Abby Joyce is a sophomore very active in school clubs, the school newspaper, peer leaders, unified and sports such as soccer, basketball and tennis. Over the summer, Joyce attended the Harvard Crimson Summer Journalism Academy and learned many new skills she is now bringing to her role on the Green Wave Gazette.

Joyce said that what made this program so beneficial was that “everyday was different,” which made it very exciting to attend each day. Joyce explained that “At the beginning of the week we participated in many seminars about the fundamentals of journalism, photography, business, life at college, Op-Eds, scoops, computer formatting, and many more subjects. Also, we toured the Harvard Crimson and gained some insight about the dedication and work needed to produce their paper.”

After that introduction, Joyce said that she and the other students “did many article simulations where we pretended to conduct interviews and construct articles. Then towards the middle of the week, we continued to have seminars and Q&A sessions, but we began planning our own articles.”

Joyce said that after this practice interviewing and construction articles, she and fellow reporters “pitched our topic and if it was approved, we had to go into Harvard Square and interview locals about our topics”

Towards the end of her week, Joyce and other student reporters “finished their articles and had more panel sessions, seminars and exercises.” She then got to watch “our own newspaper that we wrote and formatted being printed.”

In the Harvard Crimson’s Aug. 3  edition, Joyce’s article “Commonwealth Ave. Repairs Cause Traffic” made the first page and she was featured as a Crimson Academy writer.

Although there were a lot of steps in her class prior to the writing process for this article, Joyce said that, “The articles we wrote were topics of our own and we had some free time to research news in Cambridge, Boston, or around the Harvard campus. We presented a pitch and described the purpose of the article and what we wanted the reader to gain from their reading of our article. Then, they were approved. And after rounds of feedback we began writing.”

Joyce learned “how a professional newspaper works on the college level, and how those articles are pitched, written, edited and published.”

She added that although she learned about “proper writing formats and styles” she also learned “how the other aspects of professional journalism such as business, advertising photography and scoops were incorporated into the production.” At the start of this year, Joyce was promoted to the Public Relations manager on the Green Wave Gazette. The first thing that Joyce did in her new role was to create an Instagram account for the school newspaper.

On top of all of the knowledge Joyce gained in Harvard’s summer journalism program, she also met many great people, such as the Harvard students who taught the program. In addition, she met other students who attended this summer academy.  Joyce said that they were “an amazing group” and that they “shared a common passion for journalism.”

When asked what the experience was like, she said “I was able to collaborate and bond with them [fellow students] in and out of the newsroom. I was definitely sad to leave and say goodbye to the friends I made while I was there.” Joyce had said she is so thankful for the Harvard Crimson Summer Journalism Academy and all that it taught her.

When asked what advise Joyce would give to other students, she said they should “get involved and look into programs that interest them.” She believes that finding programs like these that support an interest or passion are “so beneficial and connect you with many knowledgeable and kind people who can really help you benefit from your experience and be able to grow.”