Month: July 2025

By: Emily Soriano

As I woke up for my first full day at the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute for High School Journalists, I woke up energized for the day. I brushed my teeth, put on a t-shirt, pants, and some crocs. Then as a group we all headed down to the East End dining hall for breakfast.

Breakfast was at 8 a.m. I ate hash browns, a bagel, eggs with ketchup, and water. Then we walked towards the newsroom to meet with Ray Weber, community affairs liaison for NY state Senator Anthony Palumbo, who represents many communities on the North shore of Long Island. There we learned about Palumbo’s mission, like how he wants more first-time home owners on Long Island.

Then we had lunch around 12 p.m. at the East Side dining hall. I had garlic spaghetti pasta and water. Once lunch was over, my group — Gavin, Shirley, Araya, and I — walked over to the game theory convention. There we learned about the importance of Game Theory and what it is. A term that stood out to me was when Tim Chin, head organizer of the convention said, “What would happen if you played the game in equity and everyone wins?” It was an interesting analogy on how what would happen in the world if everyone just helped each other. To give aid to those who have less to be equal.

Following the trip, we headed over to the dining hall at about 5. There I enjoyed penne spaghetti pasta, a pizza slice, chicken parmigiana, and French Fries. As a beverage, I had Coke and water. For dessert, I had a tasty vanilla doughnut.

Once dinner passed, the real fun began. We headed to the stadium and watched a movie titled “Moana 2.” There we received many cool freebies. For example, hand sanitizer, Moana stickers, Ashwaganda gummies, a blow-up ball that we played volleyball with and many other cool items. I sat with my good friends Shirley, Hennie, and Allison to enjoy the movie.

After the movie we ended the night walking towards the dorms. I took the first shower. Once I was done, we recapped about our day and then lights out for bed. Ending the night on a great note.

By, Emily Soriano

What is the word to describe my experience to this moment? I was mixed with my emotions of being fearful, homesick, and worried. All these feelings ventured through my mind during my first few moments at the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute for High School Journalists. This was the case until I started interacting with my fellow green peers.

I began to speak with my suite mates, Lisseth and Hennie. I was initially hesitant about being alone but with their comfort and reassurance, I now feel secure. As the day went on, we met with all the other Greene Team members at 11 a.m. in the dorm lounge. There, friendships were created. Although I may not know them on a personal level, I am looking forward to continuing to get to know them. I started to get settled in. Then we went on to meet the other Greene Team members in the main lobby.

As we were walking towards the news room, rain struck us. Although we were soaked, it was filled with many smiles and laughter as we ran towards the building. We created a memory that we will cherish. It may not be ideal to some but, to us on the Greene Team, it was a beginning to a story to be told.

Once we entered the newsroom we learned about “The inverted pyramid.” It’s the ideal in writing journalism where the first paragraph is your lead and all the important information you want people to read while the next paragraphs are adding on more facts. I believe it is very interesting on how journalists go about the fact knowing that due to some of the readers’ attention spans they may not want to read an entire story. They just want the main idea.

The day continued to be filled with more knowledge to be learned but by the time we knew it, It was time for lunch at 12 p.m. As we walked through the campus we saw the beauty of nature and the environment. At lunch I ate pinto beans, grilled cheese, sweet potato fries, mac and cheese, water, as well as a salad. There I created a bond with Hennie and Shirley. We sat together and had great conversations.

After lunch we went back to the newsroom. We continued learning. Another thing that stood out to me was the tips for shooting video. I was unaware of the ideal of having a two finger space above the person’s head and right next to the sternum (rib cage) on the bottom half. I also learned about the 7 angles in shooting. Wide, Medium, Tight, Super Tight, Action, Reaction, and Capture the Moment. This peaked my interest as I never have heard about it before that moment that it was introduced.

As the lesson continued, we were taught how to spot out propaganda. A video was shown about a guy skydiving, but the guy is never seen falling to the ground. We were asked the question, “Would we share this video to our friends yes or no?” The video was created to be an advertisement for a trampoline park and to appease the public eye. We learned to ask ourselves these questions. “Who is making this video?” “Are they identifying themselves?” and “Is this accurate?” These questions allow a deeper thought process while watching. The lesson was filled with thought-provoking ideals.

Once the lesson was over we walked over to the dining hall for dinner around 5 p.m. At dinner I enriched myself with some tomato penne pasta and French Fries. As a beverage I had water. For dessert, we had a cheesecake, which was very delightful. After dinner, we walked back to the dorms where we finished unpacking and took turns showering.

In conclusion, the first day was an introduction of all the fun expected for the rest of the week. My Dorm Mates — Sorbs, Allison, Hennie, Gabrielle, and I then finished the day up by saying our goodnights.

I did my profile assignment on Shirley Jiang, and after a long editing process, I finally got it done! I had two Zoom meetings with Liisa May that really helped me fix my writing.

When I first wrote my profile on Shirley, it was very over the word count and had a lot of my own opinion in it. The first editor I worked with, Bill Bleyer, helped me cut parts of the profile to meet the word requirement. He pointed out that I needed to focus more on Shirley and let her voice and story shine without so much of my own commentary. Which, I totally understand. But I also wanted to refrain from the profile being bland or robotic. That balance was something I kept thinking about throughout the editing process.

One big discussion we had was about the lead of my story. I originally wrote: “At first glance, Shirley Jiang gives off quiet overachiever — reserved, calm, definitely smart.” Bill corrected it because he didn’t think the word “gives” worked in that sentence. Liisa agreed. But I explained that the usage of “gives” is actually grammatically correct in modern vernacular. It’s a form of informal, Gen Z-adjacent expression that’s become super common in pop culture commentary and conversational writing. People say things like, “it gives main character.”

I wanted the tone to feel like me, especially since I’m writing for other teens who talk like me. I explained to both Bill and Liisa that my writing style brings a more relatable and youthful voice, and I wanted that to be reflected in how I opened the piece. They ended up giving me the benefit of the doubt. But Liisa also made a good point that not everyone will understand that kind of phrasing, and if the goal is to write clearly for all audiences, I have to keep that in mind. So I ended up revising the lead a bit to compromise, while still keeping the tone I wanted.

Overall, the editing process definitely challenged me. There were moments where I felt like I was losing my voice in all the edits, but in the end, I think I found a middle ground between keeping it professional and still sounding like me. I appreciated both editors’ feedback, even when we didn’t totally agree at first, because it helped me think more critically about my choices as a writer.