CONGRATULATIONS! We are pleased to tell you that you have been admitted to the 2024 class of the Medill-Northwestern Journalism Institute, the “Medill Cherub Program.”
The moment I read those words in the letter, I knew I was in for an incredible summer.
Medill is Northwestern University’s School of Journalism, and the Cherub program is a summer camp offered by the institute for rising high school seniors to teach them practical skills in the field of journalism, including broadcasting, breaking news and photography.
After a tedious and stressful process of filling out multiple forms, submitting a list of my journalism-related activities, writing a short essay and receiving a recommendation letter from my adviser, I submitted my application to the program just a few days before the March 11 deadline.
Though the application process itself wasn’t terrible, the wait for the results was daunting. Because the program only sent acceptance letters by mail, I worried mine would get misplaced or lost and I wouldn’t be accepted.
My fear came true when I still heard nothing from Northwestern on March 29, even though the application form stated decision letters would be mailed out by March 27. However, I emailed Roger Boye, the head professor in charge of the program, and found out that my letter was just arriving late.
After seeing two previous seniors in The Accolade go to Chicago for this four-week selective program, I applied with the expectation of having the same experience because I planned to major in journalism in college.
After researching the summer program on its website and seeing multiple Instagram posts from the people who went, I also wanted to meet other student journalists from around the world and bring back what I learned there to improve our school publication.
Even though I wanted to go to this program since I first heard about it, reality didn’t hit me until I stepped foot on campus on June 23. When I arrived at Jones Hall, the dorm I would be staying in, I teared up as I waved goodbye to my mom and brother, who had come with me to Chicago three days before the start of the camp to help me settle in.
For the first few days, I felt homesick. With no family around, I comforted myself by calling my parents and friends back home every chance I could get. The end of the camp, July 19, felt so far away.
However, once I adjusted to my surroundings and made close friends, I wanted to stay there forever.
Even amid the unfamiliar, humid Chicago air and the sound of cicadas chirping all around me, for some reason, the campus filled me with a sense of comfort.
And sure enough, Northwestern did not disappoint. The summer program provided me with new journalistic skills like broadcasting and live reporting, daily lectures from professional journalists and Medill faculty and a lifetime’s worth of friendships and memories.
Unlike my work for The Accolade, which mostly consists of stories about Sunny Hills and our community, the Medill Cherubs program taught me a broader range of skills in journalism that I could use in the future, such as covering breaking news events, interviewing strangers on the streets of Evanston and reporting stories live on television.
Although I initially felt a little overwhelmed because of all these new experiences, everything I learned there was a great chance to step out of my comfort zone and take my journalism skills to the next level.
A typical weekday at Medill consisted of attending lectures and workshops while completing assignments under tight deadlines.
- 9 a.m.: Morning lecture with the head professor
- 10 a.m.: Receive and work on editorial writing assignment
- 11 a.m.: Writing lab
- 11:15 a.m.: Lunch
- 1 p.m.: Lecture with professor
- 2:30 p.m.: Broadcast lab
- 5 p.m.: Dinner
- 7 p.m.: Deadline for submitting editorial writing assignment
- 7:05 p.m.: Writing workshops
- 9 p.m.: Check-in to dorm
The professors would assign us our stories and give us time to work on them throughout the day. Then, I would receive feedback from my group instructor and have the chance to revise my articles. This took a while to get used to because I felt rushed to submit a story in the beginning. However, it allowed me to complete my assignments quickly without procrastinating them.
I would often work on my story assignments with friends and search for people in the city for street interviews. The professors gave us writing tasks with instructions on completing them, but we would have to come up with the story ideas on our own. For example, for our feature writing assignment, we had to find a subject to focus our story on, and I chose Elephant and Vine, a vegan restaurant based in Evanston.
However, obtaining sources willing to be interviewed and giving decent responses was either a hit or miss. For one story I wrote, a feature article on an ice cream shop, I had to search for interviewees on the street for hours to get the information I needed.
On weekends, we had more relaxed schedules and mostly used that time to swim in Lake Michigan or explore the city with my friends.
One of my favorite memories was running across the street with my friends in the pouring rain with nothing but magazines to cover us until we reached our dorm room.
I arrived as a normal high school student, but thanks to Medill, I left as a Cherub, poised to take journalism to new heights.
