Twelve students -- twice as many as last year -- have been selected for the 2001 KCABJ Urban Student Journalism Workshop at Rockhurst University. There were a total of 16 applicants -- also unlike last year when only six applied.

This will likely be the most diverse class ever with students of all races participating. Some young men were among the applicants. Last year's class consisted of all young women. The students are from high schools and colleges with some just entering high school and others college in the fall. That's not unusual. Past workshops have had very young students who ended up being the top scholarship winners because of their exceptional work.

We have one college student among those selected for this summer's class.

There are four alternates. The workshop committee is reassessing whether to invite the alternates to particpate. Already one student who was picked for the workshop has said she may have to drop out because of a conflict with another program.

Center High School provided the greatest number of applicants. The students who were picked are Levell Council, a Center High School freshman; Morgan Neal, a Barstow eighth-grader; Katie J. Jekel, a senior at St. Teresa's Academy; RaKeisha Brown, a freshman at Sumner Academy; Shantoyia Jones, of Center High School; Ashley Wilson, a junior at Blue Valley Northwest High School; Keichanda Dees, a junior at the University of Missouri-Kansas City; Janae' Franklin, a Pleasant Lea Junior High School eighth-grader; Marantha Deanna Wall, a sophomore at Shawnee Mission North High School; Jonathan Amerison, a senior at Center High School; Dion K. Williams, a senior at Hickman Mills High School; and Jamie Sturgis, a junior at Duran High School in Duran, Miss.

The alternates are Felisha Sanders, a junior at Winnetonka High School; Kala Raglin, a a sophomore at Center High School; Rachael Soto, a sophomore at North Kansas City High School; and Norissa Hughes, a sophomore at Center High School.

The students have received letters letting them know of their status for the workshop. More correspondence will follow to let them know about the orientation planned for June 17 at The Kansas City Star and the exact location of the workshop. The students also have been advised to watch KCABJ's Web site at www.kcabj.org for information about the workshop and updates. KCABJ Vice President/Print Erica Wood and KCABJ Vice President/Broadcast Natalie Moultrie have secured Sedgwick Hall, Room 309 for the workshop. KCABJ member Glenn Rice said he wanted to examine the site before the workshop to ensure that it will be large enough to accommodate all of the students, the guest lecturers and KCABJ members who will serve as the faculty, editors and advisers during the intensive program.

The students will have to write stories from press conferences by newsmakers during class and from interviews from stories assigned outside of class. All of the workshop participants have been advised that they will be competing against each other for the three scholarships that KCABJ annually awards.

KCABJ partnered with the Newsroom Diversity Committee of The Kansas City Star to roll out several programs during the national Time for Diversity Week initiative pushed by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. The annual springtime effort is to get newspapers to move diversity in hiring and coverage to the forefront of their daily concerns. KCABJ worked with The Star to put together a discussion of how the media covers minorities. That was broadcast live on KCUR-FM on former Mayor Emanuel Cleaver's show called ``Under the Clock'' at Union Station. KCABJ also held a mixer at the 50/50 Club and capped the events with a ``Getting the Word Out'' workshop at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center for people with churches, groups and not-for-profit organizations. It was the third media access workshop that KCABJ has done in its 20-year history. The first was in 1988 and the second one was 1992. About 20 people attended the May program. The final panel discussion was on issues in the news.

KCABJ members Jennifer Sanchez and Sherice Shields have put the organization back in the T-shirt business. They got Kansas City Star editorial artist Hector Casanova to come up with a design for the shirt and then followed through ordering 70 shirts many of which already had buyers before they were even done. The T-shirts initially sold for $10 each to people who placed advanced orders. But then went to $15 each for people who saw members wearing them at different Time Out for Diversity Week functions. They have been a good fund-raiser for KCABJ. More T-shirts may be ordered for the workshop and national convention coming up in August in Orlando, Fla. KCABJ members voted to give Casanova a $50 donation for the design even though he sought no payment.

Applications will go out soon for the 10th Annual KCABJ Media Awards. Entries published or broadcast in Greater Kansas City from July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001, will be sought from journalists or area media companies of enterprise journalism about African Americans and other people of color.

The deadline for entries is July 20. People also will be able to access applications from KCABJ's Web site. In addition to awards for newspapers, television broadcasts and radio programs, KCABJ also gives out honors for community affairs and media public service. The most notable award is the KCABJ Thumbs Down Award, which goes to the media or individual who has done the most to set back the interests of African Americans or other people of color.

The awards will be presented in November during the 20th anniversary banquet for KCABJ. That's also when students from the summer workshop will be honored, and scholarship recipients will be named.

People planning to attend the NABJ convention in Orlando, Fla., should have received packets with information about what's to take place. The convention will occur Aug. 22-26. The convention hotels are the Disney Dolphin Hotel and the Yacht Beach Club Hotel. For more information check out the NABJ Web site at www.nabj.org.

The Black Alumni Network Newsletter reported in its April edition that the National Association of Black Journalists is expected to reduce its budget by a third compared with last year. Operating expenses will be cut, but development, education and training programs for students and professionals will dodge the reductions. For those people who remember, NABJ membership used to come with copies of the NABJ Journal. The Alumni Network reports that none came out in the fall or winter. But an edition of the NABJ Journal is planned for the spring. The last NABJ Update was the April/May 2000 issue. The Alumni Newsletter says more NABJ information may be going online.

The Associated Press reported that broadcasters continue to marginalize people of color and women. This is more than a year after the major TV networks agreed to better reflect America's ethnic diversity.

Overall white men still dominate network television, according to Children Now, an advocacy group that has studied ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and WB. The number of African Americans increased from 13 percent to 17 percent, Hispanics dropped from 3 percent to 2 percent. Asian Americans increased from 2 percent to 3 percent.

Bloomberg News reported that ABC received the lowest grade of the four top networks for progress on promoting racial diversity in programming and hiring. ABC got a D-minus from the Multiethnic Coalition, which includes the National Latino Media Council, the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition and the American Indians in Film and Television. NBC earned the highest grade. But it was only a C. The coalition was considering boycotting the networks or taking legal action. The networks were evaluated on their ability to increase employment of minorities for acting, writing and directing jobs in the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 TV seasons.