Category: Blog

The second to last day of Greene week was a stressful but insightful one. For most of the day, I had a hard time knowing what my group needs to complete this project.

At first, I struggled with communicating and coordinating roles with both the instructors and the group members because I didn’t know how to tell them what happened with how the interview went. However, the guest lecture was interesting because it made me reflect on why I love journalism and how it can feel empowering to stand out in a newsroom because I may be the only one of my kind there who does this for a reason others might not share.

Eventually, as the day went on it got a little hectic because I struggled with the nerve to ask the Greene alum that I interviewed to do something that she was sensitive to. The biggest part of the day was when the instructors motivated me to reach out to interview someone to who I hesitated to reach out because I was worried that the request would be denied because many of my peers got requests shot down.

Nevertheless, and with some encouragement from the instructors, I reached out and was lucky to get it accepted. So overall this day was good because I was able to overcome my struggles of setting up interviews and learned some new article writing skills after sending the email to the person I hesitated to reach out to.

It has been a really strange but good first day of Greene Week. So during the first part, I had a good time listening to our guest speaker’s lecture about experiences working at a news station, which began to make me think that news stations can just be as interesting as a magazine outlet. Later in the day, I was forced to leave the second half to go to something. In the end, I felt that the first day of Greene week was okay because even though it missed something I got what I wanted to hear out of the day.

Today was mostly a day for me to sit down and make sure I got my work done.

I enjoyed hearing from all the speakers today. I particularly appreciated hearing from Sarah Kazadi and being able to see her work. I also liked hearing from Wasim Ahmad because I actually have an Instagram where I post my photography, so I liked hearing all the tips he had in terms of keeping up social media accounts.

After I completed my work (the first drafts at least), I took a break and walked around my neighborhood. I also listened to a podcast about one of my favorite movies (“Dead Poets Society”) on my walk before I went back to my house and met with my team members to discuss our progress.

Sunday afternoon feels so long ago right now…

I’m writing this from my desk feeling more tired than I did during any other point this week. My team and I have been working so hard on our packages and I’m so proud of all of us. The article that I wrote about the 2022 Democratic Primary for NY-01 is probably one of the best articles I’ve written in my short time writing articles. I conducted two interviews and went through three rounds of editing, so this is also the most work I’ve put into an article.

I’ve gotten so much out of this program this week. I’d say I’ve definitely improved my interviewing skills and have a better understanding of basic broadcast techniques that I’ll be sure to use for any videos I make soon. The professors have been great this week, and my team leader Chrissy Sampson has been very helpful and supportive in making sure my team gets things done. It’s been a great, long week that I’ll always remember.

Happy Friday, Jr. Greene Team!

Today was BUSY!

We are officially in crunch time with our projects. Meeting with final interviews, revising stories, reading scripts and editing video… it was a busy day.

Something that I thought was extremely insightful today was one of our guest speakers, Wasim Ahmad. He talked to us about how to shoot video and photos for social media, and more importantly how to get your profile seen on social media.

Social media is becoming more and more a professional tool and it is critical that us young journalists learn how to navigate it properly. I never thought in my entire life I would hear a professor tell me that it is good to be on social media, but hey, I’m not complaining.

I am in charge of social media and online presence for my school’s softball team (@luhi_softball) and I can confidently say that this pep talk by Ahmad will help me grow that platform tenfold. I truly truly appreciate the time he gave us today because I think I learned an extremely valuable lesson.

Today was super, super informative but really, really fun. It was the perfect combo! It almost had the same feeling of eating something healthy but also really enjoying it. 🙂

See ya tomorrow, Greene Team!

Thursday was one of my favorite days of the week!

Chrissy Sampson came and gave us a lecture about the ways of F.O.I.L. (Freedom Of Information Law). F.O.I.L. allows journalists to be able to see files that were hidden away from the public.

Sampson explained to us that most of these files are supposed to be available to journalists because we are the people that provide it to the public. Granted there are some files that companies are allowed to keep private but there are files that deserve to be shared.

“You have to find information that is not readily available,” Sampson said. Nothing is going to be waiting at our fingertips, we have to be ready to dig for the information that we want and need.

As Sampson closed her lecture, Mr. Ricioppo came and gave us a run down of how we should make scripts and edit our videos.

“If you say it, show it,” Ricioppo said. Everything that is said in the script has to be shown in the video for it to flow.

After Mr. Ricioppo wrapped up his lecture, we had two guest speakers, Wasim Ahmad and Sarah M. Kazadi.

Ahmad came and made us realize that our presence on social media is always supposed to be professional, natural and interesting. We get promotions based on how we portray ourselves. The more we are on social media the better for our credit.

Kazadi then came and allowed us to understand that as journalists we have to have thick skin.

“You seek your own opportunities,” Kazadi said. Opportunities do not fall into your lap, we have to take advantage of everything that we can do and can get. The more we show interest the more we are able to get exposure.

We were then given the rest of the day to just work with our groups and finish up our assignment before it is due on Friday.

We worked ’round the clock and spent hours after the camp was finished just completing all that we could.

It was stressful but a lot of fun!

See you tomorrow for my last Greene Team blog!

I’m a weather girl!

Today we went on air and experienced the a day in the life of a TV news anchor… and it was hard. News anchors have little earpieces in their ears which connects them to the control room. The control room is constantly talking to the anchors about when they need to cue a new segment, cue a jump to an interview clip, etc. The anchors have to listen to all of that, read the teleprompter, and still look like they are not confused! It is incredible what they can do.

I appreciated this opportunity immensely and especially appreciated the chance to meet with Ms. McGinnis, who explained the field of broadcast in a way that made us all interested.

Tomorrow is crackdown time for our projects… so buckle your seatbelts. It’s almost here!

Starting on Sunday night, I was feeling an abundance of emotions. Excited, happy, and a little nervous. I was not sure what to expect, but moments after tuning into the Zoom call I knew I would be having a great time during Greene week.

We started off by making sure our profiles were done. Mine was completed. When reflecting upon my work with the profile, I was really proud of myself. I started off with a piece that I felt was solid. However, through the editing process my piece became even better. Through the edits of my profile I was left with not just a better piece of writing, but with better editing and writing skills that I can integrate into future writing.

Monday, the first official day of Greene week, was pretty action-packed.  Although there were many elements of this day, my favorite part of the day was setting up our recording materials. Recording and broadcast journalism is the part of the field that I am not extremely familiar with. I gained much knowledge of some equipment that I will be using throughout this week to conduct interviews. This will allow me to gain more experience that I wouldn’t normally have access to.

 I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of the week!

Things are finally starting to click! My group and I are working extremely hard trying to pull our story together! Earlier on in the day, my group and I barely had a story. We had sent dozens of emails and there was either no answer or a decline toward participating in a virtual interview. I was extremely stressed out because other groups seemed to have interviews lined up and my group and I had nothing, despite the fact we were all working hard and staying on Zoom meets collaborating and brainstorming together.

I then found two contacts that would be willing be be recorded. So, I hopped on my computer and did two virtual sit-down interviews. I was prepared with my questions and felt like a real journalist. Although I had questions prepared, I read the mood of the meeting and adjusted accordingly. It was a terrific experience. This whole experience made me realize how much work journalists and media companies have to deal with. Sometimes people don’t want to participate and there is a time crunch! I always had a profound respect for journalists, however this just made me admire them even more.

My group and I have a lot of material to work with today. I am really excited to start editing to pull this project together. The team I am working with is filled with strong and motivated young women. I am so thankful for the relationships we have been able to build through a screen! I was not expecting it to be easy to connect with people over Zoom but I was pleasantly surprised. This morning I enjoyed a lecture by Chrissy Sampson, which was about F.O.I.L. laws.

This morning we got a pep talk from Chrissy Sampson, who gave us a presentation on the Freedom of Information Law. I found the law pretty fascinating, and I see how it’s useful to journalists. Investigative journalism is appealing to me, so I’m glad I now understand what’s public information and how I can get it.

This afternoon, we listened to an incredible story from Sarah Kazadi who was so inspirational and honestly just cool. Her hard work, dedication, and refusal to quit got her to her successful career in journalism. Listening to her story, along with other pep talks we’ve heard this week, gave me more confidence that I’ll be able to make it in this field.

Wasim Ahmad spoke to us about the important of our online presence as journalists. He stressed how we have to maintain professionalism on all platforms. I don’t currently have any social media, but after today’s lesson, that might have to change.

Finally, we were able to break into our groups to work on our project. After encountering some technical issues, my role changed from video editing to writing. I enjoy writing, so this wasn’t a problem for me. The writing went pretty smoothly for my teammate, T’Neil, and me. We have a little bit more editing to do, but we’re mostly done. The video needed a little more work. It’s supposed to be 1:30 long, but we had 14:00 of footage to begin with. My teammates, Liliana, Moriah, and Jada, did a great job trimming that and getting most of the editing done. We stayed on Zoom until 7:30, but it was worth it.