I’m a high school senior and aspiring journalist, and this is my first year as staff member of the Oakton Outlook. As a student who has always been very interested in learning about the fundamentals of great journalism along with the latest tools and emerging technologies that are enabling journalists around the world to bring their stories to life, I spent two weeks of my summer in a summer intensive program in New York, where I successfully captured the city’s rich diversity in words, pictures and sounds and learned the essential skills that a reporter needs to know: how to interview everyone from children to celebrities, how to develop news judgment, how to write compelling articles and how to pitch them to editors. I’m hoping to deepen my understanding of the subject by being a part of the school newspaper this year and applying the skills I have learned from New York Times journalists to my articles.