Learning a lot on Day 1 at the Greene Institute

We started the day with a guest, Stephanie Brumsey. She is a professional journalist, willing to answer our questions. Having Brumsey in the first hour of the meeting was tremendously helpful. She answered some of the questions that I had in my mind about the journalism world. Moreover, because she was a super honest person I was able to understand the obstacles and high points of being a journalist.

One of the numerous things that she said encouraged me a lot to overcome my fear of interviewing unknown people as well as to gain confidence with myself — and that it’s OK to not like a certain topic. Further, Professor Zachary Dowdy introduced us to the base of journalism: the inverted pyramid — in order of the most important facts to the least important. He also showed us the pillars, and the importance of the lede — how journalists summarize the news in a few sentences exposing the main points of the news article while grabbing the audience’s attention at the same time.

Greene’s Monday mindset

Today was a full of knowledge, passion and understanding.

Guest speaker Stephanie Brumsey came and comforted the tense environment of first-day jitters. Brumsey enlightened us with the real hardships and experiences Journalism has to offer. She explained that journalism is about hard work and putting yourself out there. Being shy is fine, but the job of Journalism is known for being comfortable with being in public and getting information from people you do not know (and will never see again).

Confidence is key… confidence could be the element that gets you your first real job. Brumsey was able to use her encounters to explain that you are your own spokesperson. If you do not advocate for yourself to your connections and networks then you are not going to prosper as much as you could.

Brumsey then used her insecurities to allow us to realize that a story could be made from personal events. Her courage to explain her life made us understand that Journalism is a lifestyle that tells stories to the public.

Journalism brings stories to life.

After Brumsey finished sharing her experiences, we began to learn how to make a headline and a lede that will bring a reader to our articles. It was very difficult as we were always close but never right there.

Journalism is trial and error. The more we practiced the more we are going to be able to understand and become experts.

‘Til tomorrow, Greene Team!