Student stories to print

By Lesley Jenkins
star staff
ljenkins@starhq.com
As the Newspapers in Education program succeeds throughout school systems, Carter County and city of Elizabethton schools are offering students more opportunities to get involved with learning through the news.
The Star gave 15 high school students the chance to write stories from a teenage perspective about news that interests them and their peers. The Star offered the students, from Cloudland, Hampton, Happy Valley, Unaka and Elizabethton High Schools, the opportunity through their language arts classes, according to Judy Thompson, NIE Director.
"I am excited to death about this. This will be a follow up to the essay program. Hopefully we will get some fine writers out of these young people," Thompson said.
Thompson visits all of the schools, including the elementary and middle schools, each month and collects the NIE essays that students write. Thompson and the students choose a new topic each month and the winner receives a $50 savings bond.
Thompson found the program successful and asked students to write stories for the school newspaper.
Thus, Teen Tribune writers emerged and brainstormed interesting news topics. The first edition of the Teen Tribune will be published on Jan. 28 on the back page of the weekly school news section of the Star.
The edition will contain stories about a class on meat processing at Unaka High School, the pressures facing a teen who has just learned to drive, the dreaded expectations of the ACT exam and much more. Future stories will include ways to boost a college application through volunteer work and the stress of finding a job after high school.
Students writing the stories are Corrina Jackson, Lindsay Harsh, Stacy LeFuene, Julie Davis, April Presnell, April Roberts, Bria Moody, Emily Elliot, Abby Hicks, Whitney Nelson, Lindsay Norris, Audra Walker, Ashley Peterson, Aimee White, and Deidre Stevens.