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Twenty aspiring journalists are in Tucson to learn from editors at The New York Times.

By Kate Harrison, UA Journalism Department
January 9, 2008

Twenty young journalists from around the country are covering crime, the border and other news in Tucson as part of an intensive training program for student journalists taking place this week at The University of Arizona department of journalism.

The New York Times Student Journalism Institute is co-sponsored by The New York Times and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. The institute is modeled on a program that the Times established for students in conjunction with the Black College Communications Association and the National Association of Black Journalists, held at Dillard University in New Orleans.

Students and the journalism professionals they are learning from arrived in Tucson on Jan. 2 and started getting acquainted with the city and its stories. The Institute’s editors help students with their stories before they are posted on the Institute’s Web site, http://www.nytimes-institute.com.

The site features stories on a history project to preserve the voices of bracero workers (Mexican migrant workers), the funeral of a Tucsonan with Mafia ties, as well as blogs, podcasts and streaming video.

The best pieces are printed in a newspaper produced at the end of the program. One student’s article, about the funeral of reputed mobster Salvatore "Bill" Bonanno, appears in the Jan. 8 online edition of The New York Times.

Four UA students were selected to take part in the 2008 institute: Fernanda Echavarri, Lauren LePage, Nathan Olivarez-Giles and Roxana Vasquez. Other student participants are: Yolanne Almanzar, Florida International University; Nicolas Barajas, Ithaca College; Julian Cavazos, Brigham Young University; Arcynta Ali Childs, New York University; Astrid Galvan, Arizona State University; Brian Hernandez, University of Nebraska; Mariana Minaya, University of Maryland at College Park; Aaron Montoya, Colorado State University; Tracie Morales, University of Texas at Arlington; Jose Pagliery, Florida International University; Marlene Peralta, City University of New York; Jennifer Perez, University of Central Florida; Elizabeth Perez, University of Texas at Brownsville; Solange Reyner, University of Miami; Rick Rojas, Texas A&M University; and James Wagner, University of Virginia.

To qualify to participate in The New York Times Student Journalism Institute, students must be NAHJ members, have completed one semester at a student newspaper or major newspaper, be in good academic standing and write a 500-word essay about being a journalist.

Florida International University hosted the 2007 institute at its Biscayne Bay campus in north Miami. FIU and the UA will continue as hosts of the program in alternate years.