I woke up sad.
Today’s the last day of camp. I’ve waited a year to come back to the High School Journalism Institute. I’ve sung it’s praises as “the best week of the year” to the point of exhausting my friends and colleagues. And it’s almost over.
As I wrote last year, this camp is 50% learning about journalism and 50% nerding out with other journalists. (Okay, it’s more like 20%-80% for the mentors). And like last year, my heart has melted as I watch these high school students make new friends and find their people.
I’ve watched a painfully shy student make new friends and find the courage to raise his voice in group settings. I’ve seen my mentees, two first-year students from opposite sides of the state, grow so close that they follow one another around the cafeteria during meal breaks.
Co-writing, a process that can be fraught in the professional world, is a drastically different experience at journalism camp. Sharing the experience of interviewing strangers – and living through vigorous edits – strengthens new friendships.
As I watch students bicker over grammar and sentence phrasing with their partners, I can’t help but miss the only person I’ve ever enjoyed co-writing with: Samantha Matsumoto, who happens to be an HSJI alumna. I didn’t meet Samantha until we attended the University of Oregon, a few years after she graduated this camp. In a rival newsroom, just an hour away from we are in Corvallis, she and I would work late into the night organizing enterprise stories for the University of Oregon’s Daily Emerald.
I loved that experience. I love her. I love student media. And I can’t overstate how important these collaborative experiences are for shaping young journalists.
Anyway, I’m getting sentimental. Yes, I’m sad that camp is over. But I can’t wait to do it all again in 2024.