Communications High School students Ava Majeski and Sloan Dougherty got a taste of municipal council meetings as an assignment from their journalism foundation instructor recently, and learned it isn’t necessarily all business at local meeting. Meetings are both interesting and fun, they agreed. Journalists
Communication High School, one of the schools in the Monmouth County Vocational School district, is the only high school in the state dedicated exclusively to communication and media arts.
Located in Wall Township, the high school offers a rigorous academic curriculum at the honors level, focusing intensively on journalism, film, publishing, commercial art, computer programming, TV broadcasting, and audio production.
In addition to fostering partnerships with community and industry experts, the school’s aim is to prepare students not for college but also to thrive in their future careers. Towards this end, hands-on learning with industry-standard tools and experiences give students experiences and portfolios that distinguish them in this rapidly changing industry.
Majeski a freshman student from Holmdel, and Dougherty, a freshman from Atlantic Highlands, were assigned by Journalism Foundation instructor Wayne Woolley to ‘cover’ the meeting as part of their overall program which also includes slide presentations, classwork, newspaper updates and video presentations.
Both students read the New York Times, primarily on line, as well as Inkblot, the school’s student-produced publication, which appears both in print and digital and covers activities, events, and opinions at the school.
Mayor Lori Hohenleitner welcomed the students to the meeting, and the young women, seated in the front row, followed the agenda from the opening Call to order and Silent reflection and Pledge to the flag, to the rousing chorus of ‘The Rattlin’ Bog” sung by the elected officials honoring Irish American Month on the Feast of St. Patrick.
Majesti said this is the first municipal meeting she has attended and found it interesting; Dougherty, whose father is Council president Brian Dougherty, has been to other council meetings in Atlantic Highlands and also indicated it was interesting. Both also noted newspapers in print are decreasing in numbers and being replaced by the more easily accessible virtual media.
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