A continuación, compartimos con nuestros seguidores un artículo especialmente realizado para el medio de prensa VOXXI de Miami, FL (Estados Unidos). Aquellos que lo deseen pueden ingresar a la aplicación de idiomas que se encuentra a la derecha para conseguir una rápida traducción. 

JUST FOR BEGINNERS

Last year, the Embassy of the United States in Uruguay launched a program for Uruguayan undergraduates living outside the capital of the country, which was excluded from the initiative. The program was called ‘Youth Correspondents of Uruguay’, and had the aim of promoting the journalism among youngsters within the country.

The call up was open to everybody (within the requirements outlines) and started with a nice challenge: to write a report linking the province each one comes from and the United States of America. After this phase, 18 teenagers were selected out of 400. Each one represented a province. On average, the selected participants were between 15 and 18 years old and shared the same goal: to build a career in journalism.

The mission of each correspondent was to work as a young reporter in their province and community. This work implied creating and maintaining a blog with fresh news, performing interviews, writing articles and doing photographic reports.

To make this attainable, the staff of the Embassy, leaded by the Press Director, Rubek Orlando and the Official Photographer, Vince Alongi, organized several trainings along the year covering different topics and teaching helpful tools and theory concepts for the field work. Besides, all the necessary equipment was provided to the correspondents at the beginning for them to able to perform their tasks: netbook, videocamara, a bag and a jacket with the program’s logo.

The first meeting took place in Montevideo. Several well-known journalists participated telling their experiences, and kindly answering several questions. The main topics covered were related to behavior in the workplace, professional commitment, credibility, and honesty when performing.

There were also two visits scheduled for that seminar; the first one to 10TV Station headquarters in Montevideo and the second one to the industrial plant that produces and processes EL PAIS newspaper. EL PAIS is the most circulated newspaper in the country.

The second seminar was held in Nueva Helvecia. There, the participants met Iscar Blanco, Multimedia Managing Editor in Voice of America. Blanco provided the correspondents with a 2-day full training about journalism and its relation to the Internet.

The next encounter was again in the capital.  This time, the learners had the unique opportunity to meet special envoys of President Obama such as Hannah Rosenthal, head of the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism and William Owen, Politic, Economic and Commercial advisor who spoke about the importance of journalism and public opinion as well.

Aside from this, they met Uruguayans politicians. The vice-president, Danilo Astori, was one of them. He gave a talk to the youth Correspondents and answered some of the questions they had. As a matter of fact, those questions were linked to three of the most relevant topics the country deals with: education, security and health. Besides, the students were received by two of the Uruguay former presidents; Luis Alberto Lacalle and Julio María Sanguinetti.  

The last seminar was in Punta Del Este. The focus of this course was on photography and strategic writing. 

The program winners were announced the 10^TH of August during a social event at the ambassador residency. Casually, the winners were four girls who represented the provinces of Cerro Largo (Manuela García), Rocha (Cynthia Rocha), Paysandú (Georgina Kluver) and Colonia (Helen Bernatzky).

The candidate’s prize was a trip to the United States, where they visited different media outlets such as Voice of America, The Washington Post and the Foreign Press Center as well. They also met the under secretary of State, Tara Sonenshine, who was in financial terms, the main piece to make all of these, possible.

Helen Bernatzky

Youth Correspondent by the U.S. Embassy.