Politico and WJLA trip

Today is our last day at Georgetown, and it's safe to say that the past three weeks in D.C. went by too fast. This program has been a truly unique experience and a lot different from my expectations. First of all, I didn't think that there would be only 20 kids in the program. It was weird at first, but having such a small group turned out to be a positive thing. We all got to know each other, which would not have happened if there were 100 students here. Also, I didn't think we would be learning about journalism in such a hands-on way. In past journalism workshops I've attended, the classes were mostly lecture-based. In this workshop, I got to do some amazing things that I might not ever be able to do again, like sit in on a Pentagon press briefing, or speak to the First Lady's press secretary.

Yesterday we visited the Politico newsroom and the WJLA studio. This was an exciting field trip because we got to see a typical newsroom in action. Several editors and writers took the time out of their day to talk to us and give us the inside information on life as a journalist. One thing that surprised me was how young some of the journalists were. Several of them had recently graduated from college. Going to the WJLA studio was also a fascinating experience. It made me appreciate news anchors a lot more because I can only imagine how difficult it is to read of a teleprompter so quickly and still sound natural. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice people were in the newsrooms, and how they were willing to talk to us high school students.