Hey there! Thanks for checking out my website, I'm glad it's still being used. I know when I was working on my portfolio, I looked constantly to the work of past winners, all of whom were incredibly helpful as I undertook this incredible task of summarizing my entire life as a student journalist in one website. That's why, other than this section here, I've left everything just as it was at the end of my senior year, so IJOYs of the future can hopefully use it as a resource.

 

Even if this website is massive (it certainly felt massive when I was trying to make it), it can't possibly show everything. There are pieces I didn't include, roles I took on as an editor that didn't make their way onto the website, experiences I had as a journalist that I didn't have the words to explain at the time. So, if you ever need any more information --- whether that be about IJOY applications and portfolios, heading to college and journalism beyond high school, or really anything at all, feel free to reach out via Instagram or email. Especially if you're from a school or area that doesn't have a huge journalism program, or any experience with IJOY, I'd love to do everything I can to help out. And while I can't promise a good answer (I am, after all, a college freshman at time of writing), I can promise to listen and do my best.

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In general, though, for those of you working on your own portfolios, I figured I'd offer some of my own takeaways. These don't guarantee success, they might be patently bad advice for all I know, but I found these things helpful in my senior year.

• Don't be too afraid to get personal in your portfolio. Yes, this competition expects a degree of professionalism from you. But it's also, crucially, for high school students. People want to see that you there's a real person, with complex thoughts and feelings, behind all that amazing work you create. Feel free to document the staff culture you've fostered, take every chance to connect your journalism experiences to your life, let your voice shine through your writing and reflection.

• Document the unexpected. This is a portfolio, yes, but not the same kind you'd submit with a job or scholarship application. People don't just want to see your work, they want to see how you as a person take on the roles of journalist and leader. Whether that means including examples of your interactions with staff, reflections on the way individual events or duties impacted your life or whatever other little things make up your life as a journalist. Think about it like you're writing a character in a book: It's not just the big responsibilities that make you who you are, it's the small ways you choose to go about life that give people an idea of who you are.

• Make your portfolio something of an art project. If you have an eye for design, it doesn't have to be that difficult should you work with a user-friendly platform. The important thing is not how refined your execution is, in my opinion, but showing that you can commit to an aesthetic and find pleasing ways to present your work. Not only does this show that you have experience with and an understanding of design principles, which is a component of your evaluation, it gives you experience in arranging multimedia content. That's something future employers will be really impressed by.

• On the multimedia note, don't stress too much if you're not good at everything. No one is. Especially high schoolers. The point is not to show that you have experience with everything, or that you're proficient in every platform. The point is to show that you're willing to try everything, and that you have the basic skills (reporting, writing, ethics, leadership) that every form of journalism ultimately depends on. Emphasize your strong suits, don't despair over your gaps in knowledge.

• This competition isn't everything. Whether you become IJOY or not is not the defining moment of your life (If you do win, enjoy your much-earned satisfaction, while knowing there's a good chance you'll depart from high school and feel like you're back at square one. Ask me how I know). If you treat the creation of this portfolio less as a win-or-lose investment, and more as an exercise of celebrating your progress and learning how to present yourself, there is no bad outcome to this. You are making progress regardless.

 

My Instagram and my email.

(Unless you're Zach. Then you can just text me.)