My experience at the School of Journalism’s second Pre-collegiate Investigative Workshop was eye opening. I never realized how much information was out on the web, and how, with the right tools, a journalist can easily find a story.

We discovered in class that you might have a set of information, but the story is not always evident. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find one.

I was taught how to take a set of information and organize it in Excel in order to expose patterns, uncover great outliers, and most importantly, to answer what seems unanswerable. Then I learned how to properly conduct a survey to use for journalistic purposes. Lastly, the instructors showed us how to combine these skills and create a story.

I plan to take both these techniques back to my school and produce a center spread involving wages, college education, and how what students think their wage will be when older is not always realistic.

This workshop gave me a chance to learn more about the journalism world and get hands-on experience. All of the instructors were very knowledgeable and could answer any question we posed. Above all that, everyone involved was welcoming and had a true passion for journalism.

I would highly recommend this workshop for anyone looking into journalism or currently involved in journalism.