All week breakfast has been the best meal. It’s hard to mess up eggs and pancakes. And that’s what I had today, along with potatoes. It was good, but I’m looking forward to cooking my own meals again and choosing what I make.
One of the best parts of this program was getting to know the other people here. I made lots of friends and learned so many things about them, their life, beliefs, and goals. I had so much fun talking to everybody and working together.
I’m also looking forward to applying my new skills. I learned a lot about writing and research. I wrote my article in one day, and I’m really proud of that because it usually takes me a few days to write something I’m actually happy with. I also learned a lot about shooting videos, and those skills will definitely be helpful.
Gavin Joseph Rivera has always been interested in history.
Eventually falling down the rabbit hole of World War II, the rising junior at Longwood High School discovered journalists and civilians who piqued his curiosity for journalism.
At a young age, Gavin became captivated by the Indiana Jones movies. The idea of traveling around the world and fighting against evil intrigued young Rivera, particularly the fact that they were set during the time of World War II. The movies spurred him to undertake countless hours of research about the war. That became Gavin’s gateway into journalism.
Through his research, Gavin was introduced to many journalists. Some of the most notable were Helen Kirkpatrick, who worked for the Chicago Daily News; Edward R. Murrow, who covered The Blitz for CBS; and Martha Gellhorn, who reported on the Liberation of France. These journalists became an inspiration for Gavin and helped him discover his dream career.
“After high school I plan on being a war correspondent,” said the 16-year-old Middle Island resident.
For Gavin, being a war correspondent is more than just writing. He also has a passion for creating images. “Photography, I suppose, is really the most important thing to me,” he explained. He grew up in a family of artists, so his creativity was supported. Gavin developed his skills by making videos with action figures and taking pictures of things deemed cool.
At Longwood, Gavin improves his skills in a photography class. He also uses those abilities in several school activities: he’s a member of the photojournalism club and assists the school district photographer with organizing events. He’s also a member of the school’s National Art Honor Society.
“Photography, I suppose, is really the most important thing to me,” he explained.“
– Gavin Joseph Rivera
Dean Macari, a childhood friend of Gavin, describes him as a passionate photographer and a serious and talented journalist. “He brings his camera everywhere,” Dean said. “He loves taking photos, people, landscapes, everything.” Dean describes Gavin as energetic, nice, optimistic and someone he enjoys taking pictures with.
Gavin plans on becoming a journalist after graduating high school, and he hopes to work towards that goal using the skills he will learn from the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute for High School Journalists.
“I hope to gain at least an entry-level point of view on what it’s like to be a journalist,” Gavin said, “and gain a little bit of knowledge on how to better prepare myself for the journalism world.”
Gavin looks forward to using journalism to educate the American people on important matters. “My dream is to be able to bring attention and support to people in dire circumstances such a famine, genocide, etc., and bring that awareness to the American people who are either ignorant by choice or limited connection to international media.”
The first event today was a pep talk from the Ditch Weekly. It’s a newspaper business run by kids from the Hamptons. They’re also the topic of my article, so I interviewed the editor, Billy Stern, and Harry Karoussos to learn more about the Ditch Weekly.
After that, the Greene Team went to the TV studio to film a broadcast. In groups, we rotated between jobs. From being on camera, to controlling the cameras, and operating the equipment behind the scenes. This helped me discover broadcasting is not my forte. I’m not a great public speaker and I found the behind the scenes equipment to be extremely stressful. From that experience I learned, video broadcasting is not the branch of journalism I want to pursue in the future.
We also went to News 12 to tour their studio and talk to professional journalists. The managing editor showed us the television studio, editing room, graphic design room, and more. We learned about the daily tasks of the people working there and the path they took to become a News 12 employee. Seeing all the technology they use was very impressive. There were rooms filled with computers and television screens lining the walls in multiple rooms. The building also contained a ping pong table and lots of fun decorations including a giant inflatable Santa.
My first day at the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute for High School Journalists introduced me to the basics of of journalism. On a day consisting of rain and questionable food, I learned how to write news stories, feature stories, and shoot broadcasts.
The structure of stories varies based on what type they are. Written news stories, for example, start with the most important details and as it goes on the details become more insignificant. In an upside down triangle shape. This is because when editing the information that is not needed or does not fit will be cut from the bottom. Feature stories are written in an hourglass shape. The most important details are still at the top, but at the end there are more important details.
Broadcast news stories take the shape of a diamond. They start by focusing on one person experiencing an event or problem. Then, they branch out by describing how the person is not alone and many other people experience this with them. Showing the broad scope of the event. They end by checking back in with the original person and their problems.
The thing I enjoyed learning about the most was how to shoot video broadcasting. one thing that stuck with me was “The Mantra.” This is a wide shot, medium shot, tight shot, super tight shot, action shot, reaction shot, and to capture the moment. We practiced this by taking a series of shots from each of these angles, the aim being to tell a coherent story. I took videos of a bench with a water fountain in the foreground. This was my wide shot. Then a bird landed on the bench and I took medium and close up shots of that. The bird flying away and the empty bench were my action and reaction shots. Together these shots capture the moment and tell the story.
In between these lessons, we went to lunch. The food was not good, but later the dinner food made up for it. There was chicken, rice, pasta, and fries. The best part was the cheesecake I had for dessert.
The craziest part of the day was the rain. While the whole Greene Team was walking to the newsroom, it started pouring. Everyone got soaked. But, overall, the day was fun and I’m excited to learn more.
Today I started working on my first two stories with my group, Faith Welch and Lisseth Hernandez. The first story is about the Zuccaire Gallery. The gallery is on campus and currently has an installation centering indigenous culture and language through art. Our assignment was to shoot a video and interview the art director. I filmed the videos using the rules of framing we learned yesterday.
The second story is about the Stony Brook school of nursing’s new simulation center. The school just announced they will be updating their nursing simulation center with new technology and 10 times the area they currently occupy. We interviewed two nurses that have been at Stony Brook for over 30 years. They were both excited to help nursing students learn how to operate state of the art equipment. They explained that it will be helpful to students because it will be a more realistic environment than what they have now.
Additionally, the whole Greene Team held a press conference with Ray Weber who works for New York state Senator Anthony Palumbo. I asked about why the senator wanted to change the common core curriculum.
Today I learned interviewing is very nerve wracking and definitely something I can work on to improve.
Teenagers from East Hampton’s high school and middle school write, edit, and manage their own newspaper: The Ditch Weekly.
The group is made up of about 20 kids, with ages ranging from 14 to 16, who wanted to create an alternative to being on their phones. During the summer, The Ditch Weekly prints 2,000 copies each week.
“Theres no specific weekly newspaper, so we really wanted to start a business that would build in that space,” said Billy Stern, the 15-year-old editor in chief. “It’s really fun. It’s a lot of work. It’s pretty stressful, but I love it.”
Since its start in January 2024, the effort has gained widespread attention. The teens were interviewed by News 12 and the New York Times. After being featured in the Times article in the spring, The Ditch Weekly received overwhelming positive feedback. Since the article, “Papers fly off every single shelf we put it on,” Billy reported. “Last summer our profits were three times the expenses.”
The newspaper gets its name from Ditch Beach in Montauk, said Billy. “Weekly is hard. We made that decision the first day when we came up with the name.”
The young journalists started advertising by going store to store asking if local businesses would be interested, but they soon discovered that real estate agents are more likely to want their advertisements to be featured.
Billy learned how to edit from a New York Times editing book he had in his house and from working with local journalists. “It’s important when you’re editing to make sure that you’re keeping the voice of the paper.”
Everyone has a role in The Ditch Weekly. Harry Karoussos, a 14-year-old, is the head of sales and Billy also handles the content and hiring new members. “I get messages all the time of people who want to write for us,” he said. “ I always interview them and I get to know their personality.”
He added: “It’s important you get to know the people on your team, you know their role, you know what they like, and you know what you can give them.”
His father, Andy Stern, said he’s proud of his son but also, ”concerned a little about his stress level.”
“They’ve taken it upon themselves to handle all the functions of the business,” he said. “It’s been amazing to watch Billy and all the kids just learn on the fly.”
But challenges come with being a teenage entrepreneur. Billy said, “The printer will, like, often email or call my mom instead of me because he thinks that I won’t be able to handle that. I’ve had advertisers not take us seriously, but I think a lot of adults, actually since we’re kids, they appreciate us even more.”
Billy said, balancing school and The Ditch Weekly can be hard.
“Often in class I’ll be doing it as well as my schoolwork, so it can definitely be challenging,” he said.
Billy plans to continue the paper until he graduates high school, but after that the future for The Ditch Weekly is undecided.
“We’ve thought about potentially starting a website for next year, although we really like the fact that we’re print,” Billy said. “In journalism that’s rare, at least today.”
The main event today was writing our articles. Yesterday I wrote down notes and possible quotes from my interviews so it would be easy to write today. And it worked really well, my notes alone were 600 words which is in the rage of what our finished artice should be. So it was very easy to start writing.
I had help from Joie Tyrrell who, coincidentally, is also from the same town as me (Huntington) and has a daughter that I know from our school track team. Her edits to my article were very helpful. I find it really educational to get edits from professional editors because I learn a lot about how articles should be structured and written.
The process of writing my article has been my favorite part of this experience so far. I like it so much better than the broadcast TV side of journalism.
