Four years ago, I sat down with educators at Diamond Technology Institute in Watsonville to discuss a simple idea: What if students learned about civics, community and critical thinking by engaging directly with the local news unfolding around them?
With support from Santa Cruz Community Credit Union, we launched a small demonstration project that gave Diamond Tech students and teachers full access to Lookout Santa Cruz. Almost immediately, teachers began using our reporting in several classes. That spring, my colleagues and I worked directly with Diamond Tech juniors in Ian Licata’s humanities class, side by side with students who were eager to tell real stories about their community.
Together, we created the very first version of what is now our Journalism Scholarship. Students interviewed Watsonville residents and produced their own take on Unsung Santa Cruz – proof that young people don’t just consume journalism, they can create it, question it and use it to better understand the world around them.
That experience set the stage for Lookout in the Classroom, which officially launched countywide in October 2022. Since then, more than 9,000 students and 250 teachers across Santa Cruz County have engaged with local journalism in their classrooms. What began as a local experiment has grown into a model now drawing national attention from educators and nonprofit newsrooms looking to strengthen civic learning through local news.
Today, I’m proud to introduce the next chapter: Lookout for Teachers, giving local middle and high school educators free, unlimited access to Lookout Santa Cruz’s independent, fact-based local journalism. Beyond full access to our reporting, teachers receive a weekly stream of curated current events paired with classroom-ready resources — quizzes, lesson guides, discussion prompts and media literacy activities aligned to real curricula.
Thanks to our donors and Changemaker Members, we are now able to provide free memberships for 450 middle school and high school teachers this year. Sign-ups are first come, first served, so if you are a secondary teacher, or you know someone who is, sign up now!
Teachers see the value firsthand:
“I think it’s incredibly valuable to offer students access to credible local news.”
— Michael Polhamus, Santa Cruz High
“I share Lookout news with students as a hook to make our curriculum relevant to local current events.”
— Sara Webb, Watsonville High
You can help sustain this work:
- Teachers sign up: Secondary educators can sign up for free here.
- Donate to support this program: Every $160 funds one annual teacher membership.
- Become a Changemaker member: Each Changemaker membership provides one additional free teacher membership.
- Already a member and want to upgrade to support our local teachers? Email us at membership@lookoutlocal.com.
Our goal is simple and ambitious: to make a meaningful difference in the lives of Santa Cruz’s young people — future voters, leaders, and decision-makers. Through Lookout in the Classroom and Lookout for Teachers, we provide teachers and students with a steady stream of trustworthy local journalism and the tools to navigate information in a world dominated by social media, noise and misinformation.
It’s old-fashioned civics — built for the digital age — and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’re building together.