by: Meir Barg
On Monday, November 3, I had the pleasure of attending a journalism program for select school publications across the country at Columbia University along with six other members of Eye of the Storm and Ms. Burstein, faculty adviser. The program was designed to teach us how to publish a successful student newspaper. We left after Davening and reached the beautiful campus just in time for the first of five instructive sessions throughout the day. The program was organized spectacularly; instead of the hundreds of visiting students being forced to hear the same five speakers and discuss the same five topics for all five of the sessions, each student was able to choose from over ten topics and speakers to learn from during each session. In fact, Ms. Burstein recalled that the program had the same great structure as it had back when she attended as a student in Frisch.
The first session I went to was led by Columbia Professor Michael Lydon. It was called “The Music of Writing”. Professor Lydon explained the crucial fact that writing is based on sound, and that if you want your readers to enjoy an article, the sentences you write and the words you choose must flow together so that the reader does not get lost in a jumble of words. A useful trick that I learned was that after writing a sentence, I should read it out loud and see if there is a good rhythm to it. If it flows in your mind, it will flow in the reader’s.
Another session I attended was given by the very funny Adam Goldstein, who works for the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit organization that works with student newspapers to make sure that they are protected by the law whenever writers are accused of libel or ordered to reveal a confidential source for an article. Goldstein’s job is to answer any questions a student might have with regards to the legality of an article. With his hilarious jokes, Goldstein was a comedian in addition to an expert on journalism. He taught us about libel, confidentiality, and the 1st ammendment. Although I do not think I will ever be in a position where a court order will be trying to force me to reveal the identity of a secret source, it was still very interesting to learn the rights of a reporter and to now be able to partake in a conversation regarding them.
While I was at my sessions, the other Eye of the Storm members were at many different ones as well. Editor-in-chief Yoni Friedman attended one session called “How to Motivate Your Staff,” all about staff motivation and organization. The most important thing Yoni took out of the Columbia program was that “a strong structure must be set in place if you want to be able to do things smoothly.”
Akiva Hirsch (‘17) also had a fantastic experience on the trip. As someone who loves to write, Akiva signed up for the program with the hope that he would learn how to improve his writing. He attended one session called “A Basic Overview of Poetry” that wound up being his favorite. He learned about many rhetorical devices that he had not previously thought to use in his writing. In addition, Akiva was taught that in order “to write in the voice of someone else, you must learn how that person would say and do everything.” You must not only sound like the person, but you must also be the person. Now, Akiva is very confident that he will be able to write about interviews by using strategic poetic devices to better convey the essence of the person he interviewed.
When all eight of us finally met after all five of the amazing sessions had ended, we discussed each of the sessions we attended and what we had learned from them. It was quite obvious from the boundless enthusiasm with which we related our experiences that every one of us had had a superb time on the trip. Moreover, we all gained a new respect and appreciation for the idea of a student newspaper. As Ms. Burstein accurately put it, “[the program] reinforced the notions that students have important opinions and thoughts to address and share and that they should be provided with the medium to do so.” Eye of the Storm is that medium.