Hitting 100 - now 106! - student stories published in media outlets is a big cause for celebration

April 21, 2025

By Brie Zeltner

Youthcast Media Group®

Like many journalists, I’m not a big fan of numbers– I’m a word person. But some numbers are so friendly, round and exciting that they make even us math-challenged writers want to shout from the rooftops. 100 stories published by YMG student journalists! See, exciting right? 

YMG celebrates 100 student stories being published in media outlets nationwide!

That impressive number– reached technically in January (we’re now at 106!)-- translates to 130 YMG students who have had a byline on a published story. Those stories have been published in 33 outlets, including USA Today, the Miami Herald, MindSite News, the National Association of Black Journalists’ Black News & Views, and many others. 

And, because many of our intrepid student journalists like working with us so much that they come back for more, our total number of student bylines is even higher– at 222! Our three college interns alone– Hermes Falcon, Sarah Gandluri, and Angely Pena-Agramonte, all who started in our writing workshops in high school, have between them 19 published stories. Their resumes as they head out into the working world over the next couple of years are impressive indeed.

Our goal has always been to treat our students like working professionals. We teach them the skills they need to create journalism– whether it’s stories or social media posts– and we pay them for that work. It’s what sets us apart from just about any other high school journalism training program out there. The money they earn helps them see the value of their work and offsets money they may have to forgo from other jobs they’d usually be doing during our classes.

The money motivates, without a doubt. But it’s the bylines, seeing their names under the banner of something more than only their school newspaper, that ignites their pride. They share, they crow, they revel. And I do, along with them. 

Members of the Spring 2025 feature writing workshop hail from Philadelphia, Chicago, DC, Texas and New York.

As I write this, a group of 12 students from across the country is finishing their last week of our spring workshop, and will soon have finished three stories on the inequities in access to youth sports and exercise in their communities. Those stories, along with another awaiting publication next month by a new outlet in Philadelphia, will soon bring us up to 110 student stories published.

Another 11 students in Hartford last week created dozens of social media posts about distracted driving and child safety as part of our collaboration with career prep non-profit ReadyCT.  

So stay tuned for even more milestones this year, including our first annual report set to release in May. And three cheers for our students, who are second to none.