Counselor Tatiana catches the golden hour as she gives HSJI journalists a tour of the campus.             -Photo by Alexa Orozco

For Leah Hurwitt, Kayla Cruz, Kyla Ticer and hundreds of other students there was no better place to kick start their careers in journalism than at Indiana University. The girls are attending the High School Journalism Institute at IU where the program provides a number of workshops that concentrate on  journalism.

Ticer and Cruz both attend the feature writing workshop. They intend to help the community and report the truth with their stories.

Ticer, who funnels her journalism skills in an organization named Teamwork Englewood, said  “We write articles and we spread the word of what we’re doing and how we’re trying to change things in Chicago.”

Teamwork Engle, according to Ticer, aims to “revise the Englewood quality of life plan” and is the reason Ticer joined the program.

Cruz and Ticer both endured a four-hour drive from Chicago in order to attend the institute and have wandered through the campus grounds with friends. Cruz and her friends have been down to Kirkwood and visited some of Bloomington’s key IU restaurants.

Cruz said, “I have been in my newspaper for almost two years now. Freshman year I had to take a class and see if my paper was accepted and it was so I became and editor.”

Cruz used to be a feature editor in her school and for her upcoming junior year she will be a design editor. Upon returning to her school, she plans to help her feature writers with advice she learned at IU.

Cruz said, “A hook, writing about a hook. I always struggled with that and now since I’m learning more in the feature writing workshop it’s helping me become a better and stronger writer.”

Hurwitt, who lives in Evanston, Illinois and is enrolled in the yearbook workshop, is going into her senior year as a managing editor who will work closely with the editor-in-chief.

Hurwitt said, “I want to work on being a good leader getting stuff done by soft deadline rather than the hard deadline.”

Ticer plans to return to Teamwork Engle this Friday with new advice to help on their goal.

Ticer said, “Just try to be yourself and there is always a story to tell.”