Xpress made some new friends today when children from Hot Springs Community Learning Center toured the offices at 2 Wall St. (in the Miles Building) for a field trip.
The reason for the visit, explains After School Program teacher Meg Denson, stemmed from the kids’ own participation in creating a school newspaper, The After School Program Newspaper. And because all field trips at HSCLC are brainstormed by the children, Denson says, this idea was chosen by the third, fourth and fifth graders who work in the “newsroom.”
The kids have produced one-and-a-half issues of The ASP Newspaper so far (one in September, one comes out this week), with each child assigned different duties such as “interviewer,” puzzle-creator, comic artist, fundraiser-announcer and calendar events-enterer, which, Director Deborah DeLisle says, is mostly birthdays. “Everyone has to have their birthday in the paper,” she says with a laugh.
With 200 printed copies, the kids “get to see what that feels like — to have their names printed in a paper,” DeLisle continues.
The kids toured the office, getting to ask reporters, editors, advertising, design and distribution staff questions about how newspapers work — and look out at our awesome views of downtown Asheville (which, arguably, was probably their favorite part).
“It just seemed like a really good experience for them,” says Denson.
It was great to meet you, little reporters!
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