Renee Daggett (far) wrote about her sister, Kaysie, in two blogs during the program. Kaysie was deployed to the Middle East.

Renee Daggett, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., didn’t do it for recognition. She didn’t do it for sympathy. She really doesn’t know why she got up in front her fellow journalism cherubs at the National High School Institute to tell them about her sister’s deployment to the Middle East.

She just did it.

“I never expected for me to go up in front of 88 people and all the instructors and be like ‘Hey, here’s one of the most personal things about me,’” Daggett said.

Like Daggett, cherubs had the chance to practice writing for blogs during the five-week program. Some shared their personal experiences at Sunday evening readings. This year Tokoni, a new site where bloggers share their stories, sponsored a contest for journalism cherubs. The students voted on their favorite blogs for five weeks. The winner received an iPhone.

But for some, the blog readings were an opportunity to get to know their fellow cherubs. Patrick Stumpf, a cherub from Appleton, Wis., shared his experience with cerebral palsy.

“I didn’t think I would evoke an emotional response from people,” he said. “Someone told me they started crying.”

Sarah Davidson, of Portland, Ore., cried during Stumpf’s blog reading.

“[When] most people who talk about having a disability, the audience feels bad for him,” she said. “I just admired him. He thanked us for accepting him. I thought that was very mature.”

Stumpf said he felt like he had an obligation to tell people about his condition.

“There wasn’t really a concrete reason why,” Stumpf said. “I just felt like I needed to.”

Both Daggett and Stumpf were happy with the responses they got from their blogs. Guest instructor Mary Lou Song, whoc co-founded Tokoni, published Daggett’s blog in her own blog on the Huffington Post. Other cherubs asked Daggett if they could publish it on Digg, a Web site for sharing content, and if they could use part of it in a story they were writing.

“I didn’t realize it was going to be as influential as it was,” Daggett said. “But that doesn’t matter. It was more when people came up to me and said it was one of the most meaningful things they had heard in their life.”

Other cherubs have used the Sunday night opportunity to make their fellow cherubs laugh. Julia Haskins, of Washington, D.C., injected humor into her weekly blogs.

“It’s just the sort of person I am,” she said. “Those are the ones I felt most comfortable doing. I was thinking about how I wanted people to perceive me. I wanted people to see the happy side, the funny side.”

Haskins said she got really good feedback at the beginning of the summer, so she decided she didn’t want to do serious blogs in the future. But Stumpf said he thinks some people are trying too hard to be funny in the blog contests.

“The whole point of Tokoni is to share your story,” he said. “You can write something serious and still have some humor in it.”

The blogs allowed cherubs to share their writing skills, but also their individual personalities and perspectives. Davidson said she liked the wide variety of blogs she heard each week.

“I like that it’s a mix,” Davidson said. “I feel very much on Sunday nights like I’m on an emotional roller coaster.”