Sixty aspiring journalists from across the country sat before me in a hotel ballroom yesterday on the first day of the 37th NABJ convention in New Orleans. These NABJ student members immediately impressed me and one another with their poise and enthusiasm during the roll-call introduction. Any recruiter sitting across a career-fair table would likely, at first glance, rush to help them along their career path. But what about weeks or months from now, when they are all back at school, or have just graduated, and there's only one job or internship available, and they must connect with a recruiter who has dozens or scores of applications and precious little time to sort through them all?

NABJ Student Representative Wesley Lowery and convention planners Benet Wilson and Monique Fields asked me to lead a "learning lab" we titled "Branding U: The Student Edition." It's an honor and privilege to present at NABJ so I quickly said yes. The convention program promised: "Sending a resume and cover letter through the mail is so yesterday. Job seekers need an electronic portfolio. This three-hour workshop will give participants strategies for using cutting-edge applications to develop a virtual resume. The session also will offer tips for using Twitter and Facebook to promote a brand, and on creating an action plan that will have recruiters banging on the door."

Basically, I sought to share what I strive to teach my journalism students in the Diederich College of Communication. My presentation focused on, among other things, blogging, digital portfolios, social media profiles, live tweeting and curating, melding personal and professional and networking. I stressed that they all must take advantage of the many ways to demonstrate electronically – preferably from one hyperlink! – their success at telling stories across multiple platforms. I also wanted to inspire them to share what they learned with their friends at school who couldn't attend.

Two points: 1) The Law of Magnetism (from John Maxwell) – Who You Are Is Who You Attract! and 2) from me, trying to capture the recruiter's mindset, How You Represent You Is How You Will Represent Me!

After my presentation, three newsroom recruiters shared awesome tips on how students and graduates can distinguish themselves and best get an interview and or that first or next opportunity. Speaking of digital portfolios, Irv Harrell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch told the students, emphasizing my second point above, "It's your mission statement to the recruiter. I want to know what you're going to be able to do for me." Walter Middlebrook of the Detroit News said: "You got 60 seconds to make an impression on someone. If I don't like what I see in 60 seconds, you've lost a sale." Paula Bouknight of the Boston Globe added that "your website should be where you further the conversation," that is, it should not merely offer what is already on or better suited for a LinkedIn profile.

I hope during the summer to offer new posts on this blog that focus on other aspects of my presentation. For now, I invite students (and faculty) everywhere to check out these prior posts: "Covering the Student Cover Letter" and "119 Tips for Journalism Interviews." Many thanks to all the students who said they got a lot out of my presentation.

One hails from Minnesota, one from North Carolina, the rest from Wisconsin and Illinois. Some know they want to become journalists, having had various levels of experience in class, their school newspapers or yearbook clubs. Others are considering making it a career or getting their first exposure to what it takes and means to be a reporter.

These 18 high school students comprise the 2012 Urban Journalism Workshop (UJW) at the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. The annual two-week summer program focuses on multimedia news gathering and has inspired nearly 400 students to consider the profession since it began more than 25 years ago.

This year’s group came together during an orientation on Sunday. It’s wonderful to see how well they work together and enjoy being with one another. It’s even better how engaged they were during the first two days of instruction. They asked great questions during an interviewing exercise. They produced impressive images from across the university’s campus after a photography lesson yesterday morning. They also acquitted themselves decently during their first live-tweeting assignment, at the Brewers vs. Blue Jays baseball game at Miller Park last night.

I will rejoin the program as an instructor on Monday, after presenting on digital branding at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention and Career Fair today in New Orleans, and attending the Teachapalooza conference for journalism educators this weekend at the Poynter Institute in Florida. By then, the students will be well into producing their multimedia packages after learning plenty more about telling stories using text, images, audio and video.

Assuming they do what was asked of them, I’m eager to read their daily blog posts – each student created his or her own digital portfolio on Monday – and interact with them via Twitter and the #muujw hashtag while away. Something tells me this great group of potential journalists won't let me down.

Twelve Diederich College students spent the spring 2012 semester focusing on how media report on national, state and local elections and campaigns in a journalism seminar that my colleague, James Scotton, and I co-taught. The class went OK for its first iteration – I haven't read the course evaluations yet :-) – particularly when we had guest speakers (Sharif Durhams, Charles Franklin, Mike Gousha and David Umhoefer). The students also covered the Wisconsin primary election and visited local television stations for an assignment focusing on campaign fundraising.

One of the 12 students is now part of another dozen. Diederich sophomore Tessa Fox is among "The 12," a talented collection of student journalists in that many battleground states documenting the 2012 presidential election and capturing perspectives of young voters. It's a fantastic opportunity for Fox, an aspiring journalist who next year will be the Viewpoints editor for The Marquette Tribune and a reporter for the Marquette Journal.

"Together, we will curate multimedia on Tumblr to strike a discussion about various political issues in the election," Fox wrote about the initiative on her own blog. "The Tumblr account will be featured on PostPolitics.com and promoted throughout the election. I am extremely excited to see my work be linked directly to WashingtonPost.com."

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to teaching the journalism seminar again in the fall. This time it should be even better because, well, the general election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will be much more exciting than the less-than-inspiring primary contest between Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. I made sure the fall class was scheduled on days when Gousha will likely host newsmakers on his "On the Issues" program.

My students may not get as close to the action in the fall as did the lucky campaign embeds that really interested my students a few weeks ago. But here's hoping they will be as inspired as Fox and the rest of The 12.