It was hot.
But for 44 junior and high school students attending a journalism camp at JMU, the heat didn’t get in the way of their job — to write stories and to take pictures of downtown business. The students and their instructors spent about three hours practicing their newly learned journalism skills by interviewing various people, and covering the people and places of downtown Harrisonburg including the Harrisonburg Farmers Market.
Brad Jenkins, a camp director and JMU media adviser to The Breeze student newspaper, said jCamp gives students who may explore a career in journalism an opportunity to practice what they’re learning and to get some hands-on experience.
“[Hands-on experience is] really the way you kind of discover whether you want to do this,” Jenkins said.
The camp is sponsored by the Virginia Association of Journalism Teachers and Advisers, the JMU School of Media Arts & Design and The Breeze. In addition, 20-25 middle school students attended thanks to funding from the Valley Ridge Governor’s School.
