During the 2024 Summer, I spent most of my time in the Upper West Side of New York, more specifically, Columbia University. I was accepted into the university’s Pre-College Summer program where for three weeks I studied Journalism.
I took a class called Introduction to Journalism: From Pitch to Publish, where a few other students and I learned about Journalistic morals and ethics. My class took place Monday through Friday from 11:10 to 5:00 pm with a two-hour lunch break in between.
There were two options to take the class, one could either be a commuter or live in the dorm. However, because I was under the required age at the start of the program, 16, I was unable to live on campus. Instead, my parents rented an apartment where I would walk around five blocks to school every day.
I feel like this did not impact my experience socially as there were still kids from New York who commuted in and out of the university which made us all become close.
In class, we covered reporting in today’s complex range of topics and how to be a responsible journalist. One of the main questions we covered was determining what is “newsworthy.” From what I learned, “newsworthy” journalism depends on topics such as proximity, novelty and personal/large audience.
One quote we learned, as ruthless as it may sound, is the phrase, “if it bleeds, it leaks.” The more gruesome and horrific a piece of news is, automatically makes it more newsworthy. Humans naturally enjoy hearing more drama-worthy information which is why crime shows tend to be more popular. In this case, hearing tragic news on TV or through articles is more interesting to humans.
Another focus of the class we learned was interviewing. Since our class took place during the first presidential debate, we were tasked to interview five strangers around campus and ask them about their political views. It was a challenge because we had to find a balance between keeping our own opinions to ourselves while listening to contrasting views.
To keep the class realistic, our teacher had tight deadlines where quotes and paragraphs were always due next class.
In regards to the location of Columbia, I could not have been happier. I loved the small yet bustling community surrounding the university. There were so many places to try during lunch and several hidden areas around campus to study and complete work.
The only issue I had with the program was that we were unable to go beyond certain streets during the school day. This made my peers frustrated because in the real world, reporting in Journalism exceeds boundaries and travels internationally. On the other hand, because I was a commuter, I could go farther and interview people outside of the community but only in my own time outside of school hours.
In my experience, being in a college environment genuinely helped my learning process. There was a refreshing feeling of independence where I was in control. In contrast to high school, professors in college give you more freedom to focus on how you want in class. For example, if someone next to me was not focused on taking notes, the professor would stop simply reminding them to do their work. I like how to succeed in class, it falls onto the responsibility of the student.
Overall, I would love to come back to the university. It was an enriching experience to be studying in the heart of journalism, New York. The upbeat and diverse population is everything I was looking for in my summer program. Hopefully next summer I can find a community that resembles the excitement New York has to offer.
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