The AJ Immersion Week in New York City
On January 5, the Newhouse Arts Journalism students made their way into New York City for what is called their annual “Immersion” trip, a week-long trip filled with a visit to the MoMA, watching broadway shows and delicious food. Unfortunately, we chose the coldest week of the season with the chilly air to immerse ourselves in culture, but, as they say, “the cold never bothered me anyway”.
I have been to New York several times in the past couple of months, but this trip was a whole new wave of fresh air (pun intended). From taking a tour of the upcoming third phase of the Highline to watching a live recording of the “Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” I did it all.
The most stressful part of this trip, besides the weather, was our workshop session. Our director, Johanna Keller, along with assistant director, Janet Anthony, had brought in some of the most reputed names from the fashion, dance and architecture industries to review some of our written work. While the whole week was put on schedule, two nights were left out for us to decide what we wish to watch and review for our workshoppers. These nights were called the “Wildcard” nights and each student was given a total of $150 to spend on watching something that could be reviewed. I chose two brilliant plays, the first featuring Ruth Wilson (winner of Best Actress in a TV Series for “The Affair” at the Golden Globes this year) and Jake Gyllenhaal (everybody knows him!) in “Constellations” and the second was Ayad Akhtar‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Disgraced.” Many of my classmates took to watching musical performances and stand-up comedy. I wrote my review on the latter and had dance critic, novelist and journalist Laura Jacobs from Vanity Fair read my piece. Needless to say, I had tried to produce the “most brilliant 400 words of my life,” as put by director Keller.
The Immersion trip also gave me a chance to interact with alumni during Alumni Weekend. Meeting former AJs and listening to them talk about their experiences as students and their insights into the real world was one of the major takeaways of this trip. It also gave me an opportunity to do some major networking. Needless to say, my business card is floating around among some very important people in New York and (hopefully) that will net me some opportunities.
The Immersion is not about being able to find a career prospect in New York. Okay, it partly is…but the bigger picture is about discovering this beautiful city and its residents through its museums, culture and performances.
