Working in South Jersey is particularly meaningful for Healthy NewsWorks Program Associate Steve Riggs. “Being a native of Camden, I feel proud to be back in the city where I grew up, went to school, and now, landing my first teaching position here,” Steve said in a recent interview. “It’s a full-circle moment, and I’m looking forward to making more connections and creating plenty of health news content with these amazing students.”
Steve, who joined Healthy NewsWorks in the summer of 2024, has worked particularly closely with schools in the Catholic Partnership Schools (CPS) network for our Core reporter programs and is forming relationships with other schools for Cub classes and special lessons.
“These kids probably wouldn’t otherwise have these experiences with interviews and media,” said Steve. “I can see that it’s making them better students. It’s giving them confidence and skills that will benefit them long after they leave the program.”
A joint staff from three CPS schools—St. Joseph’s Pro-Cathedral, St. Cecilia, and Holy Name—published the Healthy Courier in the fall. “It’s broadened their horizons, and it’s made a difference in so many other areas beyond just their writing,” said Dr. Deirdre Rood, who is CPS assistant principal and an English teacher at Holy Name.
Steve said each school brought unique contributions. “Each group of reporters has its own distinctive way of making the topics interesting,” he said. “Bringing all those different voices and perspectives together is a challenge, but it’s also one of the things that makes the project so exciting.”
One moment that particularly stood out to Steve was when a student said, “I feel like a professional” after the paper’s publication. “I said to her, ‘You are a professional. That is your work, and you did this as a team,’” Steve recalled. “It was an incredible moment for the student—and for me as a teacher.”
Outside of working with Catholic Partnership Schools, Healthy NewsWorks is building connections with other South Jersey-based organizations, including Virtua Health and the Food Bank of South Jersey. Experts from South Jersey will also be featured in forthcoming special interviews in Healthy NewsWorks’s 2025 By Kids, For Kids magazines and films.
The expansion in South Jersey has been accelerated by a three-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. If you have any suggestions for additional partnerships in the South Jersey area, please reach out to Steve Riggs (sriggs@healthynewsworks.org).
