The Young Journalists Program is an initiative of T. T. Hardy Online News Corporation., a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization.
Our Mission
To nurture intellectual curiosity and instill a lifelong love of writing by mentoring these students in the creation of their very own published bylines.
Our Values
We want to give 4th and 5th grade students the tools they need to become intellectual writers and remarkable readers. We believe all our students are bright and gifted, entitled to opportunities to live up to their potential.
Learning Objective
The Young Journalists Program strongly believes that without curiosity there is no journalism. Our students become Journalists by writing their own articles for publication. In the process we teach the “tools” of journalism: email, online research, copying and pasting in Word, citing sources, downloading publishable images and most importantly conceptualizing and planning how the research will become a published article.
We read biographies of such journalists as Walter Lippman, E.B. White, Thomas Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson to inspire the Young Journalists, demonstrate journalism’s many styles and build a rich and expansive vocabulary to enrich their own writing.
Our History
In 2018, T. T. Hardy Online News Corporation., a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, decided to launch The Young Journalist program.
The program began at a single school with 18 students and we are expanding to 6 schools and about 40 students come January 5th.
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ Florida) paid for a visit from their representative Wesley Wright to travel from Tallahassee to observe a Young Authors class in the Spring of 2019. According to Mr. Wright, “We’ve never seen anything like it.” Here is a link to his report.
https://sizingupthesouth.com/2019/03/20/how-to-give-kids-a-free-hit-of-journalism/
Our founder, Thomas Hardy, is a part of a long line of successful, hardworking men. His great grandfather, Rodney Joel Hardy was a much -admired Arlington, MA businessman and community leader. He is the founder of The Hardy Elementary School. It was built on the site of the former home of Rodney Joel Hardy in 1925.
The inscription placed on the original façade so long ago still guides the work of all who enter: “To a Child the Deepest Reverence is Due,” and “Here we train hand, mind, and heart, for the common good.”
The Hardy School community has made a commitment not only to academic excellence, but also to the social and emotional well-being of our students. The Hardy community lives by being “Caring, Conscientious and Confident.” The community’s basic assumption is that all students and adults that work at Hardy are “intelligent, are capable, care about doing their best and want to improve.”
Accomplishments
The Dean of Liberal Arts at Indian River State College recognized the Program in 2019.
We are thrilled to have become partners with the Environmentalist Learning Center, The Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation and The First Amendment Museum, Augusta, ME.
A major highlight of the Program was when the Young Journalist’ received their very own copies of The Elements of Style. As American poet, Dorothy Parker said:
“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style.”
The Young Journalist 