Earlier this month TROY‘s Hall School of Journalism celebrated 50 years of teaching college students, but on Thursday the school was looking to the future, sharing knowledge with a younger group of students at the annual J-Day.

Over 300 high school students visited Troy University’s campus for the Hall School of Journalism and Communication’s J-Day where students got the opportunity to get hands-on experience in the news business and learn more about all the different fields of journalism.

“I think a lot of times students don’t quite understand what journalism is,” says Hall School Lecturer Dr. Robbyn Taylor. “They may hear politicians talk about the media or just people talk about the media as a whole or these students may like to take photos or may like to write stories and not understand that the things that they’re doing are forms of journalism. So for them to be able to come in and learn about what journalism is and the different types of journalism there are, we hope that it gives them a glimpse into the industry and helps us build future journalists.”

Students attended different workshops throughout the day from storytelling to yearbook design. They got to experience what a career in journalism looks like some of the workshops were even taught by Troy University HSJC alums.

“One of the interesting things about J-Day is a lot of the workshops are taught by our alumni who are working professionals,” says Taylor. “So that’s a neat concept too for these students to be able to come in and not just hear from professors but hear from people who actually went through our program and now are working as journalists or who have worked as journalists and see that ‘Hey, if I come to TROY, I could be doing these things too. I could be on television. My name could be in the paper and that’s something that’s realistic for me if I want it.’ “

For the full story watch Claudia’s report.