Every other Friday, members of Kent JMC's National Association of Black Journalists chapter take a trip back to high school.

NABJ members and the special projects editor of the Canton Repository are volunteering their time to help Timken students improve their journalism program and student publication.

Tara Pringle, junior magazine major and NABJ president, said NABJ students who visit Timken focus on teaching students how to improve writing skills and how to be more professional.

"A lot of these students just kind of see high school as an end and not a lot of people tell them, 'hey, you are talented and you can go to college,'" she said. "It just makes me feel good that I get up on my day off and go and help these kids."

NABJ members began helping Timken students last semester. Pringle said at the first session around 13 NABJ members volunteered their time.

Pringle said it is important for male NABJ members to volunteer because young boys often look up to them. She said they often have the most trouble expressing themselves and it is valuable to have a male member teach them that it is OK to express themselves through words instead of violence.

Rak Claiborne, NABJ member and a journalism graduate student, said it is important for him to help kids in the inner-city urban atmosphere because he grew up the same way.

"Interaction with students gives them a chance to see people involved in the same field," he said.

Claiborne said students at Timken have the most trouble with grammar and coming up with story ideas that help sell the paper.

Above: Tara Pringle (left), junior magazine major, talks about story ideas with Christina McDonald, senior, and Ebonee Hall, freshman, students at Canton Timken. Below: Journalism students at TImken read over their newspaper, The Odyssey. NABJ students give advice to improve the newspaper. Photos by Lauren Anderson

The program is done in partnership with the Canton Repository. Rick Senften, special projects editor of the paper and a Kent JMC graduate, works with students at Timken and other Stark County schools to increase interest in news and newspapers.

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