by Linda Barrington
JEA Mentoring Committee co-chair

The spring Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association convention is set to begin next week. Coinciding with each convention, the Mentor Program publishes its newsletter, Mentoring Matters, twice a year. mentoring_matters_spring_2012

We hope that JEA members with an interest in the Mentor Program will read the publication online.  Those who attend the convention will have the opportunity to find the print edition, at the JEA Board Meeting, at Saturday’s Scholastic Press Association Roundtable, and at the Meet the Mentor table in the Adviser Lounge near the Bookstore.

This issue features the story of how the JEA Mentor Program came to be as well as a report on how well the program is succeeding in meeting its three goals:

  1. To retain quality journalism teachers and advisers.
  2. To help new teaches and advisers improve their practice.
  3. To help build stronger scholastic journalism programs.

It also includes some conversation from the Mentor Program’s Cover It Live chat, held on March 26.

Regular features include the map of mentees and their schools and the opinions of some of the mentees about what they think of having a JEA mentor and being part of the program.

And no issue is without thanks to our funders: the Oregon Publishers Foundation is featured for its support of the newspaper at Liberty High School in Hillboro, and the Douglas B. “Bart” Brown bequest is featured for its support of mentor stipends through the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation.

Click on the Newsletters tab at the top of the blog to download previous issues.