Cherubs find fun in summer of journalism

By Amy Parlapiano

Jenny Temple didn’t want to spend her summer sitting at home, sleeping and going to theme parks. She decided to search online for information about summer programs at her school of choice, Northwestern University, and found a Web site about the National High School Institute Journalism cherub program.

“I was like, ‘holy crap, this is the best thing I could possibly do with my summer,’” said Temple, from Punta Gorda, Fla.

Temple attends a high school that until this year didn’t have a newspaper. Temple took the initiative to start one, but only one issue was published.

Temple applied to the cherub program, hoping to gain skills that could help her publish the paper more often.

Esther Zuckerman, a cherub from Encino, Calif., was more familiar with NHSI.

“My school has a history with the cherub program,” she said.

The advisor of her newspaper was a cherub and Medill graduate, and members of her paper’s managing team attend annually. 

“I’ve wanted to write for as long as I can remember, and as I got older I realized I specifically wanted to do journalism,” she said. “This was the perfect way to spend the summer.”

Zuckerman was used to being away from home. She attended a creative writing program in Scotland last year.

However, Tate Tuckman, a cherub and fellow resident of California, had never been away from her house and family for more than two weeks.

“I was really sheltered,” she said.

Tuckman said she knew the experience would be great preparation for college, as intimidating as it seemed.

“I had to learn how to live on my own,” she said.

Tuckman knew of no one in her town who had ever attended the cherub program.

“It’s really not heard of,” she said. “I’m in a beach community. The kids usually go to surf camp. Coming here was a big step.”

Katie Glueck, however, had been preparing to take this step since the summer before ninth grade, when she first heard about the program.

“I knew it was where I wanted to be,” she said.

The Kansas resident considered journalism as a career choice since eighth grade but was never clear about the specifics. She wanted to figure out a “life plan” as well as improve her writing.

“I also really, really want to go to Northwestern for college,” Glueck said.

As a result, she chose to spend her five weeks in Evanston rather than travel to Israel with her family this summer.

Despite sacrifices, the cherubs who chose to attend said they could not be happier.

“I decided to apply because it sounded really excellent,” said Nikki Friedman of Piedmont, Calif. “And it was.”