Instructor: Evelyn Lauer

Participants of this workshop will gain essential skills to lead their media programs at their schools, including yearbook, newspaper, broadcasting, literary magazines, and online platforms. Instruction will be centered on the many hats student leaders need to wear:  teambuilder, communicator, collaborator, mediator, mentor, manager, planner, creator, curator, designer. In addition, we will discuss the importance of maintaining self care and collecting feedback to ensure continuous improvement. 

Activities will focus on discussion, roleplays, writing and teambuilding exercises, as well as field trips to downtown Iowa City and across campus. In addition, students will engage in collaborative projects with other workshops. All student leaders will create a personalized plan that they can implement next school year with their staff. This workshop is intended for editors or other student media leaders. 

Evelyn Lauer teaches English and digital storytelling at Niles West High School in Skokie, IL. She is the founding adviser of Niles West News and currently serves as a mentor for the Journalism Education Association. Her personal essays, short stories, and poems have appeared in Huffington Post, Ghost City Press, Flash Fiction Magazine, Sentence, Denver Syntax, Education Week, and elsewhere. She also hosts a counseling and career podcast called Beyond the Bell. She received a B.A. in journalism and English as well as an M.A.T. in secondary education from the University of Iowa. She also holds an MFA in creative writing from Texas State University and is currently a graduate student in counseling at Northeastern Illinois University. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to teach in Iowa City again this summer!