Spring Break
Long shot for Luna
New Media Comm student spends 10 days in Miami training with veteran journalists from The New York Times
Shanna Woodruff
Issue date: 1/21/09 Section: News
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The New York Times Journalism Institute is a 10-day program where students are selected by a panel of journalists at The New York Times.
Those that wish to apply must submit an essay, examples of their published writing, editing clips or portfolios and a resumé of their journalism experience, including a recommendation.
Luna originally heard about the institute from an e-mail sent by the National Association of Hispanic Journalism (NAHJ), of which she is a member. From Jan. 2 through 12, The New York Times Journalism Institute was offered specially for student members of the NAHJ.
The program is very competitive. "It was a long shot," Luna said, but thanks to the encouragement of others she was able to complete the application.
Luna received a phone call from a Times reporter, which was the last part of the selection process.
"I was so shocked to get a call from The New York Times that I almost flubbed the interview," Luna said.
The next step was to head to Florida to study with veteran journalists and professionals.
While in Florida, the students attended a series of workshops, and completed a strenuous project working alongside veterans of The New York Times.
Don Hecker is the director of the New York Times Student Journalism Institute, and was assigned to work with Luna.
The workshops covered various topics from how to do interviews and different techniques for finding information among other journalistic skills. "It was really good to hear the best of the best telling you how to do it," Luna said.
Working on the project was an all day process that lasted three or four days.
The students arrived each morning at 8:30 when the newsroom opened and often worked until 2 a.m. the next morning.
Luna worked on her story with Hecker analyzing every sentence. "We went through like five drafts together," Luna said, "it was awesome because you learn how important every word in your story is."
"Taryn and I worked closely together on a story that ended up on page one of the newspaper that we publish at the end of the Institute," Hecker said.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Pamela Cytrynbaum
posted 1/21/09 @ 2:22 PM PST
My colleagues and I are are thrilled -- but not surprised -- by Taryn's success. It's been clear from the beginning of her time here that she has what it takes to do this kind of great work. (Continued…)
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