By Yvonne Dennis (246)
It’s that time of the year when Central seniors are choosing their colleges–and trying to secure the means to pay for that higher education.
One of those seniors, Kristian Rhim, will be heading off to Springfield College in Massachusetts this fall with a lot of guidance and a few extra dollars from some of Philadelphia’s best newspaper journalists.
Last week Kris (276) won a $1,000 scholarship as the top performer in this year’s Acel Moore High School Journalism Workshop, a four-weekend program in February hosted by the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News and philly.com.
“They spoke to us about how to become a better journalist,” Kris said of the program named for the late Pulitzer Prize winning Inquirer columnist. “They had a lot of writing coaches there to help us improve.”
Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Former Inquirer editor William Marimow, recently promoted to Philadelphia Media News editor-at-large and vice president, were among those imparting wisdom.
Despite having to miss some of the training time to dash off to indoor-track compettion with his Central teammates, Kris stood out to the facilitators of the workshop with his drive and demeanor. In addition to the scholarhip, Kris was rewarded with having his final product appear in the April 2 Sunday Inquirer for all its 300,000 or so readers to see.
“It was crazy,” Kris said of seeing the article in the newspaper. He got four copies and of course told friends and family to get copies.
Kris’ mom, Donna Rhim, is proud of Kris’ growth the in last four years.
“He had a tough transition into Central and I encouraged him to keep trying,” Donna Rhim said. “That can be a daunting task sometimes for teenagers, because it’s easier to give up.
“Over time, he was the one who created his ideas and has developed a really interesting voice about issues,” Mr. McElhenney said. “I think he has done an excellent job, taken the inititive week to week, following through.”
This summer, for the fifth time, Kris will serve as a counselor at two youth camps that he attending when he was a kid. “It’s fun seeing different kids all the time,” he says of the experience, and, “It teaches you patience.”
Then, it’s off to Springfield, a college he chose because he can major in communications/sports journalism and because of the track coach’s outreach to him.
“The only problem is I hate the cold, but it’s ok.”
