“The Best Week of My Life”: SRL’s Summer Academy students explore America 250 in the nation’s capital – and have fun doing it
July 20, 2026
Anthony Payne
The arrival of America 250 was felt nowhere stronger than in the nation’s capital. From June 24-30, 18 high school students from all over the U.S. were flown out, all-expenses paid, to Washington D.C. to learn journalism skills and produce video stories as part of the PBS News Student Reporting Labs Summer Academy, hosted at Georgetown University. This year’s academy stories explored how American values manifest today and throughout history. Stories explored community spaces, the impacts of discrimination, American artifacts, and more.
Keep reading for a day-by-day play-by-play of this year’s Academy fellowship!
Day One: Arrivals!
Students came by planes, trains and automobiles to Georgetown University’s historic main campus, where they’d spend the next week preparing to shoot their final projects. The academy experience kicked off with a welcome dinner, where the students got to know their collaborators for the week: other student reporters and SRL staff. They jumped into a scavenger hunt around the Georgetown neighborhood to get the lay of the land, learn some history, and see what their home for the next week had to offer.
Day Two: The great work begins.
The training begins. Team SRL led a breakdown with some hands-on training focused on the essentials: working with cameras and lighting, getting good B-roll, and setting up thoughtful interviews. But you can only learn so much of this stuff in a classroom – the students went out and shot their own interviews with their teammates and captured B-roll around the campus for a mini-project on their academy experience.
“I especially loved the camera, lighting, and audio workshop because my school doesn’t teach much technical training in any of those areas, and the hands-on learning environment really was what I needed,” reflects Espy Cubillos, a junior at Redwood High School in Marin County, California. “The knowledge I gained across all of the SRL workshops is something I am incredibly excited to bring back home to my school and my area.”
Following the workshop sessions, the group shuttled to NoMa for a tour of NPR’s headquarters. They learned the ins-and-outs of a radio newsroom and got to see the infamous Tiny Desk up close (it’s not that tiny). A trolley tour of the monuments followed, bringing the group to some big D.C. faces, including Jefferson, Lincoln, and the infamous algal blooms at the Reflecting Pool.
Day Three: Big ideas. Big edits. Big fun.
The learning continued, this time the focus was on storytelling: how do you tell a meaningful story, and how do you put it together once you have all your footage? We’re big proponents of solutions journalism – an approach to reporting that, rather than sensationalizing problems, focuses on how people are responding to social issues. Who’s taking action? What’s working, what’s not? The students also got a crash course on speedy video editing, and thinking about your audience: how do you grab someone’s attention and convince them that they should care, in a sea of content attempting 
to do the same?
Day three wrapped with SRCHELLA, a chill night of music, dancing, and games to get everyone’s spirits up before it was time to truly lock in.
Brennan Lang, a sophomore at Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, South Carolina reflects on the most memorable part of her Academy experience: “100% all of the laughs and wonderful people I met. The pure joy that I felt laughing with them during breaks, at night, on the trolley ride, at meals all of it. I have never smiled harder with a group of human beings ever. SRCHELLA was so memorable too because I felt like these were people I had known my whole life, and I felt untouchable. This academy was the best week of my life.”
Day Four & Five: Locked in, in the field and on the cutting room floor
Weeks of research and pre-production meetings all lead up to the big day: filming day. The six teams headed to different parts of D.C. to film interviews with their story subjects and put into practice everything they learned so far. Following the shoot, the students had one day to edit their stories together, a crazy time crunch that they took in stride.
After being hunched over laptops for hours, it’s good to get outside and touch some grass – or roll in some dirt. SRL Field Day had students and mentors compete for the gold in a series of challenges, including a sack race, tug of war tournament, and a massive kickball game. Big ups to Team Purple for their winning performance!
Day Six: Six screenings and a send-off
After wrapping up their edits, it was time for the final export. The students had a bit of time to exhale and get their last looks around Georgetown before heading to WETA’s offices to see their stories screened for the first time to a live audience. The fellows shared highlights from the week, answered some tough audience questions, and heard from the people they worked with to make their stories come together.
“With my experience at the Academy I can now do journalism on a higher level after seeing it in such a professional and positive space,” said Nora Dorn, a junior at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. “Hearing from experts was very insightful into how to craft a story.”
A final celebration followed where the students gave each other superlatives and said some tearful goodbyes before checking out the following morning.
We’re very proud of the work these students accomplished in such a short time. They learned to tell meaningful stories in a new environment, and did so with care and compassion. We’re excited to have them in the SRL family and look forward to the great work they produce going forward!
Learn more about these America 250-themed stories below, and stay tuned to watch them as soon as they go live on the SRL YouTube channel.
And, hear directly from the students about what they Academy meant to them on the SRL Instagram feed!
This level of free hands-on media education is made possible by support for public media programs like PBS News Student Reporting Labs and local station WETA. Consider donating today.
MEET THE TEAMS
Team 1
Students: Divya Thamman from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Drake Dungey from Lansing, Michigan, Aliyah Williams from Omaha, Nebraska
Mentors: Leah Clapman, SRL Executive Director, Linda Lawson, Director of Photography, Lawsco Media
Progress Made and Ahead: Briana Scurry on the expansion of women’s sports
U.S Soccer star Briana Scurry, the goalkeeper for the 1999 World Cup champions, talks about the growth and struggles of women’s sports, what it’s like to watch the current World Cup and a look ahead to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil next year.
Story link coming soon.
Team 2
Students: Anthony Padron from Miami Florida, Charlotte Mathias from Long Branch, New Jersey, and Nora Bartel from Salt Lake City, Utah
Mentors: Victor Fernandez, SRL Sr. Director of Youth Media Programming, and Becky Wandell, SRL Youth Media Producer
America’s History in 30 objects
The Smithsonian Castle is commemorating America’s pursuits over the last 250 years by bringing together iconic objects — from Thomas Jefferson’s Desk to Sally Ride’s spacesuit — for the first time. In a time where access to history is being called into question, co-curator Abeer Saha and intern Saanika Dhillon share how learning about the past is critical to our progress in the future.
Team 3
Students: Shane Mukasa from Attleboro, Massachusetts, Yohanna Seife from Silver Spring, Maryland, and Espy Cubillos from Larkspur, California
Mentors: Justin Rhodes, SRL Youth Media Producer (Curriculum), Rawan Elbaba, SRL Digital Producer
“You are the masterpiece.” How one teacher empowers her students to see themselves as art
Artist and educator Blu Murphy empowers her students to see themselves as art. Her work, including the “REDLINE,” “LE DRIP,” and “FEEL” series, is designed to strengthen communities and inspire students to embrace themselves. Most notably, her work in the Redline series combines photography, textures, and red fabrics across subjects’ eyes to symbolize the binding educational trap of “redlining” in low-income minority communities.
Team 4
Students: Nora Dorn from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Eloisa Soto from New York, New York, and Ben Kurian from Powell, Ohio
Mentors: Marie Cusick, SRL Editorial Director, and Cori Kipps, Digital Content Producer, WETA National Productions
Beyond the Capitol: Celebrating Everyday Life in DC
Hometown DC, an oral history project, captures the stories of local DC residents– and what it truly means to be a Washingtonian at the nation’s 250th birthday.
Story link coming soon.
Team 5
Students: Rivers Newsum from Austin Texas, Ajax Solo Rio-Zwerner from Bozeman, Montana, and Ryanna Robinson from Washington D.C.
Mentors: Wyatt Mayes, SRL Associate Producer, and Anthony Payne, SRL Communications Associate
“Everybody has a skate story.”
Everybody has a skate story! At the 50th anniversary of DC’s Anacostia Skating Pavilion, lifelong skater and historian Tasha Klusmann joins the community to share memories of what the space and the sport means to them.
Story link coming soon.
Team 6
Students: Jolen McKenzie from Tupelo, Mississippi, Emma Lai from Iowa City, Iowa, and Brennan Lang, from Columbia, South Carolina
Mentors: Christine Zirneklis, SRL Director of Communications and Partnerships, Anurag Papolu, SRL Graphic Designer
130 Years of Expedition History
Tara Roberts is a diver, storyteller, and National Geographic Explorer in Residence. The new National Geographic Museum of Exploration showcases over 130 years of expedition history, and encourages visitors to stay curious and keep asking questions.
Story link coming soon.
BTS Team:
Morgan Hawkins from Washington D.C
Winnie Centofanti from Washington D.C.
Caroline Frentz, SRL Social Media Producer