IHSPA Insider

By Denise Green

Greenwood Community High School Adviser

The cabinet above and to the right of my computer is filled with notebooks – 36 years of notebooks containing great ideas I’ve gleaned from national conventions, state conventions, various workshops, Zoom meetings, and casual lunches with journalism friends.

I have so many ideas, but no time to implement them.

Until now.

Whether I agree or disagree with the latest legislation regarding high school diplomas, I am forced to embrace whatever is pushed on us by people who have never taught. However, that’s another topic for another article that really does not need to be written.

This latest legislative brain child can be molded to help my journalism program and other programs within our school.

Students who want to earn Honors Plus seal recognition must complete a laundry list of coursework and test scores, but they also have to bank at least 75 hours of work-based learning per semester. On the surface, that seems to mean these high-ranking, stressed-out academic students who are already pushing themselves have to add 75 hours of internships to their lives. Nonetheless, these internships do not have to be traditional ones out in the community. Can you imagine how many businesses in Johnson County would have to take on numerous interns to handle Greenwood, Franklin, Indian Creek, and Center Grove? Insane.

But, what if students could serve as interns with the school as an option? That’s exactly what we are doing. Programs like theater, athletics, the IMC, and journalism are taking on 2-4 interns, and each intern is tackling a project beyond anything they would do in a class to meet their 75 hours for the Honors Plus seal. Honestly, I do not think the seal is necessarily the driving force, and students who are not pursuing the Honors diploma at all can apply for an internal internship. Of my four interns, I think all of them are using this internship to fill an hour or more of their day that would otherwise be spent in a study hall or elective class they really do not want to take. Plus, they love journalism.

Let’s get down to bare bones. How does this work?

First, students had to apply for the internships, and a WBL coordinator from our Business Department participated in the internship interviews. She is a key factor in this situation because she is our connection to the Department of Education and has to meet with the interns periodically to check their paperwork, their time logs, and their progress. Her license allows her to be our intern hub across all programs and departments. In fact, our WBL coordinator will be speaking about these internships at our Adviser Weekend in August, so if you have questions, you’ll have the perfect person to ask if you attend.

Secondly, my four students worked with me to generate project ideas. Two have decided to resurrect our quarterly magazine. Another would like to explore the history of Johnson County with intensive research followed by creating a website that links our newspaper website with the Old Town Greenwood website. The fourth intern wants to organize elementary and middle school journalism workshops to pique interest before students reach high school.

Finally, we had to have the “big talk.” The time spent in the journalism area that is intended for internship work has to be used for that. This period, whenever it occurs during the school day, is not a study hall, an extension of their staff periods, a naptime, or a play period. Of course, the application and interview already weeded out the students most at risk of misusing the experience opportunity. Plus, these interns are welcome to put in hours this summer, on the weekends, and after school to reach their 75 hour minimum per semester. They simply have to log their hours with activity details.

We still have so many details to work out, but here are some questions you might have:

Can students leave the building for internship purposes, such as Hailey meeting up with an Old Town Greenwood guide for a tour?

Absolutely.

Can interns change their projects once beginning?

Yes, as long as they discuss their rationale with the WBL coordinator and me.

What happens if interns finish their projects before the end of the semester?

They begin new ones, and I get to put checkmarks next to additional ideas in a notebook unless, of course, they have their own project ideas.

Do interns get grades for those intern periods?

Yes, as determined by the WBL coordinator and myself with a rubric.

Am I exhausted by the various new, bright, shiny diploma requirements mandated over the past 36 years?

Absolutely. But, I’m pretty excited by the implications of this particular set.

If you have an idea for a blog on a journalistic topic, lesson, or experience you'd like to write about, would love to have you as a guest author one month. Submit your blog proposal here, and we will be in touch.

For 50 years, The Poynter Institute has supported journalists by striving to live up to its motto: "Journalism. Truth. Democracy." The website features a wide-range of resources for journalists of all levels. It's MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network is great resource for student journalist to learn about how to fact check and grow their media literacy. Poynter also touches upon such as as AI ethics in the newsroom as well as the basics of writing, reporting, leadership, etc.

Adviser: Denise Green

Greenwood Community High School is located just south of Indianapolis. People might know it for its nearby mall and its water park as well as its marching band and, possibly, its journalism program. The program has grown over the years to include three sections of Journalism 1, yearbook, newspaper and broadcast. Broadcast involves a daily show that incorporates the announcements and current events as well as news, feature, entertainment, and sports segments. Broadcast staff members create special segments for the school as well, such as an Honors Day video and freshman orientation video, and broadcast staff members create a weekly podcast. The newspaper has a monthly print edition but also publishes a web edition that is updated much more frequently. The newspaper staff also has a quarterly magazine. The yearbook publishes the annual but also handles the freshman orientation magazine.

GHS can offer hope for smaller schools with only one adviser handling all the publications as well as Journalism 1. Denise Green started with 12 kids in 1996 and taught mostly English classes. Now, she has more than 200 students involved in the program.

• February 27, 2026

• May 1, 2026

The Woodman (Yearbook)

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Submit the best of your student's work here. Every month we'd like to highlight great journalism from IHSPA journalists. We'd like to high light a variety of journalism, including print, yearbook, broadcast, writing, photojournalism, podcasts, etc. So, keep submitting your student's work throughout the year!