Instructors returned to the saying, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,” throughout the program as they spoke to cherubs about how their different career paths led them to journalism. This phrase inspired many cherubs as they walked out the program with a clearer understanding of their future plans.
“Coming here, I realized how many different ways you can be a journalist,” Madelyn Cass of Boulder, Colorado, said. “Taking a look at all the different instructors here, they are all journalists, but none of them have a career that looks the same.”
Cass said that instructor Carlin McCarthy’s expertise in video journalism reaffirmed her interest in the medium. Similarly, Shayna Fitzershtein of Glenview, Illinois, said that talking one-on-one with instructor Peter Slevin and receiving feedback from him encouraged her to be confident in pursuing journalism.
“I now want to keep doing what I love,” Fitzershtein said. “I want to keep writing, sharing the stories that matter, making an impact on the world and changing things in my own way.”
The lectures of instructor Dr. Ava Thompson Greenwell and guest lecturer Howard Reich inspired Ellie Adams of Concord, Massachusetts, to continue pursuing documentary journalism. It also gave her a better sense of what her work could become.
“Seeing documentaries and then also getting to hear from their creators made me feel that maybe I could get there one day too,” Adams said.
Lucia Longstreet-Lipson of Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the assignments of the program helped her understand how she could apply her journalism skills to any of her future goals.
“I realized how meaningful it is for me to connect with people that I wouldn’t normally talk to through interviewing people on the street,” Longstreet-Lipson said. “I think that in whatever career path I choose, I want to connect with people and hear their stories.”
