THE wait is finally over! The first BRATs camp of the year will be kicking off tomorrow in Ipoh, where 40 aspiring young journalists will be put through the adventure of a lifetime, all in the hope of becoming part of the BRATs family.

The BRATs out on assignment during the BRATs Penang 2011 workshop. Come Thursday, a new batch of BRATs will be doing the same around Ipoh city!

As some of you may know, it’s a pretty big family. The Star has been running the BRATs young journalist programme for 21 years now, producing many talented journalists and media professionals along the way, using pretty much the same formula we started with.

1. First, we pick 40 of the best young writers we can find for each of our three BRATs camps a year, each in a different city.
2. We give them a crash course in journalism during Day One of the camp, facilitated by editors and journalists (including photographers and videographers) from The Star.
3. We take them out on exciting field assignments, which in this case, will be around Ipoh and Taiping. One of the assignments this time around will see the participants taking a boat ride to Kuala Singga, a former pirate village accessible only by boat. It’s a real-life pirate bay!

The quiet fishing village of Kuala Singga, near Taiping, we were told, used to be inhabited by pirates. The village, accessible only by boat, will be one of the many exciting field assignments for BRATs Ipoh & Taiping participants from Wednesday to Saturday.

4. Finally, at the end of the four-day camp, participants will have to deliver stories, photos and videos to be published by The Star. After completing all that, they become part of the BRATs family, and start contributing to The Star regularly in these pages right here.

If that sounds like fun, you can pre-register for our next BRATs camp today! It’ll be held on Sept 16-19, and the venue will be confirmed very soon. Email us at brats@thestar.com.my for more info.