Media High   

While the morning announcements squawked over the P.A. at Fremont High in Oakland, California, the students in Steve O'Donoghue's newspaper class added their own buzz to the electric whine of the speakers. They were brainstorming for the next issue of the Green and Gold, the school's monthly newspaper.

Alexis Evans was kind of stressed that morning. "It gets to me a little. But I get the rush," she said. "If I don't put my all into it," the 17-year-old said, "it's not good enough."

This is Evans' second year as opinion editor of the 12-page paper. She is enrolled in Fremont High's Media Academy, one of 33 Oakland public high school academies that specialize in pre-professional training for students defined as "at risk." Journalism diversity proponents recognize the Media Academy's potential at a time when minority participation in journalism is still low. The Fremont High program, which is 100 percent nonwhite, is one of two in Oakland offering professional guidance in print, broadcast and online journalism.

It's partially an "anti-dropout program," explains O'Donoghue, the academy's codirector, who helped launch it in 1985. It is open to as many students as can fit in the class--normally about 170 each year--and it tries to encourage them to attend college. Students participating in the state academies had an 8.7 percent advantage in graduation rates over their nonenrolled counterparts, and academy enrollees were 11.6 percent more likely to attend college, according to a 1997 study by California State University.

The academy, O'Donoghue says, is a breeding ground for budding minority journalists. "The biggest pool of potential journalists of color are in inner cities. [But] that's where high school...programs are in the worst shape."

Schools may get some help from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation: It has committed at least $500,000, and up to $5 million, to start training high school teachers in journalism. Putting more Mr. O'Donoghues out there is the goal.

At Fremont's academy, O'Donoghue is certainly appreciated. "He's, like, my favorite teacher," says 12th grader Evans, adding that he inspires her to think about how "journalism can mold your way of thinking. I learn something new from him every day."