8th Graders Pitch News Innovation Ideas to Start-Up Experts

DEARBORN, MI--(Marketwired - May 30, 2013) -  Knowing that tech-related entrepreneurship is hot and news-related innovation is cool, 30 Detroit-area 8^th graders will pitch their information app ideas to a panel of start-up experts and news executives on Friday, May 31.

The public is invited to the News Entrepreneurs' Pitchfest, from 5:30pm to 7:00p.m. in the Orange Room at McCollough Unis School, 7801 Maple St., Dearborn. Students will be rehearsing their pitches leading up to the Pitchfest and are available for interviews.

On Friday seven student teams will pitch their news innovation ideas for three minutes, then answer questions from a panel of judges for another seven minutes. The judges will award a bag of candy to the winners.

The judging panel includes Pamela Hurtt, senior consultant to the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, a philanthropic effort to accelerate the transition to an innovation-based economy in the region.

The Pitchfest is the culmination of a three-year digital literacy project called The Living Textbook. Launched by the Asian American Journalists Association, and supported by the McCormick and Ford Foundations, the project focuses on Arab American middle school students telling the stories of their lives in a post 9/11 world. The project helps students meet current curriculum standards in social studies and language arts while also developing tech-related, 21^st Century skills.

The students produce multimedia news stories posted to livingtextbook.aaja.org. Students in this program have won state-level prizes at the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association's annual conference for middle school journalists.

About AAJA
The Asian American Journalists Association is a non-profit professional and educational organization with 21 chapters across the United States and in Asia and about 1,700 members. Founded in 1981, AAJA has been at the forefront of change in the journalism industry. AAJA's mission is to encourage Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) to enter the ranks of journalism, to increase the number of AAPI journalists and news managers in the industry and to work for fair and accurate coverage of AAPIs and their issues. AAJA is an alliance partner in UNITY Journalists for Diversity, along with the Native American Journalists Association, National Association of Hispanic Journalists and National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. For more information, visit www.aaja.org.