Published: July 02, 2009 12:08 am      

Scholars visit Ashland

GSP participants at MSU receive a mini lesson in print media

A group of rising seniors walked through a large room dominated by a metal printing press strung with spools of paper on Tuesday. Red and black ink dripped from canisters on the scaffolding around the press.

The group was from the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program at Morehead State University. The students are participating in a general studies class called “Ink in Your Veins.” They’ll create an online newspaper covering the GSP program at MSU.

This is the second week of the five-week program.

Brittany Adkins, 17, a junior at Elliott County High School in Sandy Hook, said she came to GSP because she’s shy and several family members told her it would be a good way to overcome that.

“It’s been, like, hard,” she said. “But where I’m so close to Morehead, it’s been like home.”

She said she knows she’s not the only student out of her element, which eased the transition to GSP.

Students at GSP have a focus area of study. There are 19 offered focus areas, said Charles Myers, director of GSP at MSU. Students also participate in a general studies class and a seminar class led by resident advisers.

General studies classes are designed by teachers to explore a unique topic and let scholars learn along with faculty members, Myers said.

Drake DeHoff, 17, a junior at Russell High School, is studying engineering as his focus area.

He said classes at GSP are different because there’s no set curriculum and students get to study topics not normally taught in school. In his engineering class, he’s building designs out of toothpicks.

Class members visited the Independent office on Tuesday to learn about the basics of their new roles as newspaper writers and photographers, said Michael Feebach, a Scott County High School teacher who teaches “Ink in Your Veins” and astronomy at GSP.

Feebach said he created the class because he had worked as the sports editor for a small daily newspaper in Madison, Ind., before teaching.

He wanted to expose his students to something different, Feebach said. Most of the students in his class have never worked for their high school newspapers.

Adkins’ focus area is visual arts and she said work on a newspaper was different for her.

“It’s been interesting because my school doesn’t have a newspaper,” she said.

Adkins will be a photographer on the newspaper staff.

DeHoff said the class looked at microfilm of old newspapers and talked about how newspapers had changed over time.

“I’m not, like, a big writer, but it’s pretty interesting,” he said.

Nealy Williams, 17, a junior at Bryan Station High School in Lexington, said she liked the “Ink in Your Veins” class because it’s a different form of expression from her focus area of political and legal issues.

She said she learned about the steps that go into producing a newspaper during the field trip.

“The process to get on paper was a lot longer than I imagined,” she said.

KATIE BRANDENBURG can be reached at kbrandenburg@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2657.