Category: Blog

I definitely started to feel the pressure during day 5 and 6 because it was crunch time, near the deadline. I got a taste of what it’s like to live as a full-time journalist. It’s very tiring but I kept my head on tight and stayed optimistic. As an aspiring journalist I realized that organization roles and back-up plans are key.  The challenges I faced this week I never thought I’d experienced but it made me realize how much more I wanted to be a Journalist. 

We also got to hear the story of Yaw Bonsu and Sarah M. Kazadi, which were my two favorite stories. I loved how deep and genuine their love for journalism is and I appreciated their transparency. They let us know that we aren’t just granted opportunities, we have to be go-getters and find a way for ourselves. My biggest takeaway from Sarah was if you don’t have a way, then create one for yourself if you really want it. She also showed how you can tie in your passions with your journalism career. I appreciated her urge to give back to her community.

Yaw made me understand that it’s OK not knowing everything, just having the mindset of wanting to learn is the best. His quote that he knew he wasn’t the smartest in the room but he knew he can be the hardest working one, inspired me. When I first started Greene week, I can say that I felt worried because I was placed with many people who understood journalism, took journalism classes etc.  I knew they were far ahead while I didn’t know anything at all because I only journal for myself. With that being said, I felt like I didn’t have what it takes to be a true journalist and from me thinking like that I dimmed my own light. So Yaw and Sarah definitely were powerful intellectual speakers who taught me to have more confidence in this field or any field I choose in the future.

Now knowing what I know and knowing all I have to do is go out and study, work hard and create my path, I feel great. That’s a beautiful headline within itself and  I’m so grateful for all of the information I acquired in these few days. I didn’t know any of it before I stepped into this program and I’m happy that I started to understand certain terms, skills and techniques now rather than later. I hope to expand and experience different fields but what I learned here can, and will, be applied to my everyday life outside of journalism.

Last day at Greene! It’s scary how fast the week went by. All I can say is this was a great program and I loved every second of it. We started the day off with a pep talk from a former Greene student, Yaw Bonsu, who gave us tips on making own opportunities and self-enterprising. We then had time to talk with our teams to start to finish up the projects. Speaking of which, I’m excited to finally get them up on the website and see what my classmates have been up to! A talk from Stony Brook University’s Associate Dean of Admissions Robert Pertusati followed. He spoke about searching for college and the application process. Although I’m only going into Sophomore year, it was definitely insightful. The last talk of the day was from members of the Press Club of Long Island, some of which mentored us. The rest of the day was spent finishing up the assignments. I completed my video on the opioid crisis. Overall, I’m going to miss this program but I’m excited to apply what I have learned to my school’s newspaper! I can’t wait to meet everybody in person and see the newsroom tomorrow!

Today was the last day of the Greene Virtual Institute. Tomorrow we are going to be able to visit the Stony Brook campus!

We’re done! The video is complete and the story is done. Wow, this has been a week of hard work. I had to do a new profile today because my partner is no longer in the program. Although it was a lot to do last-minute, writing is something I really enjoy so I didn’t mind too much. I cannot wait for tommorrow because I am so tired of Zoom.

There were so many moving parts today but I know that’s part of being a journalist. I think this week was a really great experiance because I got exposed to various journalists in the field with unique backgrounds and experiences. I think this week taught me some amazing skills that I can now apply to my writing, speaking, and even video editing! I’m so very grateful for this opportunity and all the wonderful relationships, skills, and tools that I’ve gotten out of it. Can’t wait to meet all the amazing people that made this week possible!

I’m Moriah Pettway from Baldwin, New York. Have a great day and keep watching Stony Brook News!

My group finished putting together our video and article today. I think the whole process flowed smoothly. I, personally, am especially proud of the end result. We could not have done it without David North, our team leader. Everyone in my group put a tremendous amount of effort into the project. I could not have asked for a better group. This week was a tedious and challenging week, but I have taken away so much. This week was a week I will never forget.

Day 4 of Greene: We ended really late, hence why I forgot to upload a blog post. It was hectic trying to get everything into place, so Friday would be easier for us. We got most done but I do want to mention that the speaker today was amazing. She was so inspiring.

It’s the last day at Greene and I am sad that it has come to an end. I have learned so much valuable information that will definitely prepare me as a journalist in the future. However, it also taught me a lot of valuable life skills. Writing, communicating and teamwork is important in any field! Although it was stressful editing the videos and conducting interviews, I had a fun time and it never felt like work. It am so grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such amazing professionals and it was an honor getting to know these people and call theme my mentors. I can’t wait to see what my future holds in this career. 

The last day at Greene was intense. We started off with a pep talk with Yaw Bonsu. As a college student, he is still going through the process of trying to make it into the journalism field. It was a really interesting perspective to hear and incredibly encouraging, being that I’m also a student. He gave a lot of good advice on things we can do in high school to get a head start. I now have a few ideas of projects to tackle in my senior year before college.

We were also able to speak with a college admissions dean at Stony Brook, Robert Pertusati. Overall he had a great personality that was entertaining and engaging. He was very helpful in giving us some information on the college application process. It seems slightly less stressful to me now.

Obviously it was our last day to finish up our story and video. The editing process was pretty intense and took up most of the day. Both the article and video were reviewed many times by my team as well as editors. We had to trim the video a little bit more as well as make some minor edits. For the article, we were struggling slightly to get it to flow well from idea to idea, but eventually found a way.

My experience this week has been incredible. I’m really glad I decided to apply for this program. I feel like I have a much better understanding of journalism and what really goes into it. I’ve been provided with a network here that will be helpful in my pursuit of a journalism career. I can’t stress enough how awesome my team was in putting our project together. We worked well together and just got along in general. I hope to keep in touch with them after the closing ceremony tomorrow.

Today was a good ending to my current Greene team membership. Throughout the day I struggled with trying to extend my team’s print piece but eventually gave in to the fact that the content I had was enough. Today was also beneficial because I learned about hosting a Zoom meeting to get a last-minute interview in, learned about this college from our guest speaker, refreshed my perception of the college admissions process from our second guest speaker, and finalized the places I desire to work in from our final guest speaker. So, overall camp was really great. I am getting a lot of experience and made some finalized answers about my choices when it comes to going into this field.