During long ago chapters when digging as education columnist with a Toronto daily newspaper, I held a low opinion of schoolteachers. Turned off by the New Democratic Party's stranglehold on public education, I pegged teachers as political agents. Too many strikes against the big bad province of the day with teachers turned out on the picket lines in Gucci raincoats made a cynic of this education reporter.
Now that I spend my days working with Julia Rufo, Michelle Runch and John Kendrick, it is a refreshing lesson for me. Julia and John are co-op students from Humberside Collegiate Institute. Michelle hails from Bishop Romero School. All three are living proof that things have changed for the better since my days as roving education reporter.
Julia, who finished her co-op back in the winter, continues to work for Toronto Free Press as a part-timer. The office would be a less professional place without her. Michelle and John complete their program sometime the middle of this month.
It was a red-letter day when Julia was accepted for journalism studies at Ryerson and when Michelle was accepted at Carlton with a $2,000 scholarship. John, who is one year younger, must wait to complete high school before applying next year.
Full of life and bursting with ideas, the trio keeps the office young. During their months here at the paper, they have proved themselves to be independent thinkers rather than just parroting the ideals of their high school teachers and peers.
Antonietta Camuti of Humberside Collegiate Institute and Lucy Mandrello of Bishop Romero are teachers who inspire their students, encouraging them that they can and should follow their dreams.
The self-deprecating Julia, who boasts Italian parentage, never takes herself too seriously. Holding down two part-time jobs, she maintains top marks at school. Julia's writing is as good as or better than the work of writers with many years more experience on the job.
Michelle, who has the courage to take topics as complex as euthanasia in her essays, fought to do her co-op at TFP, informing her teacher, who encouraged her, that nothing else would do.
Both her Mom and her editor were proud of Michelle when she stood in a lineup at Ryerson demanding to know why they had rejected her portfolio for admittance. The portfolio, sent by courier seems to have gone missing, and at press time the issue was still to be resolved.
Eager to learn and a pleasure to work with, John has a wry sense of humour not lost on anybody in the Elm Street office. A keen researcher and afficiando of finding the right information right on deadline, no matter how arcane the subject, John handles his written assignments with ease.
Both individually and collectively, the trio of students has had their humourous moments during the learning curve.
In the immediate aftermath following one of TFP's more difficult chapters when an advertising manager sent by a disgruntled politician was creating havoc, the private investigators with columnist Bill Joynt's Investigator's Group had to be called on for help.
A day or so later, Julia, innocent newcomer to the scene, was making a routine call to Joynt for his column. Not knowing about the high suspicion level from not so long ago strange telephone calls, Julia forgot to identify herself and got the third degree from the somewhat nettled P.I., who later said he was thinking, "Not again!" The following day I wondered why she paled when I flippantly asked her to call Joynt on a small domestic matter.
The reporter's cardinal rule of identifying oneself came by crash course in this instance.
Michelle has a curious penchant for running into protests and finding herself surrounded by protesters when scurrying to and from the office. Sounds from the street signaling protests find us running to the office windows to see if we can spot Michelle.
But perhaps it is John who holds the record for witnessing firsthand the editor putting the proverbial foot in her mouth. Spotting some graphic material from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) on my desk, I mused aloud during a quiet moment, "Those vegans are all turkeys".
"I'm a vegan," said John without missing a beat.
While John refrains from eating meat, he believes people have the right to do so and he's quick to explain that he's no animal rights activist.
Learning about the newspaper industry in this sometimes-frenzied office doesn't come without stress.
There for the tail end of misadventured with the bogus advertising manager a year ago, the co-opers were unfazed by the one that just (we think) ended.
While intrigues played out around them, Julia, Michelle and John kept performing their duties with aplomb.
Someday we will be reading the bylines of excellent journalists Julia Rufo, Michelle Runch and John Kendrick.
No matter where they go, a part of us will always be with them.
Of all the things accomplished by Toronto Free Press in its 11th year in business, helping our co-op students make it to journalism school is the thing of which we are proudest.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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