Overview

Time Frame: 2.5 or 3 hours. Longer time for more participants.
Suggested number of participants: 6-18
Materials needed: Blank thank you notecards [do I include worksheets here?]
Room Setup: tables of 4-6

You have interesting stories to share — stories that can help make the world a better place. And journalists can help you share your story, especially if you help them do their jobs. In this popular Boreas workshop, you’ll get to meet, conduct mock interviews with and learn from local reporters. Learn how to pitch stories and give a great interview.

Essential Questions

What is the value of a community and network for leadership?
Who is in your network? How are you connected to them? Why do you value these relationships?
What skills/competencies/perspectives are you interested in developing, and who can help you do so?
How do you keep connected and be of help to people in your community and network?

Workshop Outcomes

Facilitator Outcomes	Participants will be able to:
Introduce the perspective that a vibrant network and community is essential for developing as a leader, having impact, and making progress in one’s career. Clarify the idea that being generous in these relationships is important for transformational work.	Describe why relationships matter for leadership, careers, and impact and express understanding that generosity in relationships is helpful in this work.
Describe the process of drawing one’s network and give participants the opportunity to practice.	Visualize their own key relationships and networks and recognize important connections, missing links, and useful patterns.
Provide an overview of thinking through mentoring relationships starting from the perspective of skills/capacity development and have students work through a structure process from this perspective. Facilitate conversation about this process.	Articulate skills/capacities they would like to develop and identify potential people who could be mentors for developing these skills/capacities.
Facilitate conversation about strategies for following up on connections and maintaining relationships. Have students write a thank you note.	Discuss ways to keep vibrant network connections and use the tool of writing a thank you note.
Build a community in the room and demonstrate the idea that everyone has something to give through sharing activity.	Recognize that they have many things to offer others in their networks and community and practice doing so.
Debrief workshop and ask students to commit to an action to work on their community/network/mentoring relationships.	Propose an action step or two to improve network relationships.

Workshop Materials

Sample Agenda

1:30 – 2:00	Introductions & Icebreakers Your name, major, cultural background, experiences living in other cultures, etc. Why you’re interested in this session Intercultural Competence Icebreaker
2:00 – 2:30	Connecting the Dots of Your Cultural Background Values Exercise Salsa, Soul & Spirit Exercise
2:30– 2:40	Break
2:40-3:00	Presentation
3:00-3:50	Case Study: Why Diversity Can Lead to Better Ideas
4:10-4:30	Reflection & Integration Ask students to share what actions steps they will be taking.

Pre-Workshop Email
We recommend sending out the pre-workshop email one-week before and a short follow-up two days before the workshop. This workshop does not require any pre-work before the workshop, but you could include a link to a TED Talk to help prime students for the workshop experience.

Here’s an example:

Dear Workshop Participants:

Thank you for signing up for the Developing Intercultural Competence workshop. The workshop will take place in the [Learning and Environmental Sciences Building on the St. Paul campus] from [time-time] in [room] on [Date].

[Insert description of workshop].

There is no pre-work required for this workshop. You will need a pen. If you do have 18 minutes to spare, we recommend watching this TED Talk, “The danger of a single story” before the workshop.

We look forward to meeting with you soon,

[Your name]

Post-workshop handout

Post-workshop email

We recommend sending out the post-workshop email within a day or two of the completion of the workshop to get feedback while experience is still fresh.

Here’s an example:

Dear Workshop Participants:

Thank you for participating in the Interacting With the Media workshop. We hope you received lots a productive feedback about pitching your research to members of the media and feel better about crafting your pitch going forward.

We’re always looking to make these workshops more useful and effective, so please take moment to complete the attached survey and let us know what was helpful about the workshop and what else you would hope to gain from a future workshop.

Thank you

[Your name]

Survey Example

Click here for Google form.

Ideally, the post-workshop email will include a link to post survey utilizing Survey Monkey, Google Forms, or a similar easy-to-use application. Here are some examples of questions:

Did you gain the skills you hope to gain from this workshop?

If not, what did you hope to learn that you would like to see in a future workshop?

What were the most valuable take-aways?

Do you have a better understanding of how members of the media view your pitch?

Do you feel more prepared to pitch your research to the media as a result of the workshop?

Please use this space to offer any other feedback you feel would be useful for the facilitators and for future workshops.

References

Dahlstrom, M. F. (2014). Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(Supplement 4), 13614-13620.

Nisbet, M. C., & Fahy, D. (2015). The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism in Politicized Science Debates. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 658(1), 223–234. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716214559887

Shachar, O. (2000). Spotlighting women scientists in the press: Tokenism in science journalism. Public Understanding of Science, 9(4), 347-358.

Bell, A. (2016). Media (mis) communication on the science of climate change. Public understanding of science.

Videos

Communicating the Thrill of Science Through Journalism
In the first of five films from the Wellcome Trust about science communication, Tim Radford describes the art of journalism.

NPR Panel: Tips from Science Journalists
Reporters Chris Joyce of NPR, Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post, and Alan Boyle then of NBC News, discussed effective science communication during a panel on “Working with Print, Broadcast, and Online Media” at the 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting Communicating Science seminar. Hear their tips

Websites:

Center for Public Engagement with Science & Technology
The Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology provides scientists with communication resources, and it also facilitates dialogue between scientists and the public about the benefits, limits, and implications of science.

Ecological Society of America
This article contains tips for researchers on contacting relevant journalists and structuring a pitch for the media member in question.

How to Pitch To a Science Editor
A host of tips and perspectives for doing your homework and crafting a pitch to get stories published in science sections of publications.

Attending Boreas workshops has allowed me to learn and implement several valuable leadership tools in an increasingly connected world and how to present myself in a professional manner on paper, online, and in person.

Melaney Dunne

Master's Student Conservation Biology

Institute on the Environment

Interacting with the Media

Connect With Boreas

Overview

Workshop Materials

Sample Agenda

Melaney Dunne