When Nia arrived at AFS as a seventh grader, she already had a camera in hand and a storyteller’s instinct. Since then, she’s grown that early curiosity into real-world journalism experience. This summer, producing original news segments through WHYY’s Youth Summer Journalism Program. In the conversation below, Nia reflects on her journey, what she’s learned behind and in front of the camera, and why she’s excited to continue studying journalism in college.

When did you first start becoming interested in journalism?

I first started getting into journalism and media-related stuff from a very young age because my mom runs her own social media business. I also just grew up around a lot of technology, like video cameras and tablets, and I'm from a very artsy family. So I always thought that this was something I could see myself doing for a living. Then, I started my own YouTube channel when I was in my sophomore year of high school, because I was just so inspired by what I would see on social media. I just post mostly lifestyle content, daily vlogs, and also a lot of advice videos. I found when I was younger, at least I would love to watch just what people would just do in their day. I would learn a lot of things about myself through the stories of others, and also through their advice, and it helped me. So, I thought, maybe instead of watching, I could also give my take and my perspective to help someone else I plan on continuing to do that in college because it's just something that makes me really happy in my free time. 

Are you planning to pursue journalism in college?

I’m committed to George Washington University, and my major right now is journalism and communication. When I get there, I might double major or switch to public relations and communication because as much as I love being in front of the camera, I can also see myself long term being behind it, doing post-production. I started my YouTube channel because I love being in front of the camera and talking to people, but I’ve also had really good experiences working behind the camera.

Tell me a little bit about the program.

So back in July, I did a summer program with WHYY, it was the Youth Summer Journalism Program. It was my first time doing the program—a lot of the other people I had done the program with had been in similar programs at WHYY offered, and also have repeated the same program because they just loved it so much. I first found out about it from something my mom sent me, and she was like, “Nia, this is right up your alley.” So I signed up.

We had 10 days to make two news segments for the WHYY Education Segments on their YouTube Channel. The two that I made are my mural row, video and also a video talking about what Philadelphia is planning for the 250th anniversary of the nation. I wasn't the only one working on the project I was with, I think three other people for both videos, but they were different people because it was kind of a good experience to, like, see how it was working with other people on a story. 

We got to run a lot of our own interviews and craft our own pitches for what we wanted to do, and also they taught us a lot of stuff about editing, how to run an interview, and how to shoot. So, it was a really good experience.

How did you decide what to cover?

The Mural Row feature was the second video we would do, and we were kind of just pitching ideas of things that we'd heard happening in Philly or in the area that we might want to report on, and we really liked art culture in Philadelphia, and we stumbled upon Mural Row in West Philly, and we noticed that it wasn't something that had been covered a lot because it was relatively new at the time, and we thought it would be a good story to tell.

What did the process of filming for that look like?

For both projects, scheduling interviews was hectic because of how short the turnaround time was. For Mural Row, we emailed five or six artists involved to talk about their process and what they love about West Philly. Many couldn’t meet within our timeline, but when we went to get b-roll, we happened to find two of the artists there. We were able to interview them on the spot since we had our questions prepared.

What was your favorite part of the process, and what was your least favorite part of the process?

One of my favorite parts of the entire program was getting to work with people who are also interested in some of the things that I'm interested in. It was a really positive environment, and I loved brainstorming and collaborating. I also enjoyed meeting the people we interviewed—I love hearing a good story.

The most difficult part was scheduling everything in such a short time while also editing. We used Final Cut Pro, which was new for me: I edit my YouTube videos in CapCut, and even though they’re similar, there were enough differences that I started to get frazzled. Learning a new system quickly was challenging, but with my teammates and instructors, it went smoothly.

What’s your advice for someone looking to make their mark on the media?

Don't be scared to put yourself out there. People can get nervous, but I would say that the best thing I did was put myself out there and challenge myself to do this program because it opens so many doors for me and really built up my confidence, and you can learn so many new things and meet so many great people. So, don’t be afraid to take risks. And do what you love!

And everyone should definitely go check out some of the other other videos that were produced, um, for the program that I did because a lot of the other students and young journalists had some really great stories and some really great work, and I was just honored to be around so many. You can watch them on the WHYY Education YouTube channel.