Ms. Stacey Wilkins Becomes J.E.A. Connecticut State Director
NEIRAD enilno edition
Hold the presses! Read all about! Breaking News!..okay, okay so those may be a list of every clichéd journalistic phrase ever uttered. But Ms. Stacey Wilkins, as the Neirad advisor and Intro to Journalism teacher at Darien High School, should be used to them by now. Besides, the phrases can be used to describe Ms. Wilkins’ latest achievement. (Time for the breaking news part) Ms. Wilkins has been appointed the Connecticut State Director for the Journalism Education Association. (JEA)
Ms. Wilkins has been in the field of journalism most of her life. She has traveled the world working for CNN in Hong Kong, Atlanta and New York. She also worked for Fox News Channel in New York City. Earlier she was a staffer at the ABC News affiliate in Anchorage, Alaska; Asia Business News in Singapore (owned by the Wall Street Journal) and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Darwin. Ms. Wilkins started her career in print at a chain of weekly papers in New York and Connecticut and later at a prominent daily in Hong Kong. Darien High School’s student newspaper Neirad is now proud to have her as their advisor. Last year, Ms. Wilkins came to Darien High School. Ms. Wilkins completed her teaching certification at Yale University and her experience does not go unnoticed in the classroom. Sophomore Parker Lange says, “You can tell she has a lot of experience.”
Besides her unrivalled experience, Ms. Wilkins is also known as a “kind” teacher who is “easy to connect and relate to,” Lange said. All of these attributes make Ms. Wilkins a well-loved teacher, but her deep experience and innovative approach will be key to her new position as the Connecticut State director for the J.E.A.Ms. Wilkins applied for the position of Connecticut State Director while exploring school journalism contests for Team Neirad to enter. She found the J.E.A organization and was eager to support its efforts. The Journalism Education Association, founded in 1924, is a national organization that, like Ms. Wilkins, works to cultivate students’ passion for journalism. The J.E.A is the primary group of its kind and comprises 2,100 members. It is run by volunteer teachers and advisers with the noble purpose of furthering efforts towards journalistic scholastic merit. The J.E.A. is primarily focused on recognizing and teaching student journalists. The organization gives students the opportunity to enter into contests in the newspaper, literary magazine, or yearbook field. Ms. Wilkins, as the Connecticut State Director, will be helping to judge contests outside Connecticut and will be one of the judges determining the student journalist of the year for Connecticut.
Ms. Wilkins’ work with the J.E.A began even before she was appointed to her leadership role. In November, at a National Convention for the J.E.A/NSPA in St Louis, Ms. Wilkins taught an interviewing workshop for more than 185 people. It was there she met the Northeast Regional Director for the Journalism Education Association, Mr. Ron Bonadonna. At the “Meet N’ Greet” and the two discussed the Connecticut State Director position. Mr. Bonadonna said, “I was struck by her enthusiasm for having some official position from which to launch a Connecticut Scholastic Press Association.” When the position for Connecticut state director became available he “immediately thought of Ms. Wilkins.” Ms. Wilkins said she was proud to accept the nomination of the national group.
For Ms. Wilkins, the position creates new opportunities for her to help not just her own students but students across the nation.
“Dedicated and knowledgeable advisers are, unfortunately, a rarity in school publications. Ms. Wilkins is special because she wants to keep strong ties to professional organizations that will assist her in her advising. Professional organizations greatly benefit students through scholarship programs, conventions, critiques and awards for quality work. In showing her interest to me, Ms. Wilkins did precisely what I did when I began advising. My involvement in professional scholastic press associations was the best direction I could have taken for both myself (I learned a great deal) and my students,” Bonadonna explained.
While balancing her English, Neirad, and Intro Journalism classes and becoming the J.E.A director, Ms. Wilkins’ has still found the time to achieve even more. Ms. Wilkins became a nationally certified journalism educator this year. Ms. Wilkins’ work will also be recognized in an upcoming college textbook, Short Takes Model Essays for Composition . She signed a contract to publish an article she wrote for Newsweek which will be included in a freshmen English textbook that will be published by Heinemann in July.
As for her future intentions in helping the J.E.A., Ms. Wilkins said, “I would like to establish a stronger Connecticut presence in the J.E.A because this organization offers so much to student journalists in terms of its writing contests, awards and honors and teaching seminars taught by top professionals in the business. The Connecticut presence has been relatively dormant over the past few years, so I hope I can let our state's schools know about the organization and encourage them to jump on board,” Ms. Wilkins said.
J.E.A members, too, are eager for Ms. Wilkins to come “on board” and are aligned with her on the goals. J.E.A Vice President Bob Blair said of Ms. Wilkins, “I look forward to working with Stacey. We are anxious to build our membership base in the Northeast and rely heavily on our state directors to help us reach that goal.”
There is no doubt in her students’ minds that Ms. Wilkins will continue to achieve in her efforts and help reach the goals of the J.E.A. To her students, she is the fun-loving, soda-drinking, DAWG-loving and car-gazing teacher they can’t help but admire.
