Journalism is a viable career choice for many Coloradans. Colorado is one of the eight states in the U.S. with Anti-Hazelwood laws. Anti-Hazelwood laws are laws placed by state legislators to allow student journalists to have freedom of speech and expression at school, as well freedom of publication.

While researching, we stumbled upon a website that ranked Colorado colleges for communication and journalism. The average acceptance rate for these colleges is 70%. While the average rate of acceptance for the top 18 journalism and communication colleges in California is 53%. Colorado colleges in comparison to California colleges are easier to get into.

Many high school students in Colorado attend an event hosted at Colorado State University, called Journalism Day. This day is a convention and award ceremony that is hosted for middle school and high school journalism students. Journalism Day is a celebration of accomplishments as well as a new way to learn about journalism and how to be the best journalist that you can be. Colorado really does value their student journalists in a way that many other states don’t.

An interview with Jesse Paul, a reporter for the Colorado Sun, gave insight on the journalism scene in Colorado and his experience being a student journalist. “At Colorado College, I worked as a reporter and editor at The Catalyst. I spent two semesters as the editor-in-chief. It ate up all of my time, but was so much fun,” he told us in his interview. He made it known that, “Student journalism is the most important thing a young reporter can do to get themselves prepared for the future.” When asked specifically about Colorado’s journalism and what it’s like to be a Colorado journalist, he had this to say, “Colorado’s journalism scene is fairly small compared to other states. I’d like to see it grow and be more robust.”

We see that Colorado’s student journalism is important. We are given a freedom that not many other high schools are given: Freedom of Speech. Journalism in Colorado isn’t a big booming industry, it’s still growing and student journalists are important for the future of Colorado journalism.