Workshop gives boost to Montgomery High School rising junior
By: Jake Uitti
MONTGOMERY For Meera Jagannathan, an aspiring reporter and resident of the township, journalism is a recent love affair.
"I’ve only known I wanted to do this to be a journalist for a few months now," said Meera with a laugh. "It’s a recent thing."
Her dedication to her work, however, has paid off quickly with multiple publications in The Mosaic, Monmouth University’s Hugh N. Boyd Minorities Journalism Workshop publication, and The Spectrum, a New York University publication.
Meera, who is 16 years old and a rising junior at Montgomery High School, wrote a piece for The Mosaic looking into the difference between the SAT and ACT tests. She also wrote a story discussing the "fine line" between fair criticism in the media and "unfounded allegations."
She writes in her story, titled "Have social critics crossed the line," "We do not have intelligent social commentary anymore. All we have is sheer, dirty entertainment, plain and simple."
She cites Ann Coulter and Michael Moore as two critics who have fired off "useless insults."
Meera said she was chosen out of a large applicant pool to participate in the workshops in Monmouth University and NYU. The group in Monmouth, she said, once it was compiled, worked together for two weeks and produced The Mosaic.
"I was one of 17 people who were chosen for the workshop at Monmouth University," she said. "We had to fill out an application and write an essay and enclose two other writing samples."
The writing samples she submitted were research papers she had written for her English class, on civil rights in America and Shakespeare’s "Othello."
In addition, Meera has worked putting her feet to the pavement at ground zero in lower Manhattan interviewing New Yorkers, including police officers, for The Spectrum finding out how the events of Sept. 11 have affected tourism in the city.
"The police officers said people feel safer since the security has been tightened," Meera said. "I also asked them how they felt about the fifth-year anniversary of Sept. 11 coming up. A lot of people were reluctant and didn’t want to talk, which is understandable."
Though journalism is a recent endeavor for her, Meera said writing has always been in her blood.
"I always wanted to write, I’ve always loved writing," she said. "I was thinking of more practical careers that I could apply for, and I realized journalism appeals to me. I started reading up on it and I decided I wanted to do it. That’s why I did these programs."
In her spare time, Meera works at Rutgers University as a clerical research assistant for a professor who is in the middle of writing a book. "I type his book because he writes long hand," she said. "I also help him edit. It’s pretty cool."
With all of this success at what she loves to do, Meera, who was also a member of her high school track team, still keeps her eye on the future. She plans to continue pursuing journalism in high school, writing for Montgomery High School’s The Paw Print, and hopes to intern at a local paper and "maybe do some freelancing."
After high school, Meera, who has one brother and whose parents are originally from southern India, hopes to attend New York University "because they have a really good school of journalism."