The summer program is intended for children from six to 16 who are residing in GSIS Heights Subdivision.
MindaNews, the organizer, launched the workshops in summer of 2006 with the GSIS Homeowners Association, Inc., to share skills with the youth in the community where the news organization is based. The MindaNews office is at Leo cor. Venus Sts.
For language, MindaNews is offering “Improving Grammar through Songs” for children from 6 to 8 years old and for ages 8 to10, “Developing Communicative Skills through Stories.”
Both workshops will be handled by Chiza A. Tampos, a licensed Grade school teacher from Bukidnon State University in Malaybalay City.
Tampos is doing a graduate thesis on developing instructional materials in teaching grammar to primary school pupils.
Her workshops run from 12 to 18 hours.
The program also has a 12-hour course on Basic News writing with MindaNews' reporter for Bukidnon and Central Mindanao Newswatch editor Walter I. Balane.
Balane was a lecturer in journalism at the Ateneo de Davao University in 2006 and is an incoming MA Journalism Fellow starting June 2009, at the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University.
At the end of the workshop, MindaNews will publish a laboratory newsletter, “The Village Voice,” from articles written by participants and photographs taken by them.
Photojournalist Jose Aurelio Lozano handles separate workshops on basic and advance photography. Both courses run for 12 hours each.
Lozano has a diploma in photojournalism also from the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Lozano expects participants to the workshop to mount a mini-exhibit of their works from their sessions.
Glory Pearl A. Dy, from the University of the Philippines – Mindanao, will handle digital story telling.
MindaNews also sought the assistance of individuals and institutions within GSIS subdivision, to help defray the cost of the workshop and lower the cost of fees. Among the sponsors are City Administrator Wendel Avisado, Councilor Mabel Sunga-Acosta, Dr. Marilyn O. Arguillas and the Initiatives for International Dialogue. (MindaNews)
