About journalismSTL

To educate and support advisers and their students as they endeavor to innovate the coverage of the daily events and people who shape their communities.

We serve students

One of our main missions is to serve the journalism students in the St. Louis area by hosting a journalism conference every spring, usually at a local university. This conference brings local journalism students together for sessions with local media officials and teachers. We host an annual contest where yearbooks and newspapers are evaluated by out-of-state judges, and we give out thousands of dollars in scholarships for summer journalism workshops.

We serve advisers

The other aspect of our mission is to support journalism teachers and advisers in the St. Louis area, no matter what their level of experience. Often teaching a publications class is a lonely and difficult job because no one else in the school teaches the same kind of class. We provide a place to meet with other advisers who share your interests and concerns. In addition, we support new advisers by matching them with a mentor if they wish to have one and by giving out adviser scholarships to summer journalism workshops or classes.

Our History

Formerly, Sponsors of School Publications, the organization has been in existence since the 1960s when a group of journalism teachers in the St. Louis area decided that teaching journalism was a somewhat lonely profession, since often only one or two teachers in each building taught that subject. They wanted an organization that would provide a means of support, camaraderie and professional enrichment geared specifically at the needs of journalism advisers. Some of the early leaders of the organization, such as H.L. Hall and Curtis Kenner, went on to become national leaders in scholastic journalism organizations and long fought for increased standards and the acceptance of student journalism as a recognized academic subject. In addition to providing support for advisers, journalismSTL prides itself on providing scholarship and learning opportunities for budding journalists. Currently, we provide summer workshop scholarships for both teachers and students, meetings and mentoring for advisers and a spring workshop for students. We want to provide support for EVERY teacher in the journalism classroom, so contact us for more information.

journalismSTL Executive Board