Student voices: The bunk beds aren’t so bad

I left my eyes wide open as I stared at the Oregon State University campus in awe. The classic red bricks of the building walls were something I only saw in Google searches. As I opened the stiff door of my dorm room, I was astonished to see bunk beds. I was even more surprised to hear from many of my fellow camp students that they did not have bunk beds. With that envy, I left the room to go to lunch.

I did enjoy the food, especially the popsicles that we could have after meals. Moreover, the people at this camp were very welcoming. Most of us didn’t know each other, and I expected it to take a couple of days for us to begin having conversations. However, we started talking and laughing in a matter of minutes, like we knew each other for months. The challenge course and other team building activities, although they seemed weird in a journalism camp, enabled us to know each other to a greater extent. My excitement for this camp increased after that.

Over the next few days, I really began to understand journalism at a deeper level. The 20 of us were assigned to a group with another student and a mentor. My group was going to cover the Benton County Crisis Center that just opened about a week ago. I enjoyed working with other people, participating in mock interviews, and doing photography with a real camera.

However, I also realized how stressful this process can be. From scrambling to meet deadlines, to dealing with interviewees that change the location of our interviews at the last minute, to sitting through three interviews that were each an hour long, journalists have to make sure they remain calm throughout the entire process. What we found the most challenging was to fit our stories in the word limit.

“What is the word limit that we have for our news story?” we asked our mentor, Austin.

“From 500-750 words,” he replied.

Our rough outline was 380 words itself.

Many people think that journalism involves wearing blazers and traveling to lavish places and meeting high authority people, which can be true. However, it is much more than that. It is a medium to deliver factual information, be the voices of others, and have a high impact in society. The story I’m covering is a great example of it.

While interviewing many individuals, including a county commissioner, the behavioral health director, and employees of the crisis center, we experienced a wide range of emotions coming from them, including pride, joy, hope, grief from previous issues related to mental health, and more.

We tried to stay as strong as possible throughout the process, and keep our emotions to ourselves, even though we sympathize with them in our hearts.

Overall, High School Journalism Institute has been a vital experience in shaping my journalism knowledge and experience. All I would say is that the pain of sleeping on bunk beds was definitely worth it.

— Tashvi Khare, Westview High School