{"id":31185,"date":"2021-09-30T12:41:35","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T16:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=31185"},"modified":"2021-12-01T16:09:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T21:09:59","slug":"bright-future-for-teen-reporter","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/bright-future-for-teen-reporter\/","title":{"rendered":"Bright Future for Teen Reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A common perception is that teens and young adults are not as vulnerable to developing complications from COVID-19, but teen journalist Sunaya Mueller knows they are not invulnerable<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunaya Mueller.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This summer, the 17-year-old high school senior from Palisades, New York, attended the Boston University Summer Journalism Academy, a two-week workshop where high school students build their reporting skills and develop three to four of their own stories. While the sessions couldn\u2019t meet in person, Mueller made the most of the current climate by writing about young people fighting long-term effects of COVID-19, a story that was published in Teen Vogue<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I started researching it, I realized how scary it is for a teenager like me and how little we know about it,\u201d Mueller said. \u201cI realized the importance of giving a platform to these voices. The people I talked to, their doctors didn\u2019t know what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her article, Mueller featured three patients under 25 and interviewed leaders in the field. She was able to connect with Dr. Tregony Simoneau, the lead pulmonary expert at a long COVID clinic at Boston Children\u2019s Hospital, and Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Public Health at Brown University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSunaya is fearless,\u201d said Lara Salahi, Mueller\u2019s instructor at the program and a COM alum herself. \u201cMany students who are new are hesitant to reach out to sources, and she\u2019s not.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salahi described Mueller as having \u201cincredible news sense,\u201d and added, \u201cShe will go where the story takes her.\u201d Salahi (COM\u201907) was a broadcast journalism major and is an assistant professor of journalism at Endicott College. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunaya is fearless. Many students who are new are hesitant to reach out to sources, and she\u2019s not.<\/p>Lara Salahi<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Mueller won a full scholarship<\/a> to the program in a journalism contest sponsored by COM, along with AppleTV+ and the Boston Globe<\/a>. In addition to learning skills such as interviewing and writing for different platforms, students are divided into teams led by a professional journalist. They then have the chance to cover events like city council meetings and human-interest features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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