Twenty-five high school students have successfully completed Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q)’s summer programme, “Northwestern Connect: Journey”.
Some of the students at Northwestern University-Qatar
The two-week programme this month gave students an idea of full-time university study and provided them with a brief introduction into the curriculum at NU-Q, spending a week studying journalism and a week studying communications.
During the journalism portion of the programme, students learned about the theory and ethics of journalism and wrote an article about a member of the Qatar community.
Students chose a subject, conducted interviews and produced both a written and video piece about the subject.
Rana Abu al-Saed, 16, a student at Qatar Academy, said: “My favourite part was shooting the interview and learning about the different camera shots.
“And when we did the written profile piece, we learned a totally different style of writing in English.”
The journalism section of the summer programme was particularly interesting “because you get to explore shocking, surprising facts about things, find out the truth and get information out of people”, said al-Saed.
During the communications project, students produced a short comedy film that required them to write a script, develop characters, and record and edit the scene they’d created.
Nazareno Hossfeldt, 17, also a Qatar Academy student, said: “I’ve had some experience in film, but the course has really helped me expand my knowledge of communication, and set the bar for the future much higher.”
“Northwestern Connect: Journey” was open to 11th and 12th grade students, but entry (into the programme) was competitive and students were required to apply for it.
For some of the students the programme was a chance to learn more about a subject that they had an interest in, but for others it was a chance to get a jump on what they hope will be their university studies.
“I want to study film when I finish high school, so doing the workshop has really helped me with that,” said Hossfeldt, who plans to apply to Northwestern.
Anne Peterson, a lecturer in Communications at NU-Q who taught the programme, said: “These workshops give students a primer in our journalism and communications courses and are a really great way for them to experience the programmes before they apply.
“They also get to experience the atmosphere and Northwestern community before they attend.”
“It’s also a good opportunity for them to see what college life is like and of what we expect of them as students,” Peterson said.
Northwestern offers weekend workshops for high school students during the academic school year.