This teacher needs your help!

Ms. Shafer from Oakland, CA is requesting a classroom visitor through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

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Fully Funded

Ms. Shafer's classroom raised $24,768

Sustain a Successful Urban Scholastic Newspaper!

My students need the assistance of a professional journalist to publish an all-city scholastic newspaper.

Ms. Shafer Fremont High School

Oakland, CA Grades 9-12

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

I teach journalism to at-risk, inner-city students of color whose disadvantaged backgrounds often prevent them from achieving academic success. Journalism gives these students a voice and opportunities to increase their chances of attending college. It allows them to tell the stories of their lives, and to express their opinions about our society and their hopes for how they would like to change it. There is a strong connection between my students’ journalistic writing and college. For example, my school does not offer AP English, but journalism is a college-prep elective that gives my students an opportunity to demonstrate and cultivate similarly rigorous writing skills. Journalism offers students a chance to write personal narratives, op-ed columns and other reflective pieces; such stories often become personal essays that are used for college and scholarship applications.

While my students have the opportunity to take journalism and publish their writing, students at other district high schools do not. However, your donation will enable my students to continue work with other students to produce an all-city teen newspaper, called the Oaktown Teen Times. My students are capable editors and they have found a new challenge beyond publishing just their own newspaper and magazine. I would like to sustain the opportunity for my students to publish a citywide newspaper that gives voice to their peers and gives them an opportunity to exercise their skills and leadership. The all-city paper we produce is providing students who are immigrants, first-in-family to attend college and/or at academic risk with a chance to voice their opinions and see their work in print. Two of our writers are African American girls who contacted the paper because they did not have a school newspaper or adviser, but they wanted to study journalism in college. Stories by these girls (along with those of 10 other contributors) received national attention when they were selected for a national edition. If this project continues, these achievements likely will become common.

While I am personally enthusiastic about this project, I am also a full-time teacher and my schedule does not allow me to personally visit other high schools during the school day, much less teach and coach beginning writers. Your donations will enable me to continue to partner with a professional journalist and credentialed teacher to generate news content, lay out stories, and see through the stages of producing a professionally designed newspaper. She is knowledgeable about the type of students we have and their academic and social needs. She is also a journalist whose experience ranges from the San Francisco Chronicle to Newsweek, and she has worked with the California Scholastic Journalism Initiative, including a one-year project in which she tutored students at 10 of our district schools. She has good contacts within academic and professional journalism as well as within the district, plus experience in production. She provides the technical support that we have needed in order to publish regularly and widely. And because she is able to meet with students two days a week, she has the flexibility that I don’t have to meet with students during the school day, at lunch or after school.

Over the last decade, breaking up our city's big comprehensive high schools resulted in many academic benefits, but one subject suffered abysmally: Journalism. Newspaper classes were canceled, printing budgets were cut and schools found themselves without any outlet for student expression. A schoolwide paper is not a perk; it is an expression of students’ First Amendment rights and a rich and rewarding educational experience. Middle-class students take a school newspaper for granted. At schools like ours, it is a gift. Why shouldn’t every student have a chance at self-expression? Why not maintain a program that after one year is giving students a shot at national recognition, academic honors and scholarship funds? By funding this proposal, you will give inner-city students expert help, guidance, teaching and outreach to practice journalism, exercise their rights, and better themselves and their communities.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

Nearly all students from low‑income households

10000 students impacted 79 donors

Project tagged as

Oakland, CA
Grades 9-12
Literature & Writing
College & Career Prep
Community Service
Traditional School
Virtual Visitors
Nearly all students from low‑income households

Ms. Shafer Fremont High School Grades 9-12

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

Oakland, CA View local requests

Nearly all students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

10000 students impacted 79donors

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes

Visitor Total

Beatrice Motamedi, journalist and journalism educator (One semester of professional help to coach students, advise teachers and produce three issues of the 10,000-circulation, all-city scholastic newspaper, the Oaktown Teen Times.) $20,000.00

Visitor cost			$20,000.00
Vendor shipping charges			FREE
Sales tax			$0.00
3rd party payment processing fee			$300.00
Fulfillment labor & materials			$9.00
Total project cost			$20,309.00
Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms			$4,458.07
Total project goal			$24,767.07
How we calculate what's needed
Total project goal			$24,767.07
74 Donors			-$12,324.26
Donations toward project cost			-$10,154.50
Donations to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms			-$2,169.76
match offer			-$12,383.54
Match offer toward project cost			-$10,154.50
Match offer to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms			-$2,229.04
Excluded support for DonorsChoose			-$59.28
Still needed View calculation Hide calculation			$0.00

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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Project Activity

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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Shafer and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.

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Help teachers & students in your hometown this season! Use code HOME at checkout and your donation will be matched up to $100.

This teacher needs your help!

Sustain a Successful Urban Scholastic Newspaper!

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

Project tagged as

Boost your odds

Top rated for efficiency and transparency.

TEACHERS, FEELING INSPIRED?

Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes

How we calculate what's needed

Project Activity

Project Activity

DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

Help teachers & students in your hometown this season!
Use code HOME at checkout and your donation will be matched up to $100.