Funded by the New York Press Association, the Community Journalism Program is a partnership between Hofstra University and the Hempstead School District.

Under the close supervision of Hofstra faculty, graduate students from The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication will visit Hempstead High School weekly to teach fundamental journalism practices and principles.

Working together with their Hofstra counterparts, Hempstead students will receive instruction in news gathering, writing, storytelling, presentation, and publishing in order to produce news and feature stories about their school and the surrounding community.

Publishable works will appear on LongIslandReport.org, Hofstra’s multimedia news outlet, and liherald.com, the website of Herald Community Newspapers, a group of 17 award-winning weekly newspapers.

Hempstead students who want to further their reporting skills can apply to attend the Summer High School Journalism Institute, a free, intensive, two-week workshop that will be held at Herbert School’s state-of-the-art facilities. Here, students will receive advanced instruction in print, online and TV news production.

Hempstead students will be exposed to a wide variety of newsgathering technologies not found in most high schools. At the same time, they will work with top media professionals, who can offer sound, real-world advice in landing that first journalism internship or job –– and who might even hire them in the future.