When I boarded a plane to Chicago by myself, I had no idea what the next five weeks would hold. My only reference was a website put together one year ago by the students who did the same Northwestern University journalism program I was about to do, and all I had gained from that website was the program was hard, and the program was fun. It was so much more.

Upon arriving in Evanston, Illinois, I stepped out of my taxi, and was unable to get bearings. My suitcases were heavy and cumbersome, and I barely managed to get down the sidewalk while pushing the small one in front of me and the big one in back.

I was nervous, but also excited. My independence thrilled me. I found a girl who happened to be lost as well. After wandering for longer than I would care to admit, the two of us were able to find the elusive entrance to the Communications Residential College and check in.

That night we got an assignment to interview our roommates. We then wrote a short article. The next day, our instructors handed back our graded articles. Mine was covered in green pen marks from edits in all caps. No one got the assignment right. The “news” of the article was supposed to be our roommate’s presence at the program, but we all chose to write about other aspects of their life or character.

Over the course of five weeks, we not only learned how to recognize the news in any situation, we learned to report it with the clarity, conciseness and accuracy that are necessary of any journalist’s work. In the classroom, we got high quality instruction from professional journalists, and hands-on assistance from assigned instructors, and outside of the classroom we got real world experience conducting interviews and crafting stories.

We had guest lecturers from Pulitzer Prize winning journalists to CEOs. We visited publications like the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. We learned how to do feature writing, editorial writing and descriptive writing. We learned to conduct a good interview, edit a video on Premiere, put together a résumé, and so much more.

We learned what it is to be in college. Our work was held to professional standards, while we were given more freedom than most of us were used to. We were allowed to go into Evanston at any time. We joked about the one real rule regarding our travels– no motorized vehicles.

When we weren’t in class or working on an assignment, we had a lot of fun. Northwestern is situated on Lake Michigan, and there was a beautiful beach close to our dorm. From the beach, you can see the Chicago skyline to the right, and north campus to the left. In town, there were fun restaurants, which we ate at a great deal because the free food at 1835 Hinman was less than satisfactory. There was also a game room in CRC that we spent many nights in playing pool or table tennis or just dancing to throwback songs. We went on several field trips to Chicago as well: an architecture boat tour, a Cubs game, the zoo, shopping, the Art Institute, a live recording of the NPR radio show Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.

Despite all of the amazing educational and vocational opportunities, the best part for me was the people. Before the program I had never met someone my age as passionate about writing. At the program, I met 79. My peers were funny, kind and intelligent. We forged lifelong bonds.

They called us “cherubs.” Before this summer when I thought “cherub” I thought chubby angel baby. Now I think of the 79 passionate, kind, and wonderful people that I lived with for over a month.