Julius Marinov describes struggling journalism club and stratified access to journalism education

Good afternoon.

My name is Julius Marinov.

I am a senior at the High School for Environmental Studies in the Upper West Side, District 2.

When it comes to our student-led journalism club, the Ego Eye, it has always struggled.

The lack of funding and attention has left our program to fend for itself.

With these concerns, I'm uncertain if the club will continue after my graduation.

I joined the Youth Journalism Coalition as a student leader to gain more citywide support for journalism education.

My time in the coalition has provided me with multiple insights.

First, the issues of our journalism club are not a strife that we face alone.

And it's not a lack of student interest issue.

There's a deeper systematic issue at hand.

Access to journalism education across all schools in New York City is deeply stratified.

In 2022, Baruch College research found that 73% of our city's public high schools lack a journalism program.

We don't know where this number stands today, as the New York City Department of Education has failed to provide reliable statistics, even though they're mandated to report on this.

However, there is a way where not only existing journalism education programs can improve, but the potential to expand to the 73% of schools that lack them.

With the release of Portrait of a Graduate Standards, one can't help but notice that journalism already

does what the portrait of a graduate demands.

Last year, I covered the political situation Burkina Faso in my school's newspaper.

I had to synthesize geography, history, and international relations to write one coherent article.

This emanates the standards for academic preparedness and global citizenship.

Not as concepts on a rubric, but as requirements of the work.

Journalism education further tests students on their competency in the digital age.

I spent time discerning fact or fabrication during my research.

This trained my critical thinking skills more than any standardized test.

With attention to limit AI usage and encourage media literacy in schools, I believe journalism education can serve as a place where both these issues can be addressed.

Yet what I see in journalism education that shines as the perfect analog for the portrait of a graduate is upon the completion of a piece.

When I finished my article, I made events that seemed so far away relevant to my peers, so much so that I recall students mentioning the figures highlighted in the article months after its publishing.

That's the beauty of what a portrait of a graduate is asking for, not a paragraph at the end of an essay, but an introspection on the purpose of my words and how they matter, why they matter.

If the Department of Education builds journalism into its plan for the portrait of a graduate, programs like mine won't have to rely solely on student survival tactics to stay afloat.

We will finally have the institutional support to become permanent fixtures.

in our schools.

I want the journalism program that I work diligently upon to continue, not to be in a list of clubs made by former students that are now just memories.

We're trying to practice the skills that the portrait of a graduate demands, but we need your help to keep doing it.

If it hasn't been demonstrated enough today,

The students of New York City want journalism, and the city wants education to change.

And I suggest a solution for both of those wants.

Thank you.

Thank you for taking so much time.

Thank you for your testimony.

Yeah, I don't have intention of cutting students off.

If you have a little more to say, it's fine.

Do keep in mind that we are trying to keep it to two minutes.

And the purpose of that is also to ensure that other people have the opportunity to testify.

I do want to shout out really quickly, you know, you mentioned, you know, the journalism program struggling at your school to get the funding.

I want to highlight two elements.

And one is, as the Youth Journalism Coalition knows, for the first time this year, we are creating a brand new initiative.

Called Journalism for All, which is receiving an over $280,000 investment from the city council to invest in schools like yours to make sure we have these robust programs.

I think it also speaks to what I think what we all, if we don't articulate, we know that if it's not measured,

It doesn't always get the investment.

And once we, and I love that you're talking about measuring this as part of the portrait of a graduate.

Because once we start measuring it, teachers and principals have more incentive to actually invest.

The Department of Education has the incentive to invest in it.

Even, may I say, private partners have incentives to invest in these programs.

So it's critical that you're here testifying about the importance of...

Including this in the portrait.

And of course, again, want to highlight the council's contribution to this initiative.

Thank you.