Summer’s ‘dream’ for kids 11-15

Looks like the kids are in for an amazing summer.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer has just launched a contest for students 11 to 15 years old that will keep the young ones  busy while on school break. What’s more, it will give them a chance to win mobile phones and qualify for a bigger global contest that can take them to Madrid, Spain.

Copresented by Nokia and Inquirer in Education (IIE) in cooperation with the World Association of Newspapers (WAN-Ifra) and Maynilad, the My Dream Interview Contest is a learning-by-doing activity that asks teams of students to pick a famous person to interview, research on that person and formulate interview questions.

It aims to give students insight into how hard VIPs have had to work to achieve fame and/or success.  In addition, the contest gives youngsters the chance to find their voice and gain the confidence to interact with the media.

For these reasons, Education Secretary Armin A. Luistro has endorsed the contest to the department’s nearly 200 public school divisions. If each division sends only one team, it will mean almost 1,000 students taking part in this summer journalism project, in addition to the students who have signed up and are still signing up from the private schools.

Not for individual students

The contest is not—repeat not—for individual students. It is open only to teams of four students from the same school or division, plus a teacher who can coach and chaperon them.

By asking the students to team up, the Inquirer hopes to promote values such as respect for the opinion of others and valuable skills such as the capacity to exchange ideas.

Students in each team must choose a well-known person they would like to interview.  That person may be in public service, whether government or NGO, entertainment, sports, media, the arts or any field where he or she has achieved some success through determination, hard work and sacrifice. Visit www.inquirer.com.ph for the official contest rules.

Upon deciding on their dream interviewee, each team must find out as much as they can about the person from previous print, broadcast or online media stories before preparing the questions to ask.

Each team must submit the name of their dream interviewee and a set of at least 15 questions for the person to the Inquirer by midnight of April 27, 2012.  Entry forms may be downloaded from www. inquirer.com.ph.

Again, just to be clear, teams are required to submit interview questions only. They are not—repeat not—being asked to interview someone and write a feature story based on that interview. This part of the contest is designed to find out what the youth have always wanted to ask popular people but have been afraid or unable to do so.

Entries may be e-mailed to [email protected]. If submitting by hand or express mail, address the envelope to My Dream Interview Contest, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1098 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City 1204.

Free workshops

To guide the students on how to conduct interviews, as well as give them skills on researching, fact-checking and formulating questions, IIE will be conducting a series of free workshops in four cities with honest-to-goodness working journalists as resource speakers.

The “Art of the Interview” workshops will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. on the following dates at these venues:  April 11, Inquirer multipurpose hall, Inquirer building on Chino Roces Avenue corner Yague Street in Makati City; April 12, Faith Multiversity library, Faith College on 2 President Laurel Highway, Tanauan City, Batangas; April 14, room JL 205, University of the Philippines Baguio,  Governor Center Road, Baguio City; and April 16, Cebu Daily News building in the North Reclamation Area, Cebu City.

Teams should pre-register for the workshop via text, e-mail or telephone.  To sign up, they should text the students’ names and ages as well as their preferred venue to 09183824061 or 0919-347-2130. Or they can e-mail the same to [email protected] or [email protected]. Or they can call the MDI hotline at (02) 8966000.

There is no need for entire teams to join the workshop, unless all students in the team want to be more acquainted with the Q and A techniques in newspaper reporting, perhaps even be inspired. The workshops welcome even students who are not joining the contest.

Teams who cannot attend the workshop may still join the MDI contest. The Inquirer has published a guide for young reporters in the Learning Section (See Pages H1 and H6, March 12 issue) that students can read and follow with the help of their teacher-coach. Nonparticipation in the workshop will not be counted against any team entering the contest.

Finalist teams

From the entries, Inquirer editors will choose the five teams with the best sets of interview questions as finalists.  Questions will be judged on originality, creativity, relevance and grammar and spelling.

Each student—and the teacher/coach—in these finalist teams will be awarded a Nokia mobile phone.

Now comes the more exciting part, the second phase of the contest that will give the students the chance to make like reporters because they will be asked to do the actual interview and write the story, which will be published in a series in the Learning section of this paper.

The five finalist teams will proceed to interview the persons they have chosen as subjects. If need be, the Inquirer will help them secure appointments with their dream interviewees. After the interview, each team must use the question-and-answer material to write a feature story in English on the subject.

These stories must be submitted to the Inquirer by May 25, 2012. The complete set of rules for this phase of the contest is also posted at www.inquirer.

com.ph.

Inquirer editors again will judge which two stories from among the five finalists will be the Philippines’ official entries to the WAN-Ifra global competition “My Dream Interview Project: World Young Journalists Festival of Success Stories.”

‘Hasta la vista,’ babies

International editors will select two interviews from the entries of all countries participating in this global search. Whatever corner of the world they come from, from each of these two winning teams two students and their teacher will be flown by WAN-Ifra to its November Expo in Madrid, Spain, to receive their awards.

Young students in the Philippines have as good a chance as any to make it to Madrid, so hasta la vista en Madrid, babies!