Ralph and the Oscars

Since this is the time of the year when the Oscars are in the news, let’s talk about the CSPA’s Academy Awards winners. Or, more specifically, the Oscar winners who began as high school members of the Scholastic Sports Association, the predecessor to the CSPA.

FRED ROOS (Hollywood High, 1952) went on to win an Academy Award for producing “The Godfather, Part II.” You may recall that Roos showed his appreciation for the SSA by giving founder RALPH ALEXANDER a cameo in the movie (as a reporter, of course). Ralph used to tell the story of how, when a scene showing the reporters was about to be shot, the movie’s director told them, “All right, light up,” meaning light their cigarettes. The director was shocked when Ralph told him he didn’t smoke.

Ralph and the Oscars, Part II:

Then there was Richard Edlund (Montebello High, 1959), who went on to win four Academy Awards in cinematography (for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and three “Star Wars” movies).

In one interview, Edlund recalled:  ”I did sports photography for the Los Angeles Examiner. There was this high school sports association.  I used to go to football games, basketball games and track meets in Los Angeles to shoot pictures and have those published in the paper.” That “high school sports association” was the SSA, the forerunner of the CSPA.
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Moving from movies to books, the CSPA’s best-selling author: 

That would be self help-guru TONY ROBBINS (Glendora High) who attended the workshop in the mid-1970s. In his book, “Awaken the Giant Within,” Robbins remembered:

“In high school I received a scholarship in journalism to attend a two-week program held at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. On that Sunday we were all given an assignment to write a story about a church service.”

The experience, he wrote, inspired him “to seek spiritual understanding when I realized that I’d attended only one church and been exposed to only one religious philosophy.” (Mr. Robbins does not disclose what grade he received on the assignment from his CSPA instructor.)
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Next up, CSPA Sports Center:

Basketballer/journalist KAREEM MADDOX (2006 workshop) attended Princeton University, where he was voted Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year in his senior year.

Princeton reports that the 6-foot-8 Oak Park High alum has entered the international job market by signing to play professionally in Europe with the Dutch team Landstede Basketbal (cq).  Perhaps he’ll get a book out of the experience.

GLEN WALKER (Long Beach Poly, 2007 workshop), meanwhile, is a shortstop on the Jackson State (Miss.) baseball team.

And recent workshop counselor/ University of Oregon hockey player MATT HANLON (Casa Grande High, 2008), recenty ventured to Anaheim, where the Ducks stunned USC, 6-4.
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Meanwhile, our prayers go out to:

Author MICHAEL S. MOORE (1986 workshop, Mira Costa High), who has been kidnaped by Somali thugs who are threatening to kill him if their ransom demands aren’t met.

Mike, who was reportedly researching a book on piracy, is the author of “Sweetness and Blood,” a critically acclaimed book on the history of surfing, and “Too Much About Nothing,” a novel about two teens in the surfing subculture of Southern California.

Mike was abducted last month by a dozen men in two SUVs.  He is believed to be one of more than 150 people held by pirates in Somalia. The State Department is attempting to negotiate his release. (A New York Times interview of a few years ago with Mike can be found at: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/stray-questions-for-michael-scott-moore/)

The 61st annual California Scholastic Press Association – Cal Poly Journalism Workshop, the most prestigious high school journalism seminar in the nation, will return to the beautiful California Polytechnic State University  at San Luis Obispo campus this summer. The workshop, from Sunday, July 15, through Friday, July 27, 2012, is limited to 25 high school juniors and seniors considering a career in journalism. The students will be housed in the same dorm on campus used by most of the faculty, enabling the participants to meet and confer with these professional journalists throughout the day and evening, as well as in the classroom.

Participants will complete 35 journalism assignments, and have the opportunity to:

• Attend several press conferences
• Publish their own newspaper
• Post breaking Web updates and publish blogs
• Write a sports story
• Conduct multiple  interviews, learn research techniques
• Report on a simulated major disaster
• Learn how to cover simulated breaking crime story
• Cover a  trial
• Tour the San Luis Obispo daily newspaper office and television station
• Produce and tape a television newscast
• Shoot and process news photos

Classes are in session from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Students should expect to complete as many as five assignments a day. Graduates receive a prestigious certificate of completion.

This year’s instructors are expected to include:

• Steve Harvey, former Los Angeles Times feature writer and columnist
• Art Aguilar, former community newspaper editor and  publisher
• Stan Kelton, attorney, First Amendment specialist
• Jay Berman,  former reporter, editor, Cal State Fullerton journalism professor
• Gil Chesterton, award-winning high school journalism adviser
• Rich Hammond, blogger, Los Angeles Kings
• Todd Harmonson, a sports editor at the Orange County Register
• Cam Inman, sports columnist, Contra Costa Times
• Kim Minugh, reporter, Sacramento Bee
• Lance Orozco,  award-winning television reporter ,
• Chris Carlson, Associated Press  photographer
• Daniel Thigpen, former reporter, Stockton Record
• Nicole Vargas, former sports reporter, San Diego Union-Tribune
• Larry Welborn, legal affairs reporter, The Orange County Register

For 30 years the workshop was guided by Ralph and Millie Alexander, who dedicated their lives to journalism education. Both died in 1981. It is with Ralph and Millie in mind that we announce this 61st workshop. Tuition, which includes meals, lodging and some supplies, is $1,200. We do have a limited number of partial scholarships for low-income, deserving students. Transportation to and from San Luis Obispo is the applicant’s responsibility. For more information, please see our web site at www.cspaworkshop.org.

Deadline for applying is Saturday, April 14, 2012. The application is available to complete online. Click here or visit http://www.formstack.com/forms/?1139724-TdbqSv2U1M. Students residing outside the U.S. must complete the application and submit it via snail mail. Download it here.

Sincerely,

Larry Welborn, Chairman, Executive Board, CSPA

The workshop, guided by a 14-person board of directors who seek to provide a quality journalism experience to high school students, accepts 25 juniors or seniors from around the country who are seriously considering a career in journalism.

The intensive learn-by-doing curriculum includes news, features, editorial writing, photography, ethics, broadcast and internet journalism sessions where students produce a variety of assignments under deadlines.

Students produce a print and an online newspaper and a television broadcast. They tour the San Luis Obispo television station and newspaper office.

Most of the classes are taught by professional journalists who volunteer their time to teach in San Luis Obispo. Most of the instructors attended this workshop as students, and return to pay back to the next generation of journalists.

For more details and to apply, visit http://cspaworkshop.org/blog/2012-cspa-letter/.

Said Cal Poly journalism professor Bill Loving: “This program shows why journalism will always be a vital part of society.”

To read the complete story, visit Cal Poly’s website.

The 2011 edition of the CSPA High School Journalism Workshop has opened. Twenty-four students have reported to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for the start of the workshop, and within hours found themselves in a classroom learning the nuts and bolts of journalism.

During the course of the two-week workshop, students will be creating content on their own blogs. Some content will be assignments by the many instructors they will meet. Other additions may be ideas generated by the students themselves. The best of it all will appear here.

Please check back often to view the work. The complete archive can be found by clicking 2011 Best of Student Blogs in the menu at the top of each page (it’s nested under 2011 Workshop) or  by clicking here.

If you attended the CSPA (or SSA/IPA) Workshop or volunteered as an instructor, you’re part of the family, part of six decades’ worth of memories and success stories. To celebrate our 60th anniversary, the CSPA is having a reunion picnic during this year’s workshop, on Saturday, July 23, in San Luis Obispo.

The picnic, to be held from 2-6 p.m. at Cuesta Canyon County Park — slightly southeast of the Cal Poly campus — will include a full catered meal. More importantly, it’s a chance to reconnect with the instructors and classmates who have helped make CSPA special.

Please join us as we celebrate our past and look toward the future. Your donation of $30 — $20 for kids 12 and under — is tax-deductible and will directly benefit the CSPA, a non-profit organization. Advance payment online is requested. Paypal and credit cards are accepted.

Any donations, beyond the cost of the reunion picnic, are also greatly appreciated. Like many organizations, the CSPA is fighting through economic strife. Our costs have doubled in the past 15 years, and we rely solely on student tuition and generous donations in order to keep the workshop going. Our instructors volunteer their time and are not paid. Your support helps ensure that CSPA will be able to continue educating student journalists for decades to come, just as Ralph and Millie Alexander hoped.

We’ll look forward to seeing you in San Luis Obispo on July 23.

Sincerely,
The CSPA Board of Directors
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Larry Welborn, chairman | Art Aguilar | Jay Berman | Chris Carlson | Gil Chesterton | Janet Eastman | Rich Hammond | Todd Harmonson | Steve Harvey | Stan Kelton | Don McCaleb | Fred Schoemehl | Nicole Vargas | Jim Wolcott

Twenty-five new students will join the CSPA family, 23 of whom are from all over California. The final two will join the workshop from New York and Illinois, respectively. A number come from high schools with a long tradition of CSPA involvement, including Troy and Mira Costa. And all were part of the first class to apply for the workshop online, a first for CSPA.

The 60th annual workshop will be held on the beautiful campus of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, from July 17-29, 2011.

The complete list of students is available on cspaworkshop.org.

The California Scholastic Press Association is proud to announce its 60th-annual workshop on the beautiful campus of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, from July 17-29, 2011. Tuition for the workshop is $990 and includes instruction, boarding and all meals. The workshop is limited to 25 students, and the deadline for applications was April 16, 2011.

For the first time, applications were accepted online. The application was accessible online and created using Formstack. A PDF of the application was also again available to be submitted by mail.

The deadline for applying was Saturday, April 16, 2011. Students selected were notified in May.

Any questions? Contact Steve Harvey at applications@cspaworkshop.org or Nicole Vargas @support@cspaworkshop.org.

• Attend several press conferences
• Publish their own newspaper
• Post breaking Web updates and publish blogs
• Write sports stories
• Conduct multiple interviews and learn research techniques
• Report on a simulated major disaster
• Learn how to cover simulated breaking crime story
• Cover a trial
• Tour the San Luis Obispo daily newspaper office and television station
• Produce and tape their own television newscast
• Shoot and process news photographs

The 60th annual workshop will be held on the beautiful campus of Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, from July 17-29, 2011. Tuition for the workshop is $990 and includes instruction, boarding and all meals. The workshop is limited to 25 students, and the deadline for applications closed in April.