Bunch of things posted 3/25 - please read

UIL

UIL people please click here to get training materials for your competition:

https://www.uiltexas.org/journalism/uil-contests

Scroll down to the bottom and find your category for overviews and prompts you can practice with. 

Here are the times for each event:

10:30 am - Copy Editing room 350

Charlotte, Liberty and Elizabeth

11:00 am - News Writing room 350

Liberty, Peyton and Savannah (Charlotte back up)

12:00 noon - Feature Writing room 350

Charlotte, Elizabeth and Liberty (Savannah back-up)

1:30 pm - Editorial Writing room 350

Elizabeth, Sam B, Vivi (Liberty back-up)

2:30 pm - Headline Writing room 350

Elizabeth, Charlotte, Sam (Vivi back-up)

Please arrive at least 15 minutes early - coordinate with the other staff members there to decide who is going to do what contest. Do your best and I thank you for getting there and working hard on this. If a back-up has to step in - please notify the coordinator ASAP before you go into the room.

New Voices 

Big thank you to Charlotte, Elizabeth and OOOPPPPPS AVA WEAVER for giving up time during break to go to the capitol to talk about New Voices with your state legislators. We left feeling very upbeat about the process. There could be another day for Bowie students to go lobby for scholastic journalism rights in Texas. I will keep you updated!

Want more information, check this link: https://newvoicestx.com

CSPA AWARDS

If you wanted to watch the CSPA Crown awards, here is a link:

 https://vimeo.com/columbiascholasticpress

In addition, our work was featured in a presentation by a speaker at the event. You can watch that here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tOyC8dC77I1E60oSqIIEgoV4op3VEqOn/view?usp=sharing

 

New Voices day at the state Capitol - posted 3/13/25

Join us at the Capitol in Austin on Monday, March 17, to fight for a New Voices bill in Texas!

We expect a New Voices bill to be filed by the end of the week and now it’s time for us to demand that lawmakers pass it this year. Please fill out this Google Form as soon as possible so we know how many to expect so we can purchase donuts and lunch for our participants.

We are scheduling appointments to allow supporters to speak directly with lawmakers and their staffers, especially those on the Texas Public Education Committee. And now we’d like to share the details of when to be there, where to park and what to expect when you get to the Capitol.

We recommend getting into downtown Austin by 8:30 a.m. at the latest because of traffic and limited parking at the Capitol’s parking garage. We highly suggest that you park at the Capitol’s official Visitors Parking garage between San Jacinto Blvd. and Trinity St. It’s much cheaper than other garages and lots nearby. However, if that garage is full, here’s a website that you can use to look up other lots and garages nearby.

We ask that participants find us by 9 a.m. at our meetup spot in front of the African American Monument near the southern edge of the Capitol complex. See our website for more details about the plan for the day's schedule. After meetings with various lawmakers, we plan to finish our meetings by 2 p.m. and end the day with a debriefing by 3 p.m.

I will be there for the morning activities and will stay till lunch, and then I have to go. I would love to see some of you there if you are in town. Just show up and meet me at 9 am at the African American Monument. We will have flyers and handouts to share with you so you know what to do and I am happy to walk with anyone from Bowie to meet with legislators. 

Urgent - call for New Voices legislation - posted 3/7

From Mr. Doerr at Akins High School - the faculty sponsor for New Voices here in Texas. We need your help:

Hi all. This is an URGENT request.

I need you all to call Rep. Hinojosa’s office on Friday to ask her to be our bill sponsor. We need the bill filed before we can think about having a lobby day. Zwiener will be the bill sponsor but they need to know early next week if Hinojosa is out or not as the sponsor so Zwiener knows if she should file the bill for us. We need to know our bill status before the Zoom webinar on Tuesday so we can plan details of Lobby Day on March 17.

Hinojosa’s office number is (512) 463-0668

Simply introduce yourself as a student journalist and officer/leader with New Voices Texas, and express your appreciation for Hinojosa considering becoming our bill sponsor. You can also let them know that we are planning a lobby day on March 17 so we are looking forward to her office filing the bill so that we can promote it to other education committee members when we are at the Capitol.

We can do this in class on Monday and Tuesday. I will remind you then, but if you want to call today, you can. This is totally optional and only if you feel compelled to support New Voices legislation in Texas.

Applications 25-26 needed

 Good morning,

I got the reverse rosters for 2025-26 and I am excited that many of you are on those lists. We have a strong group of people who have signed up to return for next year.

Some of you have completed and turned in your applications. Thank you for doing that promptly.

There are a number of you that have not completed that process. It is something that is required. Remember that newspaper always sits at the edge of too many people and this year is no exception. In fact, if the campus doesn't allow me to have 3 sections next year, I will certainly have to make some cuts. I don't want to do that, so I hope they will let me have 3 classes of around 25 people instead of 2 sections of 32 or 33 people....We will see.

The following people need to turn in an application by Friday:

Savannah R

Charlotte S

Peyton D

Chance E

Olivia H

Regan T

I have extra copies at my desk if you have lost yours.

Thanks!!