About

Mission

ThreeSixty Journalism, a program of the University of St. Thomas, brings diverse voices into journalism and related professions by using intense, personal instruction in the practice and principles of journalism. We strengthen the civic literacy, writing skills and college-readiness of Minnesota teens.

What do ThreeSixty Journalism students actually DO?

Summer Camps: We offer a two-week, residential Intermediate Journalism Camp where students live in University of St. Thomas dorm housing. We also offer a four-week Introduction to Journalism Camp and an intensive five-day Sports Reporting Camp.

Print Magazine: Each quarter ThreeSixty creates a magazine that features student-produced articles, essays, photographs and artwork. The magazine is distributed to roughly 200 middle and high schools, public libraries and youth organizations. It ultimately serves as a platform for teens’ voices to be heard and gives the community a glimpse into the teen perspective.

Click here to read the latest issue.

News Team: An 8- to 10-week after-school class. It’s held two times a year in the Fall and Spring semesters and meets at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Six to twelve teens produce one news story while learning the basics of journalism, including interviewing, doing research, talking to everyone and anyone comfortably, writing concisely, spotting a good story and more. This after-school class is designed for students in 9th through 11th grade who want to check out what journalism is all about.

Click here to apply for the News Team starting in October 2012.

Editorial Board: During the school year, Editorial Board students meet once a month to pitch and assign story ideas. A smaller group of students commits to becoming Senior Reporters – they come into the ThreeSixty office once a week to work on in-depth stories.

History

Since its founding as the Urban Journalism Workshop in 1971, ThreeSixty has provided journalism training to high school students, particularly low-income and students of color who are interested in journalism careers. Since moving from the University of Minnesota and becoming part of the University of St. Thomas in 2001, the program has grown from a two-week summer camp funded and staffed by volunteers to a year-round program with a small professional staff.

At present, ThreeSixty serves more than 100 high school students and teachers each year via after-school classes, weekend workshops, teacher training, career fairs and summer camps. More than 1,000 students have completed ThreeSixty Journalism classes and camps. since 2001. Dozens have gone on to study journalism in college. The following alum are among those now working in media and communications:

• Laura Lee, reporter and anchor, KAAL-TV, Rochester, Mn.

• Emma Carew Grovum, Special Projects Researcher at The Chronicle of Philanthropy

• Sisi Wei, tarted News Applications Developer for ProPublica in New York City.

• Dymanh Chhoun, Photographer at KTTC-TV / KXLT-TV , Rochester, Mn.

• Damon Maloney weekend anchor/videojournalist, WYTV/WKBN-TV , Youngstown, Ohio.

• Dhomonique Ricks, anchor and reporter, WSET, ABC 13, Lynchburg, Va.

• Sara Boyd Pelissero, web producer, WCCO-TV

• Hlee Lee, Social Media/Web Content & Video Production Specialist