Students come to the cherub program at the National High School Institute to refine their journalistic skills and to explore other forms of media. While the program teaches the core reporting and writing skills, students have the opportunity to learn how to tell stories through contemporary platforms.
“Whether it’s print, broadcast or photography, everything builds on top of each other, and if you have background in something it’s always going to help you in another field,” Ryan Holmes of California said.
Students are consistently offered opportunities to work in front of and behind the camera. Anyone can sign up for the broadcast electives.
“The broadcast labs we had here with [Northwestern professor] Ava Greenwell were very helpful,” Gabi Remz of Massachusetts said. “Club Vlog was very helpful. I hosted once, so I got to practice my on-camera presence. I’m on the podcast team for Web Week which is far more broadcast than writing.”
In addition to being able to follow their interests, students are introduced to other media. Some cherubs leave the program with a new passion.
“I had no idea of anything that I wanted to go into relating to [web design] until I got here,” Jordan Alper of California said. “It’s really the atmosphere and the instructors. I started working on a project with a few other people making a website outside of [the program] and because of that we really started getting into it.”
Alper and several of his peers started working on their own website: youniquepeople.com. The site allows users to post videos of themselves performing talents or hobbies.
Cherubs have access to media tools that are normally inaccessible to high school students. The availability of professional-grade technology allows students to experience what it is like to have a career in journalism.
“We get to use all the resources in the studio, all the editing software and the video cameras.” Campbell Burr of Maryland said. “Here we have the opportunity to do live broadcasts, which I never practiced at home. We also get to sit at a news desk and actually anchor a show. We practice actually writing scripts, working with other anchors so that we’re telling a story together which are opportunities I haven’t had in the past.”