Category: Blog 2026

Today, the Greene Team toured the Newsday headquarters in Melville. To be honest, I wouldn’t consider Newsday one of my main sources of news since I usually rely on outlets like CNN, The New York Times, AP News, and NPR. However, this visit made me realize how important local journalism really is.

While national news covers major events that affect the country, local news focuses on the issues that directly impact our own communities. Seeing how much work goes into reporting, editing, and publishing stories gave me a greater appreciation for the role local journalists play in keeping people informed.

The tour showed me that local news is an essential part of helping communities stay connected and aware of what is happening around them.

—Allie Butuc, Northport High School

Throughout the morning of Tuesday, July 28, my group and I conducted our research and planned our interview questions for our article about the Keep Long Island Beautiful campaign. We met with our team leader, Emily Sauchelli, on a Google Meet and emailed each of the four people we plan to interview — and we even scheduled two interviews, both for tomorrow, July 29.

In the afternoon, the Greene Team went on a field trip to visit Newsday. Clad in our Greene Team t-shirts, we listened to three journalists talk about their work, toured the building, and even went into the filming room where meteorologists report the weather in front of a green screen. Overall, it was a wonderful experience, and it made me even more excited to pursue journalism as a career in the future.

—Allie Harrison, Ward Melville High School

Today was our third day at the Robert W. Greene Institute, and it was full of great experiences. I never thought I would be standing in the building of Newsday. It was a phenomenal opportunity being able to meet with people with such high expertise in their field. Something I learned today was that Newsday offers internships and is looking for a features writer. This excited me because I dream of working at The New York Times as a features writer for social media in the near future. After a fact-filled tour at Newsday, we boarded the bus to head to the Ducks’ stadium, also known as Fairfield Properties Ballpark.

Once we arrived at the stadium, Parker, Jonnae, and I instantly started to work on our project. The project was to capture B-roll shots and to interview the fans there. We attended a press conference in the press box along with the rest of the Greene Team, questioning Michael Polak, who is the vice president of communications for the Long Island Ducks. He easily and happily answered our questions, and he gave a different answer to each of us.

It was refreshing to be able to relate to him about sports journalism. “I knew I wasn’t going to play baseball professionally after high school, so I wanted to incorporate my knowledge of baseball into my work,” Polak said. As someone who used to have an interest in sports journalism, I was able to understand him, because I had the same thinking, except I wanted to report on women’s softball.

I am so grateful to be a part of these wonderful opportunities, to insert my perspective into other people’s stories, and to know how to put myself in their shoes.

As the night slowed down, some of my teammates and I hung out in the basement to listen to music, eat snacks, and play ping-pong!

—Briana Dworsak, Baldwin High School

Today was move-in day at the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute For High School Journalists and here was my experience. Once my family and I found the right building, I checked in and went to my dorm.

At first I was nervous about sharing a room with someone I didn’t know, but luckily my roommate is very nice. The dorming experience is new to me so I’m excited, but I have to say I am hesitant about communal showers. After I got all unpacked and settled in, the Greene Team had a meeting in the common area where we all introduced ourselves. But before I had to say goodbye to my family, of course my mom had to take many pictures. It was bittersweet, but I was eager to start this journey.

After the meeting we all headed towards the newsroom where we will be doing most of our work. It was very exciting being in there and it made me feel like a professional journalist! In the newsroom we had our first lesson, which was very insightful.

Afterwards it was time for dinner, and I have to say I was a little nervous about what the food would be like. Thankfully I was surprised by the amount of options available in the dining hall and the food was actually pretty good! The dining hall even has an ice cream machine, so you know I had to get some.

After dinner we all went back to the dorms and as I sat to write my first blog for the Greene Gazette, I realized my nerves about this new experience were actually just excitement in disguise. I was nervous because this opportunity matters to me, and when you’re nervous about something, it usually means you care. And I can’t wait for all the knowledge I will gain, all the friends I will make, and the memories that will be created at the Greene summer institute.

—Alexandra Butuc, Northport High School

On Wednesday, July 29, the Greene Team had the chance to experience what it’s like to be live on television.

I started out as the control room director. That role involved cuing the anchors and reporters, as well as letting the video controller know when to cut to a different camera. Although that was fun, I enjoyed being a reporter even more.

I was a reporter in the next show, and this was the most exciting part for me. The camera had a teleprompter built in, so I could read my lines about the Greene Team’s activities yesterday and later today while also looking at the camera. Although I aspire to be a writer in my career, I know I would enjoy television reporting as well.

I may be somewhat of a quiet person in general, but talking to a camera or an audience feels comfortable for me nonetheless. I hope to get a similar experience in the future, and I am grateful to have had this one. 

—Allie Harrison, Ward Melville High School

Day two done! Today was a fun intro day where we went over some basics, learned about the importance of local news, and learned all about podcasting.

I started my day at 7 when I woke up and quickly showered. I then moved downstairs at around 8 and convened with the rest of the group in the lounge. Once everybody came downstairs we headed over to the dining hall for breakfast. After a yummy meal we followed our chaperones over to the news room to learn about ledes.

Zach helped explain to us what the content of a lede should be and the length and purpose of a lede. We then spent the next bit of time practicing writing ledes and stories.

At 11:45 we finished ledes and went to break for lunch.

After lunch we got to meet George Giokas, who taught us about the importance of local papers and the current news desert going on. After his presentation we met JD Allen, who taught us all about podcasting and how it is used as a newer medium to tell stories.

Once JD finished we took a quick break to grab a snack and go to the bathroom.

After our break, Frank, another teacher, went up to speak about photography and photo/video journalism. He showed us a very interesting video about the people who help care for the 9/11 memorial. We then got a quick lesson on how to work the cameras before our final teacher for the day, Rick Ricioppo, took over to talk about video recording. I learned a lot about how news stories and packages are put together with B-roll and audio files. He also gave great information on actually shooting videos and on what to do and look for.

We finished out our day with a nice dinner, a quick meeting in the newsroom, and then just hanging out in our dorms. Today was a lot of learning and I am very excited to start reporting tomorrow

Tuesday is Day 3 of being on the Greene Team, and the first day of actual work. Today we had the amazing task of visiting the Zuccaire art gallery on the Stony Brook campus and interviewing the gallery’s main director, Karen Levitov.

We arrived in the newsroom at around 9 after eating breakfast, but we were only there briefly to iron out the specifics of our video assignment. I had the responsibility of filming most of the b-roll footage that would compliment the narration.

It was a really nice experience at the gallery. There’s an exhibition currently going on at it called Noel Anderson:Black Excellence, which is a series of warped images and tapestries detailing themes of Black labor, success, and occasionally the roadblocks to that success.

I filmed a lot of b-roll. I filmed the tapestries, the pictures, the lead director (Karen Levitov) speaking, and my three group-mates listening to her. There was even a video being projected at the back of that back wall you see in the picture, and I filmed that too.

All that b-roll is now going to be cut and spliced together with interview footage and narration to make a short video package on the gallery.

We’ve also made progress on the print assignment relating to Lorraine Woodward, the creator of Becoming rentABLE, an online source that helps disabled people find vacation rentals that accommodate for their disabilities. We’ve started writing questions and are planning to interview her via e-mail.

So yeah, it’s quite a lot of work, but it’s very empowering because in that work, you’re unveiling voices that haven’t been heard before and showing the public a new topic or perspective. It’s really fulfilling!

God bless, Greg.

The Greene Team began on Monday, July 27, with a captivating lecture by a journalist who reported on the 1970s Watergate scandal and witnessed the field of journalism evolve. 

Dini Diskin-Zimmerman, a broadcast journalist who has been in the field for decades, spoke to the group about her wealth of experience in a changing — yet also constant — profession. 

She told about how in the past, news stations used two-inch tape to record, and they manually cut out pieces to edit them. Now, we use computers for the same task. Before, the cameras and lights were enormous, but now, they are small and compact. However, the way news is reported hasn’t changed one bit. Good reporters still strive to remain unbiased, they still state the most important things first, and they still have the constant role of updating the public on the occurrences of the world.

Zimmerman also shared another part of her interesting past with the Greene Team: she was a crucial part of increasing women’s equality in the workplace. When she started out at one of her earliest jobs, she was the only woman there, among a host of white men. They needed to hire women to support DEI, and she not only fit that requirement, but she was exceptionally good at reporting. Throughout her career, more and more women started working with her.

Later on, George Giokas delivered a presentation on the immense importance of local and school newspapers.

Giokas told the group that three quarters of those in New York City don’t have newspapers, which is problematic because students don’t get information about their communities, and young writers aren’t exposed to this vital profession.

Additionally, there has been a large decline in local newspapers throughout the country. In the past 20 years, the nation has lost approximately 3,500 newspapers. Now, over 210 counties have no local news sources at all.

News sources are essential for public information and even participation. In fact, fewer people tend to vote when they lack newspapers. Thankfully, Long Island still has over 150 community newspapers, which serve mainly on the village level.

As Giokas put it, “You lose your identity when you lose your local newspaper.” That is why journalism is essential, and the Greene Team plans to make a contribution to it.

—Allie Harrison, Ward Melville High School

—Jonnae Greene, Baldwin High School