My time at the Greene Institute was eye opening…  

 This summer I got to attend the Robert W. Greene Summer Institute for High School Journalists at SUNY Stony Brook University. This one-week program allowed me to learn new journalistic skills in news reporting, writing, editing and using video.  

 Before arriving on campus, we already had our first assignment: I had to write a profile on my assigned partner, Divina Boko from Freeport High School. After completing the profile, we had to meet with an editor to be ready to publish when arriving on campus.  

 When I arrived on campus, I’m not going to lie, I was nervous about many things, but my main worry was WHO IS MY ROOMATE?  I had to spend seven days sharing a room with a stranger. What if she didn’t like me? What if she was mean? 

Luckily, she was not; in fact, she was the complete opposite. My roommate and I clicked immediately, and we bonded over how nervous we both were.

I finally settled in after unpacking with my stressed mother and determined father. I realized after the second trip to the car that I may have overpacked.  

We headed to a brief meeting with our RAs and then said our goodbyes to our parents. Even though they were just eighteen minutes away, I was still going to miss them.  

We got right to work after saying goodbye to our parents. 

We had our first lesson from Zach R. Dowdy, an instructor of the Stony Brook Journalism program. This was followed by a lesson from Professors Rick Ricioppo and Phil Attire.  

 The skills that we learned the first two days would lead us to be able to write an article, produce a video, and take still photographs of the story that was assigned to our team.  

 The rest of the week was very productive — conducting interviews to attending press conferences to attending a film festival. Everyone was working hard on their stories to be ready to publish by Friday.

We truly made the most of our time. Later on in the week we got to tour Newsday and enjoy a Long Island Duck’s baseball game.  

 Along with working on our stories, we also produced four sets of newscasts on screen and off screen.

This truly made me appreciate the executive producer of my school’s broadcast.  As a co-anchor, I never really get to work behind the scenes, being at Greene made me realize the hard work and dedication it takes. 

“Seeing these high schoolers put these stories together was a truly an amazing thing to witness. They put their blood and sweat into their work, and it truly showed,” said Miles Reese, sophomore from Stony Brook School of Communication & Journalism. 

My time at the Greene Institute was truly an immeasurable and insightful experience. I’m so grateful for all the friendships and memories that I made.