Hi everyone! I’m currently a junior and I really want to apply to Northwestern’s Medill Cherubs summer program. The problem is that I basically have no past journalism experience, and from what I saw on the website, they’re looking for people who have strong backgrounds (especially in the application where they state that they strongly recommend samples of articles from high school newspapers). My school doesn’t have a newspaper (although my friend and I are going to start one next year) and our yearbook class is basically a slacker class. I have decent grades, and I’ve taken 5 AP classes so far and I’m currently taking 6. My SAT scores won’t be available for another week (I had to take the February makeup lol) and I think I did decently on it. To anyone who’s attended there before, were there students who had no past experiences like me? Is it worth giving it a shot?
Thanks!
Hi! I was a cherub this summer. Most cherubs had a lot of experience in journalism, and A LOT were even editors-in-chief of their high school newspapers or went to schools with great journalism education programs. I came in to the program as editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper and had done a summer program the year before in digital media & broadcasting, but I felt behind because my high school’s journalism education courses are sub-par.
But there are a lot of things you can do to gain experience and build your resume for your cherubs application. I wrote not only for my high school newspaper, but for some local papers as well. I’d try this, so that you have some clips for your portfolio/application. And if for some reason you can’t write for a local paper, including clips in your cherubs application that you’ve written and haven’t published is better than not including any clips at all. Make sure to include in your essay that you’re starting a school newspaper next year.
Regardless of experience, there is only one thing that you must have to be a cherub (in my opinion): a passion for writing/reporting/journalism.
Did you end up applying? Did you attend the program?? I’m applying this year so I’m just wondering