In her gap year, alumna becomes reporter in Morocco and learns real-world lessons

Courtesy of Selina Chen

Selina Chen anchors at “Maroc TV”, Mohammed V University’s TV Station in Rabat, Morocco.

Half-eaten apples and oily cafeteria pizza littered the ground as Class of ‘22 alumna Selina Chen — a former news editor for The Falcon — dug through six overflowing recycling bins around the school. Her gloved hands dripped with unidentifiable liquids as the stench of decomposing waste hung in the air. Photographing and gathering evidence of incorrectly sorted items for a Falcon article with Class of ‘22 alumna Cici Xu, Chen realized the lengths she could go for a story.

That passion for journalism would extend far beyond The Falcon — unlike a majority of Falcon reporters, Chen has gone on to pursue journalism in both college and professionally.

Now in her first year studying at Oxford University, Chen took a gap year to travel to Morocco for eight months as part of the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) program to learn about their culture and the Arabic language. There, she received an internship at Morocco World News — the country’s largest English-language newspaper. She worked as a reporter for the publication for six months. 

“I was excited because I hadn’t done any journalism all summer after graduating and a part of me felt empty, so I was ecstatic to have some work to do,” Chen said.

During her internship, which spanned from October 2022 to May 2023, she contributed over 20 stories, covering topics ranging from trying Moroccan food to attending Moroccan AI conferences. Additionally, from November 2022 to May 2023, she anchored at “Maroc TV,” Mohammed V University’s — a public university in Rabat, Morocco — TV Station directed toward Moroccan students. 

While at SHS, Chen also participated in speech and debate and Model United Nations, both of which were largely online during and after the pandemic, so she grew comfortable speaking in front of a camera. 

These experiences helped her become an anchor for a new program at “Maroc TV” that targeted English-speaking international students. She wrote scripts and reported weekly episodes in English. On days that she anchored, she would gather news from the past week and independently write a brief summary to present. 

“I had a lot of freedom and could essentially talk about whatever I found interesting to the international audience, in addition to the university news,” Chen said.

Since majoring in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford, Chen has also been writing for its largest student newspaper, the Cherwell.

The Falcon ignites alumna’s dream to be a journalist 

Chen joined the school’s newspaper program in her junior year as many of her friends were on The Falcon staff, but she quickly discovered a deeper interest in the subject and committed to writing numerous challenging stories for The Falcon.

She distinctly recalls researching for a Falcon story in 2021 that required her to interview staff at a funeral home. At the time, Chen possessed a crippling fear of corpses. Yet, despite her irrational fear, she felt a sense of duty as a journalist and pushed away her worries to successfully complete the interview. 

“I felt like I had a mission to fulfill and was so determined,” Chen said. “I even conducted part of the interview in close proximity to a corpse in the crematorium waiting to be burned, which was horrifying.”

Although Chen had no experience, she was chosen to be a photographer, taking pictures of local businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Chen, leaving her house to take photos of games and events was an integral part in improving her mental health. Interviewing, on the other hand, had to be done completely online through text or virtual calls. 

“It was really unfortunate that interviews had to be online as I lacked a personal connection with my interviewee. When you talk face to face, you can see and sense their emotions and reactions and adapt to them,” Chen said.

For one of her stories about anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic, Chen interviewed former guidance counselor Alinna Satake. In-person conversations allowed the interviewees to be more open about their emotions and allowed Chen to better sympathize with them.

“She started crying as we were talking and that was really powerful to me, and I don’t think that level of connection between journalist and source is possible through a screen,” Chen said. 

In her senior year, Chen dedicated hours weekly to The Falcon as a news editor. To her, editing tens of news stories and designing the front page for the print issues was time-consuming but enjoyable. 

When looking back at one of her fondest memories of The Falcon, Chen recalls her first deadline night (the time after school on Thursdays and Fridays when Falcon staff members work to complete the print issue) — which took place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic — as news editor in May 2021. Chen worked with her fellow reporters from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m., communicating over Discord to finish the issue. After toiling for 14 hours editing stories and designing layouts, Chen felt a wave of relief and accomplishment when the newspaper was finalized and ready to be printed.

“We all finished the issue and we looked at each other and thought: ‘Oh, wow, I can’t believe we just did that,’” Chen said. “That made me realize journalism is, at least as of now, what I want to do for my future and something I’m willing to put a lot of hours into.”

Alumna pursues a journalistic career path after high school

Spurred by her years as a reporter for The Falcon, Chen decided to apply for the NSLI-Y scholarship immediately after graduating high school. 

“I chose that program partly because I’m curious about the Arabic language, but mostly because I want to experience living in a non-Western culture and seeing more of the world,” Chen said. 

After arriving in Morocco and starting her newspaper internship, Chen noticed a few key differences between high school and professional journalism. Surface-level journalistic guidelines, such as the AP style used as a standard syntax guide in The Falcon, were not as applicable as they varied between each publication and country. However, Chen still found the basic skills she built while in The Falcon, such as interviewing and searching for sources, helpful in preparing her for a professional environment. 

“I think The Falcon really prepared me to confidently arrive at an event, find the organizers and start asking questions,” Chen said. “I didn’t need to prepare more than a brief Google search to formulate questions and ask follow-up questions.”

Chen continues to stay in touch with The Falcon

Despite graduating from high school over one year ago, Chen continues to read The Falcon articles featured in weekly newsletters and maintains contact with journalism adviser Michael Tyler. For example, while writing a story about a movie by famous Moroccan movie director Hakim Belabbes, Chen took inspiration from The Falcon’s 2022 “‘The Fabelmans’ puts spotlight on antisemitic abuse directed at school’s most famous alumnus” story — which documents Saratoga High alumnus and famous movie director Steven Spielberg’s portrayal of his senior year through his film “The Fablemans.” 

Moreover, when Chen felt unsure about adding her personal opinions to the story, she turned back to Tyler for advice. While writing a profile on Belabbes, Chen felt unsure of how to incorporate her opinions about his films, especially since less experienced student journalists — like herself at the time — rarely voiced personal opinions in profiles.

“Tyler gave me really good advice, he told me to write two versions — one with my opinion and one without — in case the editors don’t accept the opinionated one. He also sent me some of his favorite profiles to refer to. It’s been a long time since I’ve written for The Falcon, but the support there has never ended,” Chen said. 

Navigating the world of professional journalism

One aspect of professional journalism that surprised Chen is the amount of hate she received from seemingly harmless stories. While Chen recalled that a few Falcon stories did cause the administration to request that coverage be curbed or modified, her stories didn’t result in any kind of online backlash once published. 

However, with many of her stories posted on the Moroccan World News’ Instagram, Chen often received huge waves of negative reactions that started arguments in the comments. For instance, an article Chen wrote about embracing Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to express love to friends and family led to severe attacks in the comments that accused Chen of promoting Western propaganda, capitalism and consumerism.

“Sometimes it really hurts, but you also just have to be tough about it and know that these people haven’t understood the message of your story,” Chen said. “My Arabic teacher told me a good quote that I often think back to that translates to ‘the dogs bark, but the caravan goes on.’ You are the caravan, writing, and it doesn’t matter if random people online bark at you, you just keep going on and tell the stories that matter.”

Despite the occasional hate she received when writing stories for the general public, Chen believes that professional journalism also comes with many perks that high school-level journalism lacks, such as the support of professional photographers and videographers, as well as access to private events. While reporting on a film festival, Chen was granted a press card to the festival allowing her to talk privately with the festival director and various other movie directors. She also attended private events like a week-long program where directors gave workshops to a select number of top film students from around Morocco.

After spending a year in Morocco learning Arabic and exploring higher-level journalism through Morocco World News and “Maroc TV,” Chen continued to complete her college education abroad in England. Currently, Chen plans to continue participating in journalism-related internships while completing her undergraduate degree. After, she hopes to return to the U.S. to obtain her master’s degree in journalism. However, if she comes across a good work opportunity, Chen is willing to deviate from her original plan and start working full-time in journalism before getting her master’s.

“Although the majority [of Falcon reporters] don’t continue journalism after high school, the problem-solving skills, finding information, and working in a team to meet a deadline are important things that will benefit you in any career,” Chen said. “And for [SHS students] going into journalism, coming from such a STEM-heavy school, you may not receive as much support. But, if you’re truly passionate about something, then that is what you should do.”
To see more of Chen’s work, visit the Saratoga Falcon, Moroccan World News and Cherwell websites.