The upcoming generation of Monticello High School journalists got a chance to meet their grandparents' generation up close and personal as students photographed and interviewed local seniors for the Leadership Charlottesville-sponsored publication "Voices Through Time."
The collection of remembrances, as told to students, will be published later this month.
The assignments gave the post-hip-hop generation a close look at folks who pre-date Elvis.
"I've never interviewed anyone before this project and the first person I interviewed was the former principal of [Charlottesville High School], so I was a little intimidated," said Claudia Elzey, 15, a freshman. "The only older person I know, really, is my grandfather and he lives in Germany. They weren't as condescending as I thought they'd be."
In fact, Ms. Elzey found her elders amiable.
"They were easy to talk with and quite interesting," she said. "The hardest part was getting through writing all the interviews. I was afraid I'd portray them in ways they didn't want to be portrayed."
Let them run the show
Andrea Trank, who advises the Monticello High School newsmagazine "Hoof Prints" and teaches journalism at the school, recruited the students and then let them loose.
"We found a small group of kids who were interested and really took the project on as their own," she said. "They arranged and conducted their own interviews, wrote their stories, arranged photographs and are doing their own pagination and layout. They've really put a lot of effort into it and I'm proud of them."
The students are telling the stories in a variety of ways, from photo essays to poetry, prose and straightforward news writing. Mrs. Trank said the task was worth it.
"I think the kids got a sense of history and found that the elderly are not so different," she said. "They're people with experiences and stories worth telling. They've done a lot in their lives. I think the kids discovered they're just not people who are old; they're people who have lived."
They're also people with something to teach.
'They're good people'
"I interviewed a group at Spudnuts [doughnut shop] in Belmont and, at first, I just went to hear what they talked about, but they were really interesting," said Hadley Gregory, 16, a sophomore. "Then they taught me the proper way to eat a Spudnut: You lick off the chocolate layer and peel off the top, because after you lick it, it's soggy. Then you eat the rest of the Spudnut. They were a lot of fun."
Ms. Gregory, who grew up in California and often pines for the Golden State, said she found older Virginians to be good people.
"It made me realize how down to Earth people are in Virginia," she said. "They're good people and they enjoy life."
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