The Girard JOURNAL http://www.GirardJOURNAL.blogspot.com is the student voice, on-line newspaper of Girard College in North Philadelphia www.girardcollege.com As the school addresses its diversity, at issue with some, The Girard JOURNAL is embracing diversity on campus.
Begun by an after school program facilitator, The Girard JOURNAL will encourage both middle and high school students at the prestigous private boarding school to consider careers in the journalism and media fields. Adopting service learning concepts and providing students an opportunity to reflect on their contribution, The Girard JOURNAL is already making progress.
It's founding grew out of 'enrichments' offered to students touching on creative writing-and journalism. Students much preferred the internet and 'computer time' to writing with pen and paper. With the semester ending, and summer camp approaching The Girard JOURNAL was begun as a way to keep off-campus students connected to the community behind the walls over the summer months. The school sponsored print newspapers are overseen by teaching faculty not present at the school during the summer.
The staff of The Girard JOURNAL is made up entirely of students, and the Camp Girard staff editor. That student staff is diverse and represents a true picture of the population of the school. The staff editor is caucasian; a Senior Writer, a High School sophomore is Asian as is a new middle school (7th Grade) student; an African American female; and a Latino male complement the two other African American males, one in 8th grade and one a high school freshman. Recruitment of student reporting staff is ongoing and the recruitment is using Girard's "Diversity Initiative" as a guiding set of principles.
The school recently partnered with the National Multicultural Institute www.nmci.org in Washington, D.C to address the diversity issues at Girard. A preliminary report was prepared and available on the school website; a full report and plan for implementation is due the end of May.
Girard College offers a private, residential boarding school to income eligible, academically capable students in grades one through 12 regardless of race, sex or national origin. See the school's website for further details on the strategic plan; the diversity initiative and information on admissions or Camp Girard. For The Girard JOURNAL log on to http://www.GirardJOURNAL.blogspot.com
