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Hundreds of students from high schools in Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings counties participated in Journalism Day, an event aimed at showcasing the journalism program at Fresno City College.

The March 17 event took place in the Old Administration Building and featured about two dozen local media luminaries who presented workshops for the high school students.

Three sessions of workshops lasting one hour each were offered. Each workshop was led by journalists and experts in their fields.

“I am going for sociology, but I am also interested in photography, and being a photojournalist,” Saira Alcanta from Sunnyside High School student said.

The event began at 9 a.m. with Veronica Miracle, a news reporter at ABC30, acting as the emcee for the opening ceremonies.

“This type of event helps you grow,” said Diana Giraldo, editor-in-chief of the Collegian, the newspaper at Fresno state. “You’re sitting there with people just like you, and then you’re talking with an expert in your field and that just feeds your passion.”

Jim Boren, executive editor and vice president of the Fresno Bee gave the keynote speech on “Journalism in the 21st Century and Your Role in It.”  Boren spoke about the evolution of journalism and how it fulfills an important function in a democracy.

Other speakers in the opening session included Joe Wirt, director of affiliate relations for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

Wirt spoke about the current state of journalism and how even though the field had gone through some bad years, it’s still a great career to go into.

Miracle introduced a video which showcased the many great journalists who started their careers in the Rampage, the student-run newspaper of Fresno City College.

Workshops, which started at 10 a.m., included Multimedia, Radio, News Writing, Fake News and Journalism Ethics as well as a tour of the Rampage newsroom.

Students had the choice of signing up for up to three sessions, but some were disappointed to find out that the sessions they wanted to attend were already filled.

 Brandi Lozano, another Sunnyside High School Student, said, “I could not attend the photography workshop because it was full, but all the workshops were interesting as well.”

The event wasn’t only for high school students; there were students from FCC and other local colleges.

“My English teacher motivated me to come,” said Ashley Goldsmith, a Clovis Community College student. “I’ve been considering journalism so I talked to her about it; she recommended I attended the some workshops.”

The event ended after lunch was served in the OAB east courtyard, where students and staff had pizza, cookies, and beverages.  

Giraldo also said she was very impressed by the young participants. “They were very inquisitive,” she said. “They were asking a lot of question about things I would had never thought about.”