Three Camp Orlando attendees get published

Three girls who attended the Camp Orlando summer workshop got a lot out of the Sports Writing and Advanced Photography classes – they got published in the Orlando Sentinel.

Alexandra Peterson and Stephanie De La Rosa of Robinson High School in Tampa, Fla., were among the 18 students in the Sports Writing class led by Rick Brunson, a professor at the University of Central Florida. One of the activities Brunson scheduled for the week was a news conference with Devin Washington, a senior defensive end at Jones High School in Orlando who will attend the University of South Carolina next year on a scholarship.

The stories that Peterson and De La Rosa turned in from the news conference led with the bullying Washington experienced in grade school. Brunson had them redraft the lead, then he combined their stories and pitched it to the Sentinel. A photo by Meredith McNulty of J.W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, Fla., who took the photo as part of the camp’s Advanced Photography class, was also submitted. With some bullying stats added by staff reporter Austin Lyon, the story appears today on the Sentinel website, and will appear tomorrow in printed newspaper.

Brunson said he seeks publication for the work of his university students, but this is the first time he has done it for students from Camp Orlando.