Charity Spotlight: Write On Sports

Not everyone realises that to write a really good piece of journalism is at least as demanding intellectually as the achievement of any scholar — Max Weber

There’s a renewed focus in education circles these days on getting children up to speed in science and math. While these are critical subjects that will undoubtedly help improve the economic competitiveness of future generations, it’s also important to teach kids proper writing and communications skills.

With that goal in mind, Write On Sports is a program that inspires young people to practice the art of sports journalism. It works with at-risk middle school students to improve their writing skills by tapping into their passion for sports. The concept is simple: Use sports as a hook to encourage middle school students to write.

The Heisman Trophy Trust is proud to be a supporter of this effort.

Write On Sports was founded in 2005 by D. Byron Yake, a former sports writer in Pittsburgh for the Associated Press and later sports editor and senior executive of the AP. Inspiration for the project arose from Yake’s interest in journalism and education and his desire to help students improve their writing skills.

Once enrolled in the program, students are taught the basic elements of good journalism and then use that newly-acquired knowledge to write stories and features about sports. Participants are introduced to professional journalists and athletes, who then become the subjects of their writing. They are taught how to blog, how to produce and edit videos and how to conduct interviews. In addition, they learn to think critically and revise and edit their stories until they are finished products.

The program, which has been completed by over 900 students to date, is tuition-free. But the skills and experience the students will take from it are priceless.

For more on Write On Sports, go to WriteOnSports.Org.  For information on 2016 summer camps, go here. To donate to the cause, click here.