did some obituary writing as well. This was really my first view into the process of how an interview becomes a story and the craft that is present behind it.
• Oct. 23, 2008 — This interview was especially entertaining. We went to the Yakima’s Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie No. 289 to do an interview and tour the building. The people we interviewed were eager to talk to us and show us around. It showed the kind of people you might meet while working in this profession, which could really be just about anyone.
• Nov. 11, 2008 — This time I met Adriana at West Valley Church of the Nazarene. She was interviewing a pastor who was retiring from his church to go do other things. This was another in-depth look at how to properly interview someone and the kinds of questions to ask. This interview was a bit long — an hour and a half — but it was a good learning experience.
• Nov. 19, 2008 — I went to an Unleashed meeting where I got a behind-the-scenes look at the newspaper’s teen program. Herald-Republic city editor Craig Troianello talked to us about his job and what he does. I sat through the meeting just like any member of the Unleashed team would, and I got to be around some other high school kids who are interested in journalism.
• Dec. 17, 2008 — Today was another Unleashed meeting. This time, I saw a presentation on photojournalism and learned a bit more about it and how it can be done. Sara Gettys, a Herald-Republic photographer and the Unleashed photo mentor, explained the importance of multi-media in the changing times and how newspapers must stay relevant by utilizing this trend.
This was a very sobering experience because most of the media she showed us was actually very heavy and depressing. She showed us photo projects on a dying man, the mentally ill in prison, and residents of a mobile home park that was going to be developed. At the end of her presentation, everyone was quiet and no one was quick to break the blanket of silence that lay over the room.
• Dec. 29, 2008 — Closing in on the end of my project, this was one of my last meetings with Adriana. I talked with Herald-Republic photographer Kris Holland and watched him upload the pictures he just captured in the field. The top story was the weather, and he showed me photos of a man shoveling snow and kids jumping into snow piles. I also watched him choose one and pull up an archive photo for another story on a wrecking yard in the Lower Valley.
At 2:45 p.m., I sat through the daily budget meeting, where I got to see how editors choose stories for the daily paper. They talked a lot about story and photo placement.
The rest of my time was spent in front of a computer writing this column.
Overall, as far as I can tell, the whole senior project hype is just that, hype. I don’t know about other students, but I found out that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it really has been a stretch in learning, which is the purpose of the cumulative project.
Looking back, I’ve gained some experiences I would have probably never had. I’m going to get to see my writing in print. I’ve been forced to go out and talk to people I would have never dreamed of talking to. Even though I don’t really see myself with a burning passion to pursue this profession as a career, I would definitely say I’m satisfied with my project and have enjoyed the ride.

— Staci Gohl is a senior at West Valley High School. She is completing a job shadow at the Yakima Herald-Republic for her senior project.

Applications Available for 2009 Valley Workshop

Yakima Valley teens who are interested in journalism and photography are invited to apply for the 2009 Valley Workshop.

The intensive, day-and-a-half-long workshop will be held March 20-21, 2009, in Yakima. Its mission is to increase teens’ interest in journalism and help them realize the power and necessity of community journalism.

There’s room for 10 high school students who will have the chance to cover a story with a mentor, either a professional journalist or photojournalist. Students’ stories and photos will then be published in the Yakima Herald-Republic.

The workshop — sponsored by the Herald-Republic, Tri-City Herald, Society of Professional Journalists and Associated Press — is free. It includes a Friday night pizza dinner at the Herald-Republic. Saturday, students will work on their stories and photos in the newsroom.

To apply, students must fill out an application form and provide one letter of recommendation. Applications are due Feb. 20, 2009.

For more information or an application, contact Valley Workshop coordinator Adriana Janovich at 577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.

YH-R Unleashing Students’ Work Throughout Newspaper

By SARAH JENKINS
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

(Unleashed is) the equivalent of a teen who wants to be a doctor getting to work at a hospital for a couple of years. It’s hands-on. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And for teens who want to make a difference, it’s an opportunity worth taking. …

With the compilation of opportunities, of course, comes responsibility. It’s a responsibility to devote time and energy to your work and develop strong communication with your editor. But most importantly, it’s a responsibility to properly represent your generation. …

— Wyatt Kanyer, a two-year veteran of the Unleashed program and a 2008 Riverside Christian School graduate, attends Texas Christian University

I hope you’ve read the Unleashed section of this newspaper the last two Tuesdays and the special presentation on this page today.

It has been humbling.

Two Tuesdays ago, the 10th Unleashed team of teenagers from throughout the Yakima Valley introduced itself to you. Then last Tuesday, Unleashed team writers, photographers and illustrators gave you the first of a special package celebrating what we started out calling “the youth section” and what it has meant to local teens over the years.

The second part of that special package is presented on the rest of this page and on Pages 6-7D.

Unleashed taught me to swallow my fears and, at times, my pride. I was a timid 16-year-old when I started writing for the section in 2000. I hated asking questions in class. Even though I wanted to empower people by telling their stories, the idea of interviewing strangers horrified me.

Unleashed put my pains at ease, helping me set aside my feelings, particularly my fears.

— Eloísa Ruano González, a former Unleashed member and a 2002 Davis High School graduate, was hired as a full-time reporter at the Yakima Herald-Republic. She is now a reporter at the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.

These columns and reminiscences come from just a small sample of the nearly 350 teenagers who have been members of the Unleashed team since the spring of 1999. Yet I have been moved by what an important role the opportunity played in their high school years, and how grateful they are — for the most part, anyway — in having had the opportunity to be a part of the Unleashed team and the Herald-Republic.

But today’s presentation marks not just the official beginning of Unleashed’s 10th year. It also marks a significant change for the team and for our news organization, and so requires an explanation.

From today on, the news stories, columns, photographs and illustrations produced by members of the Unleashed team will become part of the regular pages of the Herald-Republic, integrated throughout the paper’s regular news columns.

That means that beginning Tuesday, you will not find the Unleashed section in the Herald-Republic. Instead, throughout the week you’ll find Unleashed stories, photos and illustrations — perhaps in sports, perhaps in Home Front, perhaps in Business, perhaps even on the front page. All will be identified with the new Unleashed logo. They will also identify the Unleashed team member responsible by school, just as they do now.

The Unleashed team you met two weeks ago will continue to work with coordinator Adriana Janovich and student editor Alyssa Patrick (now a senior at Eisenhower High School in her fourth year on the team), and they will all meet here once a month to eat pizza, develop story ideas and learn more about being professional journalists.

Being a reporter means taking on a responsibility that not all teens have. Deadlines must be met and expectations must be followed. Interviews and photos have certain rules because it’s our job as writers and photographers to relay accurate news to the readers.

— Colleen Fontana, a junior at Davis High School, is in her third year on the Unleashed team

When I met with the team last week to explain this new approach to them, they were excited about the possibility — and a little afraid, I think, of losing some of their identity as a team. But we don’t intend for that to happen.

Instead of being a segregated section of the printed newspaper, we see them being a more integral part of the daily process. And we hope it will be as fun for you as readers as it should be for us as editors.

That’s just the printed paper, of course. Unleashed has also taken its first steps in a pretty exciting online adventure.

The 2008-09 team includes the first-ever Unleashed webmaster (or, as we call him, the Web kid). That’s Ike senior David Brinkman, who comes into the office a couple of days a week to work on unleashed.yakimablogs.com. It’s still a work in progress, but we expect it to grow and follow its own path, just like so many members of the Unleashed team have.

Journalism as a profession requires great intrigue and inquisitiveness. My role as a writer for Unleashed encouraged those innate qualities, so that I became a young woman of questions and curiosity. To this day, these are among my strongest qualities, and among my faults.

— Alexandra Auld, a 2004 Prosser High School graduate, attends the University of Washington

So what’s happening on Tuesdays?

With Unleashed stories, photos and illustrations integrated into the main news sections of the paper, we will be moving the Outdoors section from Thursday to Tuesday.

This will allow us to do a couple of things:

First, it will give more prominence to some great information presented every week by Outdoors editor Scott Sandsberry, other outdoors writers from throughout the Northwest and popular columns by local outdoors enthusiasts Rob Phillips and Ron Graham.

Second, it will allow us to condense the space devoted to sports on what is the slowest sports day of the week.

And you never know. You may even find an Unleashed article in the Outdoors & Sports section.
But just so you know not everything is positive …

One of the most talked about columnists in Unleashed’s tenure was Drew Toop, a four-year veteran of the team and a 2007 graduate of Davis High School, who now attends Washington State University.

When the call went out to Unleashed alumni for columns commemorating the 10th anniversary, Drew — as always — had something different to say. You can read his entire comment in his column at left, but here’s my favorite part:

I sense that features like Unleashed exist in part to encourage young people to get newspaper subscriptions. To write it openly: Unleashed is intended as a commercial.

The problem with this, however, is that it seems the most avid readers of the section are of older generations.

Thank you, Drew. I and the other older generations will remain avid readers.

• Sarah Jenkins is editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic. If you have a question or concern, you can reach her at 577-7703; P.O. Box 9668, Yakima WA 98909; or sjenkins@yakimaherald.com. You can also comment on this column in the “Inside the Newsroom” blog at editor.yakimablogs.com.

A Look Back, a Look Forward

By ALYSSA PATRICK
EISENHOWER HIGH SCHOOL

It was 1998 when a somewhat unconventional idea began to grow in the newsroom at the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Together, an education reporter and a copy editor approached the big desk of Sarah Jenkins, the newspaper’s top editor, to discuss its origin: low readership among young adults.

To fix this problem, the pair wanted to do something a bit fantastical: Develop a section of the newspaper that’s reported, photographed and illustrated by teens for teens.

Jenkins said no. The proposal had the “potential to be a huge time-sucker,” she said.

But Colleen Pohlig and Jeff Garretson, the reporter and the copy editor, persisted until Jenkins, who’s still the top editor at the Herald-Republic, finally said yes.

And thus Unleashed was born.

Pohlig, who left the Herald-Republic for a job at The Seattle Times in 2000, came up with the original idea.

“She needed someone to discuss the idea with, and to help get the management to buy into it, so that’s where I came in,” said Garretson, now the news editor at the Herald-Republic.

The pair attended a conference for youth editors, hosted by what is now the Youth Editorial Alliance, in Spokane in 1998. Afterward, Garretson said, they felt confident in their ability to build a youth section that was equal to, if not better than, those they saw at the conference.

They were so revved up that they wanted to start the section right away. Jenkins made them wait a year.

“In that year, we were able to advertise a ton,” Garretson said. “Colleen went to several different schools to talk to English and journalism classes. She did a good job building a buzz.

“We also were able to talk to the people we had met at the conference, which allowed us to sidestep all the potential pitfalls a program like this could have,” he said. “Without that first year, Unleashed may not have lasted very long.”

When it finally came time to choose the first team, Garretson and Pohlig had to wade through 132 applications from eager students hoping to be a part of the program.

“That was the biggest challenge,” Garretson said. “We had hoped for around 50 or 60 applications, so we were overwhelmed by the large number.”

They had the difficult job of selecting just more than 30 students.

“But in the end,” Garretson said, “that first team really set the mood the next 10 years.”

The co-founders of Unleashed weren’t sure what to expect from the group of young people. In fact, Pohlig listed some of her worries in a column she wrote introducing the new section: “What if they didn’t have any ideas? What if they didn’t like each other?” she wrote.

But when the team met for the first time, the coordinators realized there had been no need to fret: “They truly jelled,” Pohlig wrote.

The 27 reporters and seven photographers had plenty of ideas, got along with each other, and ended up producing a section that earned second place in the “Rookie of the Year” division of an awards program, sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America, to honor teen sections at newspapers nationwide.

Unleashed has been thriving for the past 10 years. Its students have been individually recognized at the national level for their stories, columns, photos and artwork. In recent years, Unleashed has placed second and third for “Program Excellence” by the NAA. It is currently ranked No. 1 in the country.
The next 10 years, however, are going to look much different. With the rising cost of newsprint and the popularity of the Internet as a news source, the newspaper industry has been shifting and adapting. As a result, Jenkins said, newspapers have to re-evaluate their programs, decide what is and what isn’t a luxury.

“Teen sections and the people who run them are fairly easy to cut for many newspapers,” Jenkins said, adding that while teen sections are considered a luxury, the Herald-Republic values Unleashed and considers the section a valuable asset.

“We all believe that we have a commitment to give teens a taste of journalism,” she said. “Whether or not they end up in the field, this experience makes you a better media consumer. It gives you exposure to something you wouldn’t normally be exposed to.”

Still, Unleashed became a topic of discussion during recent meetings at the Herald-Republic regarding how the newspaper can continue to adapt to changes brought on by the Web and the rising cost of newsprint. Editors decided Unleashed, along with a few other sections, needs to be reworked.

Beginning Tuesday, Unleashed will no longer appear as a weekly section in the newspaper. Instead, students’ work will be scattered throughout the regular paper. Their contributions could run in the Northwest Life, Faith, Sports or Home Front sections, even Page One.

It is a drastic change, Garretson said, with exciting new prospects. The Unleashed staff can now “try to get stories and photos into production more than one day of the week,” he said.

“It will also help make another attempt to get young adults to pick up the paper. Maybe an Unleashed story they’re reading in Home Front will be next to another story they end up reading that they would not have seen before.”

In a way, the Unleashed staff will be working more like the Herald-Republic staff, competing for front page and other space in the newspaper, Garretson said. The change will also encourage the Unleashed staff to write stories that are more relevant to a general newspaper audience, he said.

“Unleashed is losing its stand-alone identity,” Jenkins said. “And I am sad about that, but at the same time I’m excited about being able to use the section’s strong content throughout the paper. This is an opportunity for stories to be in places they’ve never been before.”

Part of Unleashed’s new format includes responding to the newspaper industry’s push to the Web. Unleashed launched a blog at the end of May, and named its first webmaster — David Brinkman, a 17-year-old senior at Eisenhower High School — about the same time.

“My plan is to make the news more teen-friendly,” Brinkman said. “I’ll be creating a MySpace and Facebook page because teens are more comfortable reading information that way.”

Brinkman will also work on making Unleashed’s blog more interactive, adding polls in addition to the comment option that’s already available. He will work closely with Herald-Republic Web producer TJ Mullinax and Unleashed coordinator Adriana Janovich. Janovich, a Herald-Republic reporter since 2000, has coordinated the Unleashed section for the past six years.

Unleashed has shifted with each of its four coordinators and 10 teams of students who have moved through its pages. Now, it will shift again to accommodate trends in the newspaper industry.

Unleashed is moving into a new phase of its existence. But its foundation will always be the same: A strong core of young people ready to unleash their voices.

Who’s Been Reading this Teen Section? Surprisingly, Adults

By ALYSSA PATRICK
EISENHOWER HIGH SCHOOL

During the past 10 years, Unleashed has picked up an unexpected audience: grown-ups.

Turns out everyone from parents and teachers to other community members and leaders seems to like to see what teens have to say.

While this wasn’t the intended effect of Unleashed, it was a nice surprise. In fact, it even makes sense; those who seem most interested in the teen-produced section are those who want to better understand the opinions and actions of teens.

“It gave us the privilege of hearing from young people across Yakima County and helped us to remember that the process of becoming a citizen with a voice in the community starts at a very young age,” said 59-year-old Barbara Greenberg, former president of the Yakima school board.

Greenberg has been an avid reader of Unleashed since its first edition in 1999. Later, her daughter, Katie Greenberg, a 2006 Davis High School graduate, wrote for Unleashed.

“I take my hat off to the Herald for providing leadership and for creating Unleashed,” Greenberg said. “I think any community that does not listen to the voice of its young people is missing a very large and important segment of the population as it considers where it is and where it should be going. … ”

Carol Mills, a 62-year-old social studies teacher at Eisenhower High School, has also been a fan of Unleashed since Day One.

“It shows the many dimensions of young people, displays their culture, and is overall well-written and accurate,” said Mills, who serves as the school’s yearbook adviser. Many of her students have gone through the Unleashed program.

So have students at La Salle High School, where 39-year-old campus ministry teacher Ted Kanelopoulos has used the teen section in his classroom.

“If we are discussing controversial topics in class, I will often bring in a related article to add something else to consider,” he said.

And the past 10 years have definitely offered a wide variety of topics that have stirred up conversation throughout the Yakima Valley.

One of Unleashed’s first staffers wrote a column about what it was like to be a teen mother. Another wrote an opinion piece that criticized President Bush. Both pieces drew letters to the editor from numerous disgruntled readers.

For Mills, that’s one of the best parts of Unleashed.

“Letters to the editor will either comment on how great the staff is doing, or challenge a reporter’s position,” she said. “They start a conversation with the student, which is a great experience for him or her, and a nice representation that the community is reading and responding to Unleashed.”

A Confidence-Booster and a Catalyst for Change

By ALYSSA PATRICK
EISENHOWER HIGH SCHOOL

Three years and four months ago, my name appeared for the first time on the inside back page of the sports section of this newspaper.

There it was, proudly sitting atop my first published piece. I was in the eighth grade still, not even a high schooler yet. Not driving, not going to prom, not thinking about college, and yet I was a published journalist.

What a sparkling moment that was. But the beauty of Unleashed is, that wasn’t even the best part.

Being published in the newspaper is always a rewarding feeling, but this program has given me so much more than just a byline. It has helped to shape me.

My very first real news story took me about five leagues out of my comfort realm. I was a freshman ballet dancer who loved to read, and I was headed to a skate park for the first time in my life. Nerves fluttered through my body as my dad drove me down 40th Avenue, not because I was scared of the people who would be at the park, but because I was scared of what they would think of me.

I felt so vastly different from my idea of a “skater,” yet I was supposed to not only talk to them, but ask them questions about their lives. The story was about a man who barbecued every Sunday for free at the park. Of course, my first mission was to talk to him, and luckily I found him right away. We ended up talking for about an hour, and I grew more and more comfortable by the minute.

“What a fascinating person!” I thought. “Look at how much time he is willing to put in for these kids, look at how caring he is.” And after I talked to him, I talked to the “skaters,” who turned out to be just people. People who followed their hobby with great zeal, people who appreciated the warm smiles and burgers of a man who genuinely cared about their well-being.

I learned a tremendous amount that day — about myself, about others, about life in general. These are lessons I would have missed without Unleashed.

And over the years I’ve learned even more, especially from the people I have encountered.

It seems the part I always dreaded most, calling a source for an interview, always ended up being the most rewarding. Being a journalist allows me to get into people’s lives, to hear and be trusted with their stories. Sure, I may have met Michelle Wyles at a community event of some sort, but I would never have learned how she was an antique dealer before she settled down as a small business owner if I hadn’t been working on a story about her store, Garden Dance.

I may have seen Azalea Koestler in a play at Yakima Valley Community College one day, but I would not have had the chance to sit comfortably in her home and watch her speak so maturely about her theatrical life if I had not been writing a profile about her.

Yakima has such a stunning variety of people with interesting stories to tell, with passions and opinions to share. Talking with an assorted handful of these people has opened my eyes to the uniqueness of this community, and granted me the ability to appreciate it long before I would have without Unleashed.

Working as the student editor has also assisted in cultivating my respect for all things Yakima-made, especially this newspaper. A couple days a week, I get to spend my time among reporters, photographers, editors and many other people who work so hard for an industry and community that they believe in.

They stretch themselves out as much as possible to objectively cover all aspects of every issue that may be interesting or important to a town like Yakima. They work odd hours, have frequent meetings in order to keep altering and adapting to changes, constantly learn new technology, share their rewarding interviews, work aptly on deadline, and keep a sense of humor through it all.

I’ve learned so much about how I want to live my life by merely being in the same room with them.

In three years and four months, my writing skills have improved, my attention to detail has blossomed, my understanding has broadened, and my confidence has taken several steps upward. Unleashed is the catalyst that allowed all of those changes.

Thank you, Unleashed.

— Alyssa Patrick, a senior at Eisenhower High School, is in her fourth year on the Unleashed team. She is also in her second year as the student editor of Unleashed.

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