Students at The School of The New York Times are involved in reporting, creative and leadership roles for various school newspapers, extracurricular activities and internships. Many of our students have also had their work published in popular digital and print publications. Rising Summer Academy N.Y.C. student Ava Jankowski is a junior at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, PA and a writer for online publication The Teen Magazine. Read an excerpt from her recent article, Top Tips for Surviving the 2024 Exam Season, below, and check out the full article on The Teen Magazine website. Congratulati ..read more

Each year, millions of high school students in the United States apply to colleges, hoping to secure a spot at their dream schools. With so many applications landing on admissions officers’ desks, how can you make your college application stand out? Understand What Colleges Are Looking For Colleges are on the lookout for well-rounded students who exhibit not only academic excellence but also character, leadership, and a passion for extracurricular activities. They’re interested in students who will contribute positively to their campus community. Understanding this can help you highlight the ..read more

During their Gap Year N.Y.C. program, students Sebastian Altomare and Caterina Erlinger found inspiration in the story of Queens Together, an innovative non-profit born amidst the pandemic, championing a unique approach to food relief. Finding themselves in discussion about the most compelling way to tell this story, the two students settled on a compelling yet challenging form of media: podcasts. Can you introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about your background? Sebastian: I’ve been impassioned by history from a young age, and as my interest has developed, by how we can learn from history ..read more

Every year, Summer Academy students at The School of The New York Times have the opportunity to participate in our annual Photojournalism Challenge on Instagram. Last summer, we received over 1,000 entries detailing the students’ unique experiences and perspectives as they lived and learned in New York City. Each term, judges including School of The New York Times faculty and award-winning New York Times photojournalists selected a winner to move on for a chance to win the grand prize: having their photo featured in a nationwide print edition of The New York Times.   We are delighted ..read more

In addition to its written reporting, The New York Times is also well-known for its award-winning photojournalism. Put simply, photojournalism is the telling of a story through photographs. It is a unique blend of art and reportage. They say that a picture can be worth a thousand words and photojournalists from Dorothea Lange and Henri Cartier-Bresson to Tyler Hicks and Mara Sanchez Renero have proved this. This summer, we invite students of Summer Academy 2022 to look at the world through this lens and participate in our annual Photojournalism Challenge. This is your chance to capture your Su ..read more

Each year, The School of The New York Times encourages Summer Academy students to participate in our annual Photojournalism Challenge on Instagram.  This summer, with the programs back in person, students shared photos from their time in New York City and Washington DC. We asked The New York Times to review hundreds of entries and select two grand prize winners — one from NYC and one from DC — whose photos will be featured in a nationwide print edition of The New York Times. This year, James Estrin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior staff photographer for The New York Times, selected Addie ..read more

Abby Crowe, a junior at Douglas Freeman High School in Richmond, Virginia, took the Summer Academy Online course Inside the UN/Journalism/Law this summer. She loves spending her time dancing with her competitive team and volunteering around the city. Abby is also a staff writer on her school’s newspaper, The Commentator. Using skills and experiences gained at SoNYT, Abby wrote the following piece for Richmond Times-Dispatch, which was originally published on September 7, 2021. Abby Crowe column: Seek opportunities to hear firsthand Holocaust accounts As a dark night in May 1944 unfolded, so d ..read more

Gap Year NYC alumna Rafqa Touma was recently named a reporter at Guardian Australia. Read on to learn about her path to success, the role her Gap Year NYC experience had in her evolution and her advice for students applying to The School of The New York Times. During her final year of high school in 2019, Rafqa Touma found out she had been admitted to The School of The New York Times Gap Year program. So at 17, she deferred her first year of university and set off on an intellectual adventure in New York City. However, after just two months, the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic and ..read more

We’re inviting all Summer Academy alumni back to participate in our second Alumni-only Photojournalism Challenge! This is your chance to share with future Summer Academy students and the broader SoNYT community what you learned during your own Summer Academy experience while once again exercising your artistic and journalistic eye. This Alumni-only challenge starts May 24 and ends June 4. One grand prize winner will receive apparel items of their choice from the T Store.* We can’t wait to see what you share! HOW TO PARTICIPATE This challenge is open to ALL Summer Academy alumni. No matter wha ..read more

Summer Academy was online again in 2021, and for the second year we invited students to participate in a virtual version of our annual Photojournalism Challenge on Instagram. We received hundreds of entries from across the globe from Japan, China and Hong Kong to France, Brazil, and all the way up north to the Arctic. James Estrin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior staff photographer for The New York Times, chose two grand prize winners whose photos will be featured in a nationwide print edition of the newspaper this fall. Congratulations to our winning students, Estelle Anderson and Christina Y ..read more