Journalism Students Go Off Campus and in to Real Places

Touring the city of Valley on a bus with 25 other Auburn University journalism students may not have been what these students had in mind at the beginning of the semester.

While many students are hard at work preparing for tests and midterms, journalism students in Nan Fairley's Community Journalism class along with Judith Sheppard's Advanced Feature Writing classes are hard at work on a civic engagement project. This project will result in a special newspaper edition about the history of Valley, its first 30 years as a city and its transition from a textile mill economy, and it is just one of the projects currently being worked on where professors are incorporating civic engagement into a class's curriculum.

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Nan Fairley and Judith Sheppard, both Associate Professors of Journalism at Auburn, have teamed with Valley City Clerk Martha Cato, and many others to form a partnership with Valley, which is only about 30 miles from Auburn.

"The students are taking on a big challenge." said Fairley.

They will be creating a full-length special edition newspaper that will come out in conjunction with Valley's 30th birthday celebration in May. The paper will celebrate the community's past and also look into the future of the community. It will be divided into past, present and future.

"Valley has a rich textile mill heritage, and it is in the middle of transitioning between a textile mill economy and whatever the future holds," said Fairley."Many communities in America are also facing similar challenges."

Fairley said that Valley is great for these classes because of the community journalism and her goal for this project is that the students can become completely engaged and tell the story of the community. The students will be covering everything from mill baseball teams, African American history and architecture and historic structure.

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Fairley, also the College of Liberal Arts Civic Engagement Scholar, said, "I am very interested in Auburn's civic engagement efforts and love to get journalism students off campus and in to real places."

Because of the many parties involved in this project, "it will be a win-win situation for everyone," said Fairley. The students will benefit because they are getting practical, hands-on experience by creating a publication from start to finish.

"I hope it accomplishes the goal of capturing the story of Valley, and I hope it's a document that captures the spirit of the citizens," Fairley said. "I think there's a definite Auburn-Valley connection that we see growing stronger everyday, and this is a wonderful example of our university's connection to communities."

Photos courtesy of Chris Walker, Photojournalism Professor at AU

"I think Martha put it best when she was first approached and said, 'We have a story to tell and nobody's telling it,'" Fairley said. "Both sides will benefit from this project, and it is creating a partnership that will continue on after this semester."