Last Saturday, I celebrated a homecoming. I was invited to address the opening session of an 8-week Urban Journalism Workshop, sponsored by the Washington Association of Black Journalists. Two decades ago, I served as founding director of the workshop.

Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the St. Louis Minority Journalism Workshop, a program that I helped create and served as founding director before moving to Washington. With the assistance of the New York Association of Black Journalists, I served as founding director of a similar workshop there after I left Washington. In all, about 15 workshops around the country are patterned after the St. Louis model.

Over the years, hundreds of high school students who sat through Saturday sessions have become professional journalists. I call them my journalism Be-Be Kids – they don’t die, they multiply. They include: Ann Scales, an editor at the Boston Globe; Marcia Davis, an editor at the Washington Post; Everett Mitchell, editor of the Nashville Tennessean; Mark Russell, managing editor of the Orlando Sentinel; Ben Holden, executive editor of the Columbus, Ga. Ledger-Enquirer; Celeste Garrett of the Chicago Tribune; Andre Jackson, assistant managing editor for business at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Bennie Currie, formerly of the Associated Press; Russ Mitchell, an anchor/reporter for CBS News; Warren Woodberry, a reporter for the New York Daily News; Jennifer Golson, a reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger and the list goes on. Three of my former students – Alvin Reed, Marcia Davis and Betsy Peoples – worked on my staff when I was editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine.

In addition to directing three high school workshops, I taught in summer programs at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a Washington-based program sponsored by Northwestern University. Out of the Northwestern summer program, designed to reach students at historically Black colleges, came Jacque Reed, an anchor for BET News, David Cummings, a reporter for ESPN magazine and Emile Wilbekin, who served as editor-in-chief of Vibe magazine.

By no means did I do any of this alone. In each city, the workshops were sponsored and staffed by the local affiliate of the National Association of Black journalists. After I moved to New York, the Washington workshop was directed by Ken Cooper, a Washington Post national correspondent and former member of my St. Louis staff; Sonja Ross and Darlene Superville of the Associated Press and Robin Bennefield of the Discovery Channel. Keith Alexander, who participated in the Pittsburgh program started by Christopher Moore, another former St. Louis staffer, taught in the Washington program while serving as president of the Washington Association of Black Journalists.

Obviously, the instructors were as enthusiastic about the workshops as the students. In addition to Chris Moore in Pittsburgh, Rochelle Riley, who served on the Washington workshop staff, started programs in Dallas. Cheryl Smith took over in Dallas after Rochelle left for Louisville, where she started another program before moving to Detroit.

Some of our former students not only became professional journalists, but started similar workshops – Bennie Currie and Celeste Garrett in Memphis and Mark Russell in Cleveland.

When I looked into the bright eyes of about 50 aspiring journalists on Saturday, I told them about some of the students that had gone before them. Around the time I was speaking to them, Mark Russell was preparing to leave Orlando and travel to New York, where he would be serving a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes.

A profile on Mark in 2003 for the McCormick Fellowship Initiative at Northwestern University mentioned our relationship. It noted, “After watching Curry in action as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch during the 1970s, he decided that ‘this is the guy I want to be like.’ Russell, then 17, abandoned his original plan to be a football player or a banker making lots of money.”

On Monday, I received an e-mail from Juan Diasgranados, one of the students in the audience on Saturday.

“I just wanted to say that I have many future hopes in being a TV anchor or a radio personality one day, and the words of wisdom you told us really motivated me. I have been let down by some people saying I am not good enough, but I really think I can. I just want to thank you and wish you the best of luck in your career. I hope one day I could be like you.”

That’s what Mark Russell said. It wasn’t so much about me as it was about my profession. Like Mark, I am sure Juan will realize his dream. I’ll be looking for him on TV.