Lanyards around their necks, recording devices in hand and eyes scanning Evanston for relaxed, friendly-looking people, the 90 cherubs interviewed hundreds and hundreds of strangers during the four-week Medill cherub program.
For many of them, it was a new experience. While initially intimidating, the challenge helped cherubs grow as reporters, said Jiayue Zou of McLean, Virginia.
“Although I’m used to interviewing people, it’s mainly confined to people in my school, so I’m familiar with their faces,” Zou said. “Coming to Northwestern, though, we had to approach whoever we could and interview them, which felt different.”
Emmeline Chan of Los Angeles was nervous and struggled with social anxiety, “especially when the questions were personal or controversial,” she said. Through the Medill cherub program, she learned to take risks.
“I’ve always been shy and quiet, and I don’t raise my hand in class often,” Chan said. “Because I was forced to interview strangers, and there’s a deadline, it pushed me out of my comfort zone. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.”
Still, cherubs sometimes struggled with rejection when strangers turned them down. While working on a weather story for the broadcast lab, Mimi Yao of Shanghai was turned away by three sources in a row. The next person she approached turned into what she called her “most memorable interview.”
“She didn’t know how to speak English,” Yao said. “She thought she couldn’t do the interview, but then we started speaking Chinese. She opened up and was talking about how the weather in the park reminded her of China.”
For Yao, the most gratifying part of interviewing strangers was meeting people from places like Brisbane, Australia and Pakistan.
“I got to experience part of the diverse community around Northwestern,” she said.
Skylar Sachs of Toledo, Ohio, said she can’t wait to share her new knowledge about how to find sources with her newspaper staff.
“I can go back home with more of an edge and confidence in my own abilities,” Sachs said. “I’ve become more able to turn on social traits when I need to. I can interact with people I don’t already know.”
Although Sachs encountered a difficult source while writing the parade story, she advised future cherubs to remain optimistic when reporting.
“You might meet people that are a little threatening toward you, and you have to reset yourself and remind yourself that there are more good people than bad people,” Sachs said. “It’s worth it to approach people and hear their story.”
