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Cosby Award Winner Caleb ‘25 Gets an Intro to Editing at The New York Times
The Cosby Award supports Grade 11 students to pursue their career interests in the summer before their graduating year.
The Cosby Award is a summer program award for Midland juniors to encourage active experiential learning in the field of one’s interest. Caleb, Class of 2025, spent two weeks during the summer between his junior and senior year learning about editing at The New York Times.
We sat down with Caleb to ask him about this experience and what it was like spending time in New York City.
What inspired you to sign up for this program?
I was inspired after reviving the Midland Mirror and being an editor for a year. I just felt like I had never really taken a course on a lot of what my day-to-day responsibilities were. I decided to take a class on editing so I could bring that back to Midland.
Why did you choose The New York Times program?
It’s a world-renowned publication, and I’ve always respected their work, so I thought it was the best place to learn.
Photos provided by Caleb ’25
What did your daily life look like?
I’d wake up around 8:30 am and get ready for class. All the classes were at the Fordham School of Law campus in New York city. We would have classes for 3 to 4 hours, followed by an hour lunch break. I’d usually go just anywhere in the city to enjoy the food. After lunch, we’d have class for a couple more hours. During daytime classes, we would have one guest speaker in the morning or the afternoon. At other times, we’d have a lecture or we’d be working on editing and writing articles.
After classes were over, I’d usually get dinners with friends from the program. Then we’d find something fun to do in New York City because there is just so much to do. For example, we’d go to Central Park. All these free city activities are available, and the New York City council puts on these activities for the citizens. On the weekend, we went to a Mets game. Tickets were only $20! Unfortunately, the game ended in the 8th inning because of a storm.
How did you feel about spending time in NY City?
It could definitely be a place I might want to live after college or getting my career off the ground.
Tell us about the other people who were in the program with you.
We had 12 people in our group, although the whole program had 1200. The people I hung out with were mostly from my LLC (Living Learning Community) who were the same age or grade level. My LLC had around 30 other high school seniors. I met all of them in that group.
What do you feel were your main takeaways from the experience?
A huge takeaway is that in the journalism industry, connections are everything. You need to make connections and become business associates, because you never know when your paths might cross again. There are so many ways you can join, especially now, with the age of technology. You can be a computer science major in college and be the person who is a data analyst or helps code. You could be a sound engineer or a script writer. There are so many ways to join the industry.
It made me feel more confident in myself, because I’ve always been more math and science focused and not fully into writing. It reinforced the idea that I could still join the industry even if I major in accounting or computer science, not just journalism or photojournalism.
How did this program inform your career path?
I definitely learned that I don’t necessarily want to major in journalism, writing, or English, but that I would love to have a connection to the industry. It could be marketing (combining journalism and math) or some other type of function. It could be something like analyzing data. I could still join the journalism industry even if I’m not a writer, reporter, or editor.
What might you want to try with your newfound knowledge and skills?
With the Midland Mirror, I’m taking what I’ve learned about how a story is structured and how to report, and now I’m teaching those skills to the student writers. That way our stories can be more similar to the style and form of more professional publications. Editing, not just looking for grammar, but also looking at the story, the flow, any unfinished questions. I also learned about how many forms of storytelling there are: games, connections, and interactive articles. It could be interesting to incorporate some of that into how we tell the stories of Midland.
Photos provided by Caleb ’26
Do you have any advice for others interested in attending one of the The New York Times programs?
My advice would be that everyone around you are people that are interested in joining the journalism industry after college. The connections you make are of the utmost importance. That person might end up being your editor, or co-reporter, you never know.
Anything you want to see developed in the Midland Mirror?
My far fetched dream would be to have a Midland Mirror podcast. Maybe not this year, but hopefully I live long enough to hear about it.
Thank you so much, Caleb, for taking the time to share with us about this amazing experiential learning program! If you are a Midland junior and want to apply for the Cosby Award, check out more information here.
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