Lookout’s 2025-2026 school year round up

Hello everyone, 

It’s hard to believe that we’re already at the last Educator Newsletter of the school year. At this time, I’d like to share some of Lookout’s educational highlights and projects from the past school year. 

Thank you to all of you who’ve read my newsletter each week or just checked in every now and then. I’ve had a wonderful introduction to Santa Cruz County’s hardworking educators from being an intern at Lookout, and I look forward to continuing to work with you all next year as well. 

I wish you a restful, relaxing, and enjoyable summer. Stay connected with the news, and feel free to reach out to Jamie Garfield at jamie@lookoutlocal.com if you have advice, ideas or would like to schedule classroom visits for the next school year.

Journalism Scholarship

Our journalism scholarship once again broke the previous year’s submissions record, with 130 in total and all across the county! In a whirlwind week or two, we read through all of them and recognized 10 students whose stories stood out and were published on our site for their excellence. The top three student writers each got a $500 scholarship for their impressive work and were rewarded at the Your Future Is Our Business luncheon, pictured above. 

With the prompt for this scholarship, students were invited to profile an unsung hero in their community, and their responses exhibited not just good writing but empathy, curiosity and civic engagement as well. 

At Lookout, we believe that the future of local journalism depends on young people who know how to listen and tell these kinds of hidden stories. Thank you to all the students who worked hard to submit and thank you to you educators who helped them along the way! 

You can read about our reflections and celebrations of these students in the following articles: 

P.S. Submissions for next school year open November 2026!

Classroom Visits

This school year we once again visited classrooms around the county, dropping into 20 classes and engaging with around 500 students in person. We led workshops on journalism, storytelling and career panels to speak to students about different careers in journalism. 

We also got to do some new visits, including one focused on the role of the media in elections, where we talked to a high school government class about journalism’s importance to democracy and providing credible information about politics to the public. We did our first visit to a middle school classroom as well, where we talked to a seventh grade science class about science communication, accompanied by our science communication intern, Cassidy Beach. 

These visits helped students to identify credible, effective storytelling, understand the journalistic process and connect local journalism to larger themes of empathy, connectivity and accountability. We found many students walking away from these experiences feeling empowered to engage more with their community and with journalism themselves. 

One student reflected how the visit helped illustrate how information can “[lay] a foundation for a community to create change.” 

A 10th grade student at Harbor High said, “After this visit, I want to pay more attention to local politics so I can vote informed,” and another wants to “pay more attention to the news and learn more about what’s happening in the community.”

A seventh grader at Mission Hill Middle reflected, “I learned that no matter how young or old you are, it’s never too late or early to help your community and take part in saving our coast.” 

A special thank you to those teachers who opened up their classrooms to us, and don’t forget to schedule your class visit for next school year!

Lookout for Teachers 

Since October 2022, Lookout’s classroom initiative, Lookout in the Classroom, has allowed students and teachers in Santa Cruz County to incorporate local news into their learning at school. 

This year, thanks to Changemaker Members and donors, we were able to start a new teacher-forward initiative, Lookout for Teachers, which saw 450 sign-ups from Santa Cruz County middle and high school teachers at no cost to them. This project offers free, unlimited access to the fact-based local journalism of Lookout Santa Cruz AND curated classroom resources. 

Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here to receive Educator Newsletter in your inbox every week.

There are still free Lookout memberships available through our Lookout for Teachers program! Sign up here.

A warm welcome to anyone who recently joined!

Student Stories

This year, Lookout continued with our initiative to amplify student voices with Student Stories, publishing 17 new student contributions throughout the school year. Here, students can post their opinion stories, promote an event, club or play they have been working on, or creative writing projects. 

Here are a few examples of inspiring student stories:  

Educator Page

Lookout’s Educator page was created for high school teachers to easily use local current events in their classrooms, with the intention of students feeling more informed about and connected to their town and community. Visit the Educator Page and make sure to check out our media literacy lesson plan. 

Education Fellowship

I, Ava Salinas (pictured above left), was given the opportunity to be Lookout’s education fellow this school year through UC Santa Cruz’s Humanities Institute EXCEL Program. As a college sophomore majoring in literature, I’ve enjoyed working at the intersection of journalism, education and communications through crafting weekly educator newsletters, helping to coordinate Lookout’s journalism scholarship, facilitating class visits and more. I look forward to joining Lookout again next year as a Year 2 fellow!

Lookout in the Classroom is proudly supported by: 

the logo for KAZU 90.3 FM
Credit: KAZU