Photo Advanced: Odell Mitchell Jr, Professor at Blackburn College and Forest Park Community College

“Teaching kids that Journalism is still a valuable thing to do—it may not be done the way I learned to do it as a newspaper photographer—but it is still a valuable thing to do because there always has to be somebody who does the checks and balances on administration no matter what: local, federal, and state.  They should just get information and should be a buffer between those and the reader, giving them information that they can use to make their life better.  I just think a lot of times people think, ‘Well, there’s not a newspaper, so it’s not out there anymore,’ but you have all kinds of outlets now, and you should be able to go out and get that information, so people can make decisions.”