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This summer, I was incredibly fortunate enough to attend two intensive and insightful journalism summer workshops where I was able to meet professional journalists and create new stories using my new storytelling skills.
PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs (SRL) hosts a nine-day summer academy every year where its goal is for selected student journalists to learn and improve their video journalism and storytelling skills through experienced journalism mentors and hands-on experiences. This year's academy brought together 24 student journalists from around the country and was hosted at WETA in Washington D.C.
Throughout my week at the academy, my fellows and I attended sessions to learn about interviewing, transcribing and scripting, audio and more to help us with our team projects. We had the opportunity to talk to PBS NewsHour foreign affairs and defense correspondent, Nick Schifrin, to discuss the importance of storytelling. Additionally, also speaking with PBS NewsHour anchors Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz to hear about the impact and future of journalism.
For my team's story, we wanted to focus on the topic of immigrants and decided to produce a profile story on Yao Zhao, a Chinese immigrant entrepreneur and owner of 50 Hertz Tingly Foods who shared his story of how he began his business and his journey of self-discovery. At the end of the week, my team and the other teams were able to display our video stories at a screening where we watched each other's stories.
Besides immersing myself in journalism, I was able to connect with my fellows in fun evening activities planned by our mentors. From going on a boat tour in Alexandria to exploring historical monuments in D.C., I was able to quickly form long-lasting friendships and bonds with this year's fellows and mentors that made my experience at the academy even more enriching.
Around a month after my week at SRL's Summer Academy, I attended JCamp, a six-day long training camp by the Asian American Journalism Association (AAJA). Its mission is to bring together students from all over the country to learn skills from professional journalists and hands-on experiences. This year, it took place in Austin, Texas, and consisted of a cohort of 29 student journalists.
I was placed in a group with ABC 7 Chicago Eyewitness anchor, Terrell Brown, who helped my reporting partner and I brainstorm our story for the week. We chose to do a print story in a vignette style format focusing on the current viewership trend of the Olympics as our story topic. To gather information and form our story, my partner and I walked around the colorful streets of South Congress and interviewed citizens to find out about their experiences and opinions on the Olympics to get more insight on the viewership trend.
Throughout the week, my cohorts and I attended various sessions with accomplished journalists such as Texas Monthly's taco editor, José Ralat, NPR Student Podcast Challenge producer, Janet Lee, and CNN climate reporter Rachel Ramirez who gave us insight into their careers and tips.
We also visited non-profit newsroom, Texas Tribune, Austin's NBC affiliate station, KXAN, and toured around their buildings and spoke with reporters about their careers and their current jobs.
On the final full-day of JCamp, my cohort and I had the opportunity to go to AAJA's National Convention. At the convention, I was able to connect with journalists such as the U.S. finance editor at Reuters, Lananh Nguyen, and the senior director and bureau chief at NBC News, Jeng-Tyng Hong. This event was the culmination of my cohorts and my week together and celebrated the work we accomplished and the bonds that we made along the way.
I am beyond grateful I was selected and after both of these once-in-a-lifetime experiences. During my time at both the SRL Summer Academy and JCamp, I was able to push myself out of my comfort zone. I explored parts of journalism I would've never imagined myself doing while drastically improving my leadership and journalism skills that I'm excited to bring into the newsroom as this year's Online Editor-in-Chief.
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