New York, New York – January 19, 2023 – A local non-profit organization provides free resources to educators with New York City Public Schools in order to start and sustain student journalism programs.

“Press Pass NYC is a non-profit organization that helps public schools in New York City start newspaper programs and start newspaper programs in a way that is sustainable. So I know a lot of schools might wanna start a newspaper, they aren’t sure really how, they aren’t sure what they need or the way to approach it and then sometimes they are not sure how to keep it going.” says Lara Bergen, founder and director of Press Pass NYC.

And what does it take to start a school newspaper?

“What I found in a lot of schools I go to is that it takes a lot of teacher commitment and for a lot of times, you have teachers that want to do it but they just don’t know how,” says David Fulco, English Teacher at HS 223 in the Bronx and advisor for The Eagle Express.

“And people would come up to me and they’d say, “Mr. Fulco, wow, you should really start a newspaper. Wouldn’t that be really great if we had a newspaper for the kids?” And I’d say, “yeah! Do you know how to start a newspaper?” And I don’t. I’ve worked in newspapers before but I don’t know how. How do you start a newspaper? How do you actually start one?,” Fulco says.

In their first year with 23 schools so far, Press Pass NYC partners with Baruch College to help schools with the program.

“Baruch College has something called The High School Newspaper program that was started almost 20 years ago by a high school newspaper advisor in New York City. They found Baruch to be the sponsor and eventually, Baruch took the program over and a journalism professor there, Geanne Belton, is the director of that program and she and it have really become Press Pass NYC’s core partner. Three times a year, she runs a virtual zoom class on how to advise a online student newspaper,” Bergen says.

“Lara Bergen and I work very closely together to really support each other’s efforts and to be sure that we are not duplicating each other’s efforts. Lara, you know just helps in a lot of ways and in everything from keeping track of attendance like which schools have attended, which is helpful for me because we wanna know how active they are but also giving out CTLD credit for teachers,” says Geanne Belton, journalism professor and director of the High School Journalism Program at Baruch College.

“Press pass NYC gave us just a great leg up. It gave us a good start. Um.. It was .. I came out of the program in Baruch College that was literally .. I think it was called ‘How to start a School Newspaper’ I think,” Fulco says.

“The best thing about Baruch is that it gave us practical advice and it started us from nothing. It assumed that we had no idea what we were doing, which was a correct assumption and then it built us up in the course of the class so that we could actually do it. It then also gave us access to people that could help. So we have a journalist here that works with us from Newsday and he volunteers his time. All of that is coming through Baruch. All of that is coming through Press Pass and Pan America,” Fulco says.

Students involved are gaining a lot from the program.

“I do think it helps them academically. It helps their writing in a way that traditional writing instruction doesn’t do to them in the same degree or in the same way. It makes students more community-minded in their school and it helps bring together the other students who are reading the newspaper, the audience,” Bergen says. It helps bring the school community together in that way. But ya, I think it’s part of the pipeline for journalists also.”

One of the schools involved is Ms? Hs 223 in the Bronx that runs The Eagle Express.

“It definitely helps my writing because I have so many people looking at my writing, specifically Mr. Fulco. He’s not my ELA teacher so it’s definitely someone else to look at it, and I have other people like my classmates who are also editing and telling me ways that I can revise and improve,” says Ranyeli Rodriguez, a Junior at HS 223 and writer at The Eagle Express.

“Since joining the newspaper, I’ve learned a lot more about like writing skills considering that in the newspaper you have to be a bit more realistic but at the same time more attracting to the audience,” says Steven Suastegui, a Senior at HS 223 and writer at The Eagle Express.

“When I go to college, I want to be on the newspaper. I was thinking of also doing a minor in English so that I can continue becoming a better writer. So even though journalism isn’t necessarily my first choice in my career path, it’s something that I want to continue for my own personal endeavors,” says Joselyn Cosme, a Senior at HS 223 and co-founder of The Eagle Express.

“When I found out this year that there was gonna be a newspaper, I was excited. I always love writing out of passion for writing and I would write, I would journal, I would write any story and I would show it to my parents since I was little,” says Briant DeJesus, a Senior at HS 223 and writer at The Eagle Express. “So for me, to have this program is like a blessing.”

“I have thought about becoming a journalist since I have a habit of wanting to release the truth that people don’t see. So not only a sports journalist but more of like a news journalist; more like an expose type of person, make people see the things they don’t see,” says Jonael Lantigua, a Senior at HS 223 and Editor of The Eagle Express

“In the Summer, we had a student editor bootcamp. We have continuing throughout the school year, workshops, speakers that they can come here to speak with. One school we helped to attend a national journalism convention in St. Louis, the journalism education association’s Fall convention,” Bergen says, “ We were able to take six schools to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Fall conference. New York City schools don’t go to that conference that much because unfortunately it is expensive to go even if you don’t have to travel.”

“I still want to be an engineer but we actually had a trip to Columbia. It was on the newspaper conference and they mentioned how, whether you wanna get into the technical field, you still need to like to learn journalism and it likely sets you apart from your other competitors. So I could be an engineer while still pursuing my journalism background,” DeJesus says.

“I do think my kids at the school needed a voice. They needed a way of expressing the things that they were seeing, righting wrongs that they felt were happening. I think they needed an opportunity to be heard,” Fulco says. This is an opportunity for teachers, for administrators, for community members and for their peers to read their thoughts and the things that are happening.”

“I’d like to establish a really robust working model of how a school can start a student newspaper, kind of a recipe for success that we can then kind of replicate in other places,” Bergen says.