Level Up: Leadership for Student Media Teacher, C.E. Sikkenga having a one on one conference with a group of students.
Level Up: Leadership for Student Media is a class that has made a return after a long time off for this year’s MIPA journalism workshop.
This noteworthy class has been headed by C.E. Sikkenga, the instructor for the returning workshop.
Sikkenga gives insight on how and why this class came back to the list of choices for this year’s journalism workshop.
“Prior to the pandemic we had a newspaper editor’s class… that kind of died off with the pandemic when we went digital.” Sikkenga said. “Last year was our first time back in person and it was kind of a limited menu.”
To teach others how to be leaders you have to give them ideas on how to manage a team. Sikkenga gives information about what he has his class of students do.
“Their project is to do a mini-manual, for your staff what are the five things you’re going to focus on? And how are you going to do that? Because every staff is different, so some want to work on photography because that’s a weakness, some want to work on communication and staff morale.” Sikkenga said.
When asked about what traits make a good leader Sikkenga gives this response.
“We spent a lot of time yesterday [Monday] on what defines effective leadership and we read some articles. I was telling them that it’s better to be loved than feared, but it’s good to be a little bit feared.” Sikkenga said. “I’d think this sounds super simple but it’s [A leader] somebody who can get their staff to put out the best publication possible and to bring out the best in individuals.”