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Students work together to create a newspaper in Young AmeriTowne
Young Americans Center for Financial Education is all about hands-on real-life learning. In the Young AmeriTowne Newspaper shops in Denver and Belmar, long-time partner The Denver Post ensures this learning is as real as it can get!
Students working at the Newspaper they create a four-page paper every day. The Editor works with the Ad Agents to design the layout of the paper and the Reporters capture information and pictures about the day’s top news stories. The Typists help the Reporters translate their notes into articles. Finally, the Editor combs through each story and fixes any mistakes so that it’s ready for printing and selling.
Last fall, when eight-year-old Finely worked in the AmeriTowne Newspaper, she had the time of her life! She liked how everyone in her shop worked together to create and sell a newspaper, something she noticed that other shops had to do, too. In addition to learning how a newspaper actually comes together, Finely discovered that keeping track of the newspaper price was essential to providing good customer service. The best part? “It’s really fun to be an adult and do adult things when you’re still a kid,” she said.
In addition to supporting the financial literacy programs of Young Americans Center, The Denver Post has many other resources for teachers and youth to help them experience journalism in a hands-on way. For example, at ColoradoNIE.com, teachers can sign-up to receive a free classroom eEdition of the paper, and students can apply to be a Colorado Kids Reporter. This group of journalists, all under the age of 14, publish stories in the paper every week, and they work with real Denver Post staff members to improve their writing and reporting skills.
The Denver Post’s support of Young Americans Center has spanned nearly two decades and reached more than 400,000 young people. This shared commitment to real-life learning experiences creates a valuable and memorable AmeriTowne program.
