The first day of Greene week is over and I was not prepared to wake up earlier than 11am. Usually I wake up at 10 but my brain doesn’t turn on ’til about 1 pm!
I did however enjoy the speaker, Stephanie Brumsey. She was funny, charismatic, and so inspiring. Honestly the highlight of my day. The rest of the day went smoothly, but I was half sleep so that sucked. Once I had finished my work for the day I passed out. I also really enjoyed meeting my group. I can’t wait to work with them!
Today was my first official weekday at the Greene Team. From my first full session here, it is becoming apparent to me that I am learning much about journalism, as expected. However, I learned that journalism is not as easy as I thought it would be.
Based on what the guest speaker told us today and all of the work that we have been assigned for tonight, I could tell that it will be quite difficult to become a successful journalist. There are multiple layers to it which means that you must acquire certain skills; having just one would not suffice.
There is so much more that I need to learn before taking on this occupation, but I am willing to! Working hard is always crucial to reach goals, which is another theme I picked up on in this program. To conclude, I look forward to learning more tomorrow!
The Greene program started off with a bang when Stephanie Brumsey talked to the team about her road to being a producer. The humor and motivation that Brumsey brought to the table was a great start to my day.
After she left the call, we moved on to grasp a general understanding of how to pull readers into an article with the usage of a proper lede. Brumsey’s talk and learning to frame an article were both fun segments of the day, however, my favorite part was learning how to put together and use a Padcaster. We were lucky enough to have the founder of Padcaster, Josh Apter, join us and explain the general uses of the device.
Toward the end of today’s session, we broke out into different groups to converse about splitting responsibilities in developing our own stories. My team will be working on a story titled “Pandemic Pets.” Overall, I believe today set a standard for the rest of the week that needs to be kept. It was a great start to the Greene Week. 🙂
Today at 11 am I clicked a button that said ‘join with camera off’ and had no idea what to expect, but wow… was I in for a treat! The moment Stephanie Brumsey opened her mouth, I was engaged. Her bold and expressive personality mixed with her insight, wisdom and experiences as a journalist were so inspiring! That fact that she started as a Greene student just like me gives me so much hope for my future career as a journalist.
After the break, we all came back to learn about the structural elements of writing a story. One concept that stuck with me was the basics of writing a lede. In order to learn how to properly write a lede, Professor Dowdy presented a story pitch to us about Red Riding Hood and her grandmother getting eaten by the Big Bad Wolf. We then had to make a lede for it. I then came to the conclusion that a lede is a concise version of a story that hooks the reader in.
If I’m being honest, setting up my Padcaster was a struggle for me. Looking back, it wasn’t too difficult, but I was already stressed in terms of keeping up with my group in order to make sure that I was setting everything up properly.
Finally, I met my group today! I am so excited to get started on our story about Stony Brook medical students on the front lines during COVID. I can’t wait to go through the process of interviewing because it is something I’ve never done before. My group members also seem like really great people and they’re all eager to get started just like me. Ms. Duffy also seems so dedicated and ready to help us in any way she can so I’m so appreciative of that.
Overall, I’m so glad that I can be a part of this program. It is such a great opportunity for me to get hands-on experience. Although my eyes burn at the end of the day from staring at this screen, that won’t stop me from making the most out of this program. I’m looking forward to all the great things that will come out of this week! We’re off to a great start! 🙂
Day 2 was great! We had Stephanie Brumsey come as a guest speaker. She told us about how networking is more useful than it seems, and how to conduct an interview. Then, Professor Dowdy taught us about the ledes in a story.
After a 10 minute break, we broke up into groups to discuss a story to write about. I got how life is going back to “normal” post-pandemic. So far, I think the camp has gotten off on the right foot.
From today’s beginning pep talk with Kate Nalepinski to an exclusive interview with Congressional candidate Kara Hahn, with an hour-long photography session with Newsday photojournalist John Williams and extensive videography tips from Stony Brook’s own Rick Riccioppo in between, Day 2 has been a powerhouse lineup in all forms of multimedia journalism. I feel like in one day I’ve learned what I might have in a college semester, and I can’t wait to take these lessons and rules into the world during the rest of the week!
For me, writing’s always been “my thing,” to echo Nalepinski, and I feel as though I might have the bulk of reporting down, but I would never dream of calling myself tech savvy. Today’s lessons around shooting photos and videos to tell a story were so great to experience, and I feel sure that what I gained will be instrumental in the rest of my Greene Week as well as any journalism I choose to pursue in the future. What made today especially exciting was our brief but indispensable time with Kara Hahn, who detailed for us her life in politics, her motivating factors, as well as some insider knowledge about Suffolk County legislation!
Today was all about work. Work through broadcasting, reporting, teamwork and writing.
We worked with Connie Conway, Marcy McGinnis, and Philip Altiere to record our first-ever news broadcast with the Greene team.
The news broadcast made me realize the important role emotions play when an anchor speaks.
The one thing I learned about being an anchor for a day is to get nerves out the door: try and be as comfortable as possible and everything will become natural.
Our broadcasts were edited and broadcast to the Greene team. I knew it was crunch time.
Our groups began to conduct interviews with our sources. There was a time when we had no sources and in the span of five hours we had over four sources.
Journalism is a fast-paced process. That’s what makes it so exciting.
Teamwork is key in creating an amazing story. Your team is going to stick with you and help get information that will benefit everyone.
As the sources get interviewed and notes start to come in… writing steps up to the plate.
Writing is what brings the story to life.
Getting a good headline, lede, and kicker is what makes the story.
Always show emotion and be a team player! ‘Til tomorrow, Greene Team!
Today was my favorite day by far! We got to go through the process of broadcasting a story as well as sharing the weather. Seeing the result at the end was the best part. I think this lesson really brought out a lot of confidence in the team. My team and I also worked a lot more on our story. It is coming along really well. I am really excited for the end result. That is everything for today. Until tomorrow! 🙂
Day 3 today and boy, was I nervous. OK so first off, waking up early (at 9 am) wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. 🙂 I wish my nerves got that memo, though, because I was so anxious. I only own graphic tees, and newsflash (see what I did there) you can’t wear a graphic tee when delivering the news. Then I remembered I bought this white top like a month ago and it worked. So then I log on, scared —because I don’t mind public speaking, I actually really like it, but talking on Zoom is a completely different thing. Plus we’re all getting told how to put our camera. (btw I freaked out before because I realized, I read the script but I didn’t MEMORIZE it). Luckily I just pulled it up on my laptop.
After doing a couple of takes of the broadcast I concluded that broadcast journalism isn’t for me. It was fun, but maybe because I was nervous or because the audio wasn’t so great but let me tell you I DESPISE MY VOICE. Well, at least I know what my niche won’t be. This was a fun thing to say I did though.
After that, my team and I were scrambling to get people to interview because the people we emailed just weren’t getting us anywhere. Luckily, at the end of the day we managed to get some replies and one of my team members even pulled together and got an interview 🥳. Now we are just waiting to hear back from more people. Interviewing is my favorite part of journalism and I can’t wait to do it. I am SO excited.
By Noel Gonzalez
Bard High School Early College Queens
Alex Chen, a 15-year-old rising senior at John Dewey High School in Brooklyn with “a passion for writing” who is also interested in video production, found his way to journalism with the encouragement of his ninth-grade English teacher.
Alex, who has some experience in anime music video editing, said he would like to focus on broadcasting “probably because I like to shoot video. That’s mostly what I like to do.”
Vivian Wanjing, Alex’s 16-year-old sister, who describes her sibling as “intelligent, hardworking and persistent,” said he has been searching for ways to improve his writing and “started to read more books about it so he could get more ideas and to expand his creativity.”
Vivian is confident in Alex’s interest and skills in journalism. “I think that he will be liking professional journalism. And I think he will be more sure about his career in the future, like college and such.”
Alex said he wanted to attend the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute for High School Journalists to improve his writing skills and soak up knowledge about different areas of interest.
“I hope to improve my editing skills in general. I do the AMV videos, but I am a beginner, I am also interested in a multimedia environment, I have never been exposed to it, and I found that it was very interesting.”
