Cherubs find career inspirations |
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Lindsay Reese wants to go into magazine reporting. Lindsay Tuchman wants to be a news anchor. Anna Scalamogna is considering a career in investigative reporting. James Bourne dreams of being a television foreign correspondent. After attending the National High School Institute for journalism this summer, cherubs like these have a better idea for what interests them in the field. The list of career aspirations is long and diverse. Reese, of Waco, Texas, knew she wanted to be a journalist but hadn't selected a medium. After attending lectures, taking classes and going on field trips to media outlets in Chicago, Reese said she has found an interest magazine reporting. She visited Newsweek magazine's Chicago office and listened to national affairs editor Bret Begun. And she attended workshops on magazine reporting with Cynthia Wang, assistant editor of People. “You have more room to be innovative and creative,” Reese said of magazine writing. “Newspaper writing seems a little ‘blah’ to say the least.” Reese said hearing so many great writers from a number of different publications gave her hope. For other cherubs, the lectures and trips have led them to rethink careers as writers. |
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| Cherubs hard at work during a broadcast lab. | |
For Nina Rayburn, of Davenport, Iowa, NHSI helped her realize that reporting was something she may not be interested in.
“I discovered maybe the reporting side of journalism isn’t for me,” Rayburn said. “But I’m interested in the business side of it.”
After talking to guest instructor Mary Lou Song, co-founder of Tokoni and an early employee of eBay, and after visiting the Chicago office of Newsweek, Rayburn her interest in the business side of journalism is stronger. She is now considering a career in marketing and media management.
Scalamogna, of Clearwater, Fla., said she is intrigued by investigative journalism after meeting David Protess, head of the Innocence Project, and Patricia Callahan, an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
“I liked that you got to know your source and that you could make a tangible difference afterwards,” Scalamogna said.
Some cherubs did not need to hear lectures to know what they wanted. For Bourne, of Los Angeles, these talks served as affirmations.
Bourne said he knew he wanted to be a broadcast foreign correspondent. Ideally he would like to work in East Africa, an area that has always interested him. His goal is to get the stories out.
“The more people [who] hear your story, the more valuable it is,” Bourne said.
He said he found instructor Sofia Javed’s lecture on working abroad and instructor Sarahmaria Gomez’s lecture on reporting through race and culture to be some of the most helpful and motivational activities at cherubs.
Tuchman, Alpharetta, Ga., also said she has wanted to go into broadcast journalism for quite some time. The daughter of a CNN news anchor, Tuchman finds “being on camera very fun.” She said she enjoyed learning how to write stories for television and how to time a news broadcast. And she said she is ready to tackle her dream job.
“After this program especially, I hope more than ever that my face will one day tell breaking news to the world,” Tuchman said.