College Admissions Advice

SJP '10 students Maria Paredes, Franklin Lee and Alfonso Toro gather in the common room.

By Alfonso Toro Jr. (Bell Gardens, CA)

In the midst of all confusion, frustration, curiosity, and wonder about the whole college application process, which is the group on which you can always depend on? The Princeton Summer Journalism Program!

One of the greatest feelings in the world is knowing that you have someone there to comfort and answer some of the hundreds of questions one may have.

At SJP, each participant is put into newspaper teams that are categorized as The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and my own, The New York Times. Every student can easily relate to each other’s experiences since all of the students are all going through the same college application process and search. When I first found out about this program, the three facts that intrigued me the most were first, that it was about journalism. Second, that it was held at my dream university and third, it was all expense-paid! There is no better combination or deal that I can imagine.

The program is scheduled for ten days, but the beauty about it all, as I was informed today, is the fact that the counselors actually stay and help you out throughout the whole college admissions process. It's barely day two and it passed in a flash, I just cannot wait to see what exciting new things we are going to learn next. SJP is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The World of Ideas

By Patricia Gutierrez (Santa Maria, Calif.)

I am amongst intellectuals -- a realization that finally planted its seed in my mind during today's first workshop, "What is Journalism?" By Richard Just '01 (SJP director and managing editor of The New Republic). I was filled with the sort of happiness that can only be properly compared to the happiness that one might feel when reuniting with a far-flung relative. A feeling of comfort, expectation, of ultimate satisfaction.

Although we had, in a discussion on the first night, established what it meant to be an intellectual, among other things and throughout earlier discussions that have taken place. I found myself taken aback in a profound way by what the other participants had to say and it hadn't registered what a rare opportunity for me this was to be among such intelligent people.

Even on the first night of discussions, while some people, including me, were hesitant about participating in the discussion, many students set a standard for a level of understanding for the discussion. As Richard explained, we don't want to be tolerant of each other, we want to be respectful. It's important to challenge each other during the program so that it's an intellectually stimulating experience for everyone.

Morning Walk to the Friend Center Newsroom

Video Clip: Students walk from the Scully Hall Dormitories to the Friend Center every morning.

Seeing the Atlantic Ocean for the First Time

SJP '10 students from California are brought to campus by counselor Melisa Gao '06 (far left) 

By Franklin Lee (Los Angeles, CA)

Today I was honored to be given a chance to see the Atlantic Ocean through the window of a Continental Airlines airplane for the very first time.

The tiring yet exciting ride to Princeton University seemed to symbolically foreshadow the ten days I would spend in the journalism program. My first day here only confirms my prediction. As other students from New York and Maryland trickled into the room, we were able to discuss the wonderful articles we had read in advance for the program.

"My favorite articles were on the medical doctors," I confided.

"Yeah! And I also liked articles based off of a picture online. I thought the writing style was very unique," Yared Portillo, another student from California, said.

Our conversations between lunch and dinner strengthened our bond and by the time we went on to the  college tour and our first journalism workshop, I knew that the next ten days would be a wonderful experience that I will remember for a very long time. Though I have high expectations for the program, I am sure they will not only fulfilled but also exceeded.

A Fun Start to SJP Summer 2010

Firestone Library at Princeton University, the world's largest open-stack library. 

By Antonio Regulier (Roosevelt, NY)

Wow. I can't believe I made it to Princeton. This is a dream come true. The campus itself is beautiful, large and definitely welcoming. The food is, umm, we'll just cover that another time. The counselors are great. Their personalities, character, just everything about them is just awesome.

Before we left for dinner, a group of students, counselors and I played, "Zoom, Miglafigleano", which sounds strange but was a lot of fun and a nice balance to the serious parts of the program (which are also fun). During our group discussion tonight, we covered heavy topics such as why diversity in the newspaper makes a difference. Richard played the side of "devil's advocate" during most of the discussion and we realized that there was a purpose to the existence of the program. He brought us back to our starting point and challenged us to think about whether a news reporter can completely set aside their bias and be objective.

When I looked at the schedule today, I thought "Wow, this is intense." But I'm ready for whatever challenges the program may bring and the reason why is because I have the support of a newly found family.

First Day Nerves

 

Chancellor Green at Princeton was the University's first official library when it opened in 1875. 

By Maria Paredes (Gaithersburg, MD)

Waking up this morning was like every other morning -- the feeling has not hit me yet.

I sort of know what's waiting for me: PRINCETON, ten days of journalism.

7:50AM hits, 8:00AM kicks in.

Knowing that my train leaves for D.C. in ten minutes, I hurry to catch the 8:10AM train with my bags packed, sitting in my seat, reading the paper.

At that moment I felt independent, a grown-up, if you wish. As the clock ticks I head towards my train -- would I miss it? Did I come too early? Do I really have to finish reading the assigned articles I haven't finished yet on the train ... ? As I get on the train my mind races.

I am actually on my own, actually leaving for Princeton. As I hear Trenton's stop being called, my heart stops. I had arrived in New Jersey and was going to Princeton. I felt it in the pit of my stomach and I'm still nervous as I write this blog post.

It's not a dream, it's reality.

Welcome to SJP 2010 Online!

Every summer, we make an effort to significantly increase the amount of time we spend teaching new media to better equip them for the real world. This summer, in addition to updating this blog several times a day, we're having the students use Twitter (@PrincetonSJP) which is linked to our Facebook Page (where we have more than 140 characters to expand on what went on during sessions, etc.) and new this year -- we've created a Tumblr Page (we're trying to make everyone aware of how hipster SJP is). :)

Follow us this week and hope you enjoy the ride!

LINK: Meet the SJP 2010 Students.

SJP Alumni visit Princeton

By Tasnim Shamma (Jamaica, NY)

Today, four of the six SJP alumni who were admitted to Princeton from this past summer visited the school. At the activities fair, I was able to interview them about where they hoped to attend. Watch the videos below:

Asmaa Rimawi (SJP '09) of Brooklyn, NY is a senior at Al-Noor High School, where she is student body president. She was recently named a Gates Millennium Scholar and New York Times Scholar (the scholarship includes a summer internship at The New York Times). She is deciding between Princeton, Harvard and Yale and says she is currently leaning toward Princeton.



Stacey Menjivar (SJP '09) of Hyattsville, MD is a senior at High Point High School, where she is editor-in-chief of her school newspaper, The Beacon. She is deciding between Princeton and Dartmouth and says she is currently leaning toward Princeton.



Maria Guardado (SJP '09) of Milpitas, CA is a high school senior at Milpitas High School, where she is a member of her school's cross country and track teams. She is deciding between Princeton, Yale and Stanford.



Hojung Lee (SJP '08) of Ellicott City, MD is a senior at Mount Hebron High School who has won numerous journalism awards and honors. Most recently, she participated in a multimedia program at The Washington Post. She is deciding between Harvard and Princeton.



-- Shamma is the executive editor for multimedia at The Daily Princetonian, a junior at Princeton and a 2006 alumna of the Princeton University Summer Journalism Program. She returned this summer to volunteer as a counselor.

Revolutionizing my school newspaper

By Gohar Chichian (Queens, NY)

"We're beginning to think about who next year's editors should be," my journalism advisor began today in class. The impact of her words hit me a moment later as she continued to discuss an upcoming trip for the current editors. We had gone to the conference before as fledgling editors, but as the year had progressed, we had grown. Assertive. Confident. Educated. Now it was time to pass the torch and take two new editors with us, and to welcome them into the world of journalism — where truth (if not censored) awaited, along with lessons on nut grafs, Stephen Glass and other forms of media.  

Where had the time gone? I wondered as I walked up to some of my underclassmen friends, urging them to replace us as next year's executive editors. We discussed our mistakes, our challenges, and our successes of the year in comparison to last year's editors. Though it had been rough and at times seemed a battle not worth fighting, being an executive editor had allowed me to find purpose and passion for a class that seemed dull last year. I have SJP and the friends I made there to thank for that.

When I got back from SJP and school started, I released a firestorm of new ideas for lessons and approaches to the class, and my advisor was infected by my enthusiasm as well. I found myself looking up examples of articles, creating worksheets, and using jokes from SJP to teach the class. I tried to spread my passion for journalism through the class, and show the gifts SJP had provided me with: confidence, passion, a purpose. As the year progressed, problems arose: broken printers, Internet connection problems, as well as censorship.

However, SJP had taught me that this was part of the process. We only needed to get back up, pick up where we had been before, and find a new approach in order to forge a path toward success and the print our stories. Though our newspaper, The Academy Gazette, is not as successful as some of those school newspapers that have been around for many years, like those that we have seen in journalism conferences we attended, I'd like to think that we did pretty well. We are on the verge of publishing our second issue, and edits of stories for the third issues are being made. When the first issue was published, there was nothing more satisfying than seeing my byline (except for when it was in The Princeton Summer Journal).

The class has been hectic, frustrating, and trying at times; but my passion and strength from SJP has allowed me to resolve to keep going. And as I reflect back on times with friends that I know will stick around for a long time, whether it is through an email or a Facebook comment, I'd just like to say one thing: I miss it dearly. (Along with the Bent Spoon's ice cream! =] Especially with the hot weather coming around ... )

SJP application deadline is fast approaching

The application deadline for summer 2010 is this Thursday, February 5th, 2010. It may be downloaded here: http://www.princeton.edu/sjp.

The 2010 program will run from Friday, July 30, to Monday, August 9.

Reporting for The Washington Post

By Hojung Lee (Ellicott City, MD)

A pen, a reporter's notepad and a tape recorder: these used to be all the materials I needed to report these past few years. This past summer, however, I carried around an SLR digital camera and a Marantz PMD660, a professional portable digital recorder.

I was fortunate in being selected for The Washington Post Digital Workshop, a 5-day, intensive course teaching us how to incorporate multimedia in our reporting and show viewers something more than the written word.

When two of my fellow journalists and I pitched a story about how the recession affects schools around the D.C. metropolitan area, we struggled with how we could execute the piece successfully through multimedia. After all, visual effects are the linchpins of multimedia -- but we were unable to show the strong visual side of the story such as the lack of teachers and big classroom sizes because schools were empty over the summer. Time was ticking and we had to prove to our supervisors that we could make this work.

I bombarded principals and communications officers in the D.C. metropolitan area with phone calls and emails. The waiting time for their responses was agonizing but as replies came, some schools informed me that they were going through renovations and construction. This led to a conclusion that even though schools face economic hardships with teachers' salaries being frozen and students' families suffering from housing foreclosures, schools were trying their best to maintain the status quo by prioritizing education and providing a good learning environment.

We then plunged ourselves in interviews, working simultaneously with audio recording and photographs. This was very tricky to do because the photographer had to make sure every second that he or she takes photos, the audio recorder was not playing so that the camera shutter sound wouldn't interfere with the speaker's recorded voice. After hours of interviewing, traveling, and iPhone map navigating, I got back to the newsroom of the Post, exhausted. Now it was time for the hardest, most time-consuming part of the job: editing.

Overall, my group had over 700 photos and about two hours of recording. From this, we could only choose 20 photos and 2 minutes of recordings for about a three-minute-long audio slideshow. In addition,  all of the different audio recordings and photos had to be arranged so that it flowed and connected thematically.

The task was burdensome, especially because we only had a few days to complete the project. On top of a stack of photos and voice recordings, we also had to master Mac software we were unfamiliar with. We had to make sure that every second of the edited voice recording did not abruptly start or end,  that the volume was high enough, that there was natural sound incorporated with the human voice, that sometimes the voice fades in and out and that the timing of photos matched the recordings. Fortunately, with generous help from the Post's multimedia journalist volunteers, we made the deadline and left the Post building, fatigued, eyes bloodshot but ultimately proud of our work.

This experience was not just about handling fancy equipment or meeting renowned and well-recognized Post journalists. Rather, it was an opportunity that opened up a door for me to the world of journalism and the digital era -- journalism is no longer just about pens, notepads, and tape recorders. It is also about adapting to the new age of multimedia.

--Hojung Lee is a senior at Mount Hebron High School and a 2008 alumna of the Princeton University Summer Journalism Program. 

Behind the scenes at The Daily Princetonian: Writing Obituaries

By Tasnim Shamma (Jamaica, NY)

Yesterday was extremely draining. Having woken up at 7:30 A.M. for some odd reason, I could already sense that it was going to be a long day.

Sudoku-ing the stress away

 

(Photo Credit: Blogger.com)

By Vanessa Flores-Maldonado (Los Angeles, California)

Yes, dear friends, I am addicted to Sudoku.

I know, I know, I should not be wasting time playing this wonderful game especially when my "To Do List" is equivalent in  size to the encyclopedia, but I need Sudoku.

Everyone has their own thing when they are stressed. Some cry, others draw, maybe they'll even break out in song. And while I do many other things to relax, I would say that when I start playing Sudoku, I really really am stressed out.

And how could I not be? College applications, internship, AP classes, family! Oh, and Questbridge due in 2 weeks!

While I am super excited for graduation (9 months! exactly), time really is going by. I mean, wasn't it just the other day that we were being held up by Chiquita Bandita?

It's our last year of high school before we disseminate (SAT WORD!) into the world. We are off to college, starting our own lives, getting our first jobs, meeting new people, and just being on our own. It's quite surprising how we just have months before we are thrust into the world.

I'm excited.

But, in order to make sure that I'll be able to survive said world, I should finish up all work I have for my classes, SAT prep, internship, newspaper (editor in chief :D), senior project, and make take a breather somewhere in that list.

As soon as I finish playing this round of Sudoku.

Funding a high school newspaper

By A.J. Kazlouski (Colorado Springs, CO) 

The Sentinel, our school paper of which I am the Chief Designer, is completely broke. In fact, we're $1,000 in the hole. Plus, we're hitting a rough patch in finding advertisements.

This is a bit of a problem.

Tomorrow we're doing an advertising blitz, and we'll probably do something similar next Saturday as well. It's a ridiculous process trying to get ads.

A lot of the time you get shut down, a lot of the time you try and try with no luck. It gets disheartening, for sure. But we can't put out our first issue if we don't have the funds to produce it, because we obviously can't stack up any more debt. It just astounds me how local businesses don't jump on the idea of getting ads right where students are looking!

Hopefully it all works out. I'll send an e-mail to the local library to see if they're interested right after I finish this blog post.

Also, college stuff is really getting to me. I'm freaking out a bit. But I don't feel like writing about it in hopes that I can get my mind off of it for just a second.

The SJP support network

 From left, top row: SJP founding director Greg Mancini '01, counselor Ben Crair (UPenn '07), SJP founding director Richard Just '01. Bottom row: Counselor Becky Myers (Duke '04), SJP founding director Michael Koike '01, counselor Melisa Gao '06 and SJP founding director Rich Tucker '01. (Photo Credit: Brian Rokus '99)

By Alexandria Sharpe (Brooklyn, NY)

I see it already in my fellow SJP students: stress over the college application process. What I also see is gratefulness that we have the support of everyone from the Princeton University Summer Journalism Program.

This is the beginning of the process but I have already needed their support, and for that I have not had to look far.

So far I have shared excitement with Amanda Cormier (SJP '07/Columbia ’12) over going to schools on the same island, picked Keith Griffin’s (SJP '05/Princeton ’10) brain about the world, received extremely useful SAT prep advice from Rubén Gaytan Lemus (SJP '07/Yale ’12), blasted e-mails out to two of the four SJP founding directors Richard Just '01 and Greg Mancini '01, quizzed Andrew Boryga (SJP '08/Cornell ’13) on the world of early decision, shared my college concerns with another student Reem Abdou, maintained a close bond with my former roommate and “California sister” Joanne Yi and bugged Tasnim Shamma (SJP '06/Princeton ’11) on just about EVERYTHING (all while keeping up a Facebook thread with students Ana Rivera, Brianda Reyes, Jancey Taveras and Melissa Sanchez).

The students I mentioned have said that they don’t know what they would be doing if it were not for SJP. The truth is, many of us would have been lost. I keep it in my mind and I hope all fellow SJP '09 students do as well: we all have the support of one another during this pivotal process.

While all seniors from our respective high schools will be feeling the same, we are the fortunate few who have had this experience.

Now a month has passed since we all stayed at an Ivy League University with students from all around the country who shared a common interest. Although plane tickets and train tickets parted our ways, we still stay in touch. This is what is important because it is the encouragement we have from each other that will keep us determined to succeed in the college admissions process.

I miss you all and I wish you the best of luck.

College admissions fatigue

By Jay Kim (Los Angeles, California)

It’s been a couple of weeks since SJP ’09 met its closure. But those goodbyes and those tears were only the beginning of a what has already proven will be a very long journey..

I remember walking behind SJP founding director Michael Koike '01, who was helping me with a suitcase that was now filled with SAT review material and college guide books, thinking, “it seemed like yesterday I walked down this very road behind Tasnim (SJP '06/Princeton '11) to meet our SJP intern Izzy (Isabel Schwab '11) for the first time, and to enter that Scully dorm room that housed me for 10 days, and now we’re walking down the same path only to go back home.” I remember feeling that unsettling heaviness in my heart when I departed California on July 31st, wondering if I would get along with anyone or if I would actually enjoy the experience..

But my own feelings right now and those I felt on the day that I left are proof of how wrong I was. SJP has been a “life changing experience” and as cliché as that sounds, it's true..

I’m a high school senior now and walking down the corridors and the packed hallways of my overcrowded high school of 4,500, I see the scared and sometimes excited faces of freshmen. I can easily pick out the students who have arrived straight from middle school – it’s just too easy. But seeing their small and innocent faces reminds me of myself when I entered those daunting high school gates, and I laugh. It’s fun to reminisce about how long you’ve come along – about how much you’ve grown.

I see those freshmen and I think, “they’ll be going through what I’m feeling now in exactly 3 years, and they have no idea what it’s like to be feeling like this.”.

This whole college process is wearing me down. I’m sick – maybe a sign of my fatigue or lack of sleep, but a definite hindrance to my motivation. Coming back home from Princeton, I was charged and motivated; I knew what I had to do and what I wanted. But being home and being at Princeton is different, perhaps far too different to even describe. I miss the Princeton that made me felt like I was on top of the world and that with simple effort and motivation anything could be tackled and conquered..

Back home in California it’s quite different. I asked one classmate, who is ranked among the top five at my school, where he wanted to attend for college. He replied nonchalantly, “Princeton’s my first choice.” I simply shifted my eyes towards my new shiny binder and didn’t say anything afterwards. My top choice is Princeton too. Though there’s competition, I never imagined that hearing those words coming from the science bowl captain’s mouth would scare me that much.

Maybe it’s because Princeton helped me to finally realize that I’m actually at that “fork in the road,” and that I need to muster the courage and effort to pick it up and try my best in the college admissions process*. And that this fork in the road will determine a large portion of my life. I’m hoping that I’ll look back on this blog post several months from now and laugh, in the same exact manner I laugh when I think about my freshmen year. I’m hoping that a couple of months from now, despite the struggles in between, the road I’ll be traveling on will be the better of the two from the fork..

And until that day, I will continue to fight on to get into the best college I can. Discouraged or not, the whole war is about fighting until death. Not literally, of course.

*An inside joke - Woodrow Wilson School professor Stan Katz encouraged SJPers to "take the fork in the road" and a student thought the expression meant there was a literal fork in the middle of the road one must pick up.

Returning to Colorado ... and school

A.J. Kazlouski helps lay out the paper on the last night. (Photo Credit: Joanne Yi).

By A.J. Kazlouski (Colorado Springs, CO)

When we all went our separate ways home, we were all having a rough time. We all couldn't help but cry a little, or a lot, we all had our problems at the airport (some more than others), and I learned a lot of us still had some summer school work to do. I had some to do. I still do, actually. But the one thing that I dealt with that thankfully no one else had to after SJP was the first day of school...the very next day.

My flight on August 10 landed around 10. Then from Denver, it took about an hour and a half to get back to Colorado Springs... and after the last ten days, I just couldn't go to sleep! I had to talk about it all! I don't remember when I went to sleep that night, but probably later than I should have!

I woke up this morning, 5:45 am, bright and early! I got to see my girlfriend for a little, and I'm ECSTATIC. But 7:15 rolls around, so I go off to something else I love... our high school paper The Sierra Sentinel, Journalism II, Period 1. There's not TOO much explanation about Princeton, considering we have new students to train, but I show off The Princeton Summer Journal to the other editors...who love it! I pretty much blab about Princeton the whole rest of the day whenever I could, though.

It's now 9:15 pm and I'm exhausted. But as happy as I am to be here with my girlfriend, my newspaper, my mom, my dogs, my friends, and everyone and everything else ... It still kills me knowing the friends I made at the SJP are so far away. So, in a long, roundabout way, I just wanted to say I love you all. Students, directors, counselors, the intern, speakers ... you're all so incredible. It may be cliché at this point, but I know we'll be together again.

Returning to California

SJPers depart from Scully Hall to the airport and train station to return home. (Photo Credit: Brian Rokus '99). 

By Joanne Yi (Los Angeles, CA)

Leaving Princeton was such a stressful time for the students flying back. After we parted with the group heading up to New York, the airport group and I faced a lot of problems: malfunctioning of the airtrain, terrible service at the Continental desk and, worst of all, major delay aboard the plane. Throughout the whole time, many of us felt so much anxiety and frustration. Why should going home be so hard? I ended up arriving in L.A. at 1 in the morning.

Despite the craziness of the last day, I miss it all. When I woke up this morning, it was unnatural that I did not have a door banging alarm to wake me up. It was odd that when I went to the bathroom, Alex was not next to me so that we could brush our teeth together. It was strange that I was not surrounded by all the SJPers in the Scully Hall Commonroom on the third floor. No more meals at Rockefeller, no more sleepless nights, no more fickle weather. No more friendly counselors, no more intelligent peers, no more atmosphere of motivation.

I know that we will always have Facebook, Twitter, AIM, cell phones, Skype, Oovoo, and all the many forms of communication to make us feel as if we were next to one another, but it will never be the same. The 10 days are over. Even though I won't see some of the people ever again, the memories will always be with me, and that is most important. The things I learned, the things i did have influenced me and will continue to in the future as I and my fellow SJPers apply for college and go on to do great things with our lives.

SJP 2009 Slideshow

A video showcasing the week's activities by SJP counselor Amanda Cormier (SJP '07/Columbia '12).

Read The Princeton Summer Journal

After 10 days of hard work interviewing, reporting and writing, students produced The Princeton Summer Journal. Read it here.