Jessica Haney | Jan. 19, 2010
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| Photo by Jessica Haney |
| Junior Elvia Malagon was one of 23 students who attended The New York Times Student Journalism Institute earlier this month. She said she benefited from the intense session working over her story with a New York Times editor. |
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Jan. 2-12, Malagon attended The New York Times Student Journalism Institute, a journalism workshop for college students and graduates sponsored by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the University of Arizona School of Journalism. Malagon was one of 23 students selected from across the country.
For these 11 days, Malagon immersed herself in biography writing, daily stories, Web stories, design and a special projects story, which was the main focus of her week. The students worked with New York Times staff members to come up with original, in-depth assignments. At the conclusion of the program, the students had assembled a newspaper of all their projects.
“I thought, ‘OK, what are people not doing?’” said Malagon of trying to determine a subject. She finally settled on a story about Bhutanese refugees in Tucson.
“I thought that was interesting because how many times do you hear about Bhutan?” said Malagon who had not heard of the country.
Malagon reported on a family of Bhutanese refugees struggling for stability in the U.S. after living in isolation in Bhutan, a country pancaked between China and India. Her article was published on the Institute’s Web site.
Malagon found the editing process for her story to be invaluable, as she spent time with a New York Times editor scrutinizing every sentence of her story. “We sat down for hours, literally hours,” she said. “Sometimes we would spend 10 minutes just on a sentence.”
But the learning experience was worth it, and the time paid off. Malagon said she had excellent practice in collecting more details and really taking a closer look at her writing.
“I felt like that was one of the best stories I’ve ever written, and other students felt that way, too,” about their work, she said.
Malagon learned a lot from her fellow institute members as well. Ranging from sophomores in college to recent college graduates, the pool of students was diverse and unique.
“I really hope the program isn’t the only place I’m going to see them,” she said. Malagon hopes to run into them again during internships, and eventually jobs, she said.
After joining the National Association of Hispanic Journalists last summer, Malagon heard about this opportunity through an e-mail, applied and found out she was selected in November. She plans to intern at The Courier-Journal in Louisville this summer.
Malagon is a School of Journalism ambassador, a beat reporter at the Indiana Daily Student, the vice president of IU’s Society of Professional Journalists chapter, and a leader in Senoritas Latinas Unidas sorority, Sigma Lambda Upsilon.
