SEVEN high school students on Rota are enrolled in the CNMI Public School System’s only journalism course, taught by a former local news anchor.
Dr. Rita H. Inos Jr./Sr. High School has been offering the course as an elective for the past two years. Joycelyn Atalig, former news anchor at the Pacific News Center on Guam, teaches the course, hoping to expose her students to journalism as a career path. As a Rota native, Atalig said there is a lack of opportunities to enter the media industry on the island.
“It’s kind of a struggle here, but there are a lot of stories. There’s nobody reporting on anything that’s happening on Rota,” she said.
“It’s good to show [the students] a different career path, as opposed to the things that they would usually pursue coming from here on Rota… There are a lot of stories that my students are able to cover. The most recent — I think the one that I’m most proud of — is their election coverage.”
The high school held a forum for Rota political candidates and conducted a mock election. The students later compared their school’s mock election results with the actual general election results.
“I’m trying to get started…here,” Atalig said. “Online, I think, would be our best avenue. It’s kind of difficult for us because my students transition out every year, so I’m retraining and retraining,” she added.
The school also hosted a media forum spearheaded by the Northern Marianas Humanities Council. During the event, students had an opportunity to speak with CNMI-based journalists: Rota native and KUAM News regional correspondent Thomas Manglona II, Saipan Tribune associate editor Mark Rabago, and this reporter.
The Humanities Council’s Minagåhet – Ellet Project made its way to the CNMI’s southernmost island with the intent of raising awareness of the media’s functions that are important to the democratic process. It was the first time that the media forum was directed toward the younger generation, and held on Rota.
“I think it’s great exposure for the students because being on Rota, we don’t really have any personal attachment to [any media],” Atalig said.
She hopes her students will want to pursue journalism as a career.
Asked how PSS can better support the journalism course and potentially expand it to other schools, Atalig said, “I think the one thing that really helps is just the experience. Going out and reaching out to the media I think would be a good way of starting up a journalism class anywhere because you need the experience, you need to know [what] it is [like] to be in the newsroom and the kind of stories you need to develop. I think having people from the media come in and teach the class would be a really great opportunity.”
She added, “Having [the media] come down here [to Rota] is already opening doors for [the students], or at least opening their eyes to potential career paths that they probably never thought of before this [media forum].”
One of the journalism students, 16-year-old Abriette Manglona, said she has learned to be patient and factual, and how to be a better writer.
“Today’s presentation, I was really interested in,” she said. “When people come from off-island, a lot of the students don’t really pay attention, but in this presentation, I noticed a lot of the students were really engaged and they were really interested in what [the presenters] had to say,” she added.
She said students seemed to be especially interested in the story of their fellow Rotanese, KUAM News Regional Correspondent Thomas Manglona II.
“I think they’re just really inspired by him, because coming from a small island, sometimes the stigma of not being able to go out there and see what the U.S. has to offer kind of just puts us down. We think that the island is all we have, but him coming here and sharing his story, I think it’s going to spark a lot of their interest, encourage them to go out and explore more, and to just get to explore the world because we’re still young,” she said.
Dr. Rita H. Inos Jr./Sr. High School journalism students and their instructor, Jocelyn Atalig, pose for a photo with Northern Marianas Humanities Council program coordinator Naomi Tudela, local radio personality Catherine Perry, KUAM News regional correspondent Thomas Manglona II, Saipan Tribune associate editor Mark Rabago, and Variety’s K-Andrea Limol.
Rota native and KUAM News regional correspondent Thomas Manglona II gives a presentation on media ethics to journalism students, juniors, and seniors at Dr. Rita H. Inos Jr./Sr. High School.
