Heart In Two Places: Journalism and Education, Why I Love Both
Journalism is my first love. I fell in love with it way back in my junior year of high school, and we’ve been going strong ever since. While I know my love for media production, journalism, and activism will never truly go anywhere, I find myself falling in love with a different sector of the journalistic world. That being, media education.
For the past two summers, I’ve been media-educating at Temple University through their University Community Collaborative (UCC). The UCC is a nonprofit organization located on Temple University’s campus, and it runs after-school/summer media programming for High School students in the city. Alongside that, ever since I became co-editor-in-chief of Arcadia’s University publication practicum course, Loco Mag, I’ve been facilitating the classroom with the other magazine executives. If I’m being honest, I’m falling head over heels in love, with standing in front of a classroom.
What I especially love about media education is being able to highlight under-told stories, especially from the perspective of young people. Politically, young people are hardly involved in the conversation, especially conversations that concern them. It’s empowering to amplify a student’s voice, to see what they think about the world.
Two summers ago I supported a group of students in the creation of a profile video. This was during the Canadian wildfires that happened back in 2023. One student in this group had asthma and felt personally fearful of the aftereffects of the fires. She ended up being our subject for the profile piece, and she was able to use the video to express some real frustrations concerning the rapid changes in our earth’s climate.
It was amazing to see, especially because she was initially hesitant to make the video since it explored her own feelings about the world. I remember her telling me early on in the pre-production, that nobody cares about how a teenager feels about climate change. That’s when I knew I had to do everything I could to make sure this video happened, because I care about how a teenager feels about climate change, and I know others will too.
The magic for me is seeing a team come together, pick a topic they care about, and the messy production process that ensues. Not to mention, being the educator who supports the magic is just as fun. It’s filled with laughs, mistakes, deep discussions, and sometimes boredom. It can get difficult, messy, and frustrating. Production is hard, and teenagers trying to learn and execute large journalistic projects is no easy feat, but the students I work with are resilient and passionate. Once you find a topic they’re interested in, you’ll see it all start to unfold.
This past summer, I helped support another group of students in making an explainer video that explored racism within online communities. The group I worked with were avid gamers, who all experienced racism at one point or another within online spaces. They got a chance to bring awareness to this issue, and it allowed them to unpack some of the negative experiences they’ve had.
As someone who doesn’t game much myself, I was deeply interested in their experiences and how they impacted them. Some students described fun-killing scenarios where someone called them slurs over a game of Madden. Other students described logging off of certain games to avoid toxicity. These were all disheartening stories to hear, especially about students I care for so much. Nevertheless, we used their negative experiences to put together an informative video that educates other people about navigating racism within online spaces. Doing something positive with all the negative things happening in the world, that’s what I enjoy the most.
A week ago, I had the opportunity to go to the Journalism Education Association (JEA) “For The Love Of Journalism” conference. For those who aren’t familiar, it’s a journalism conference for high school students and educators, and they come together to discuss different projects, nonprofits, and organizations that do work revolving around student journalism. Different publications come out to showcase different programs, and several seminars and panels take place. I was lucky enough to be presenting with PBS Newshour Student Reporting Labs, as we showcased the “Run, Hide, Fight: Growing Up Under The Gun” documentary alongside showcasing the winter and spring academys’ that they run during the school year.
It was lots of fun presenting, but also nerve-wracking. To be honest with you, I thought everyone in the audience was so cool. They were all high school students interested in journalism, and many were taking notes and asking questions. They were such engaged young people, it was so lovely to see. Especially because I remember being in their shoes when I was in high school, so I was especially honored to be there. I was also honored to have students come up to me and ask me questions and for my contact information. I hope to be someone they can network with in the future.
As I fall deeper into the education world, I find myself wanting more. So much so that in my very last semester of college, I’m taking an education class. I decided to sign up for an education class that ticks off one of the five courses I’d need for a teaching certification, which I plan to explore later down the road. However, I plan to continue my experience in educator spaces, with or without a certificate, as I can continue educating part-time under other after-school/summer programs.
I find myself hoping to be in a classroom, teaching other kids journalism and media production. Imagine the things we could tackle, the activism that would ensue, the voices that would be heard! I hope to be the kind of teacher to show my students that they have a voice and that they should use it. Especially in a world like this one.
