The highly-esteemed Asian American Journalism Camp (JCamp) accepted junior Kirsten Cintigo, the opinion editor of The Pearl Post, to attend the six-day camp this summer.

“I thought they probably wouldn’t pick me, especially because they were super selective,” Cintigo said.

Hosted by Wayne State University, JCamp invites the next generation of journalists to complete a training camp from July 30 to Aug. 4. From meals and housing to the flight to Detroit, applicants are offered an all-expense-paid experience. Attendees will have the opportunity to train with professional journalists and receive a hands-on experience in writing, photography, television broadcasting, online media and reporting.

“The program is designed to help assure excellence in the profession for decades to come and to confront the lack of diversity in journalism, not just in race, but also in matters of religious background, political background and other factors,” JCamp said according to its website.

In addition to the scholarship provided by the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), Cintigo received the Jolene Combs Memorial Scholarship from the Southern California Journalism Education Association (SCJEA). The scholarship awards underclassmen up to $500 to participate in any journalism training program over summer.

Over the course of three years of taking journalism classes, Cintigo developed a passion for writing and reporting.

“She is a very dedicated student journalist,” The Pearl Post adviser Adriana Chavira said. “She puts in a lot of time and effort into making sure her stories are well done as well as her pages are well-edited and have good images.”

Students normally aren’t appointed editor their sophomore year, regardless, Cintigo became the social media editor due to her dependable and responsible persona.

“It’s just perfection in a person, you can’t really get any better than that,” said Cintigo’s friend, junior Zach Gephart-Canada, Prestige Yearbook editor-in-chief.

Cintigo hopes the camp will aid her in college applications and allow her to connect with professional journalists for tips, recommendations and ideas to bring back to her publication. She also hopes to gain more experience in the journalism field so she can later apply it in college, with her top choices being University of Southern California (USC) and Syracuse University.

“I feel that these schools have very strong journalism programs and I really want to pursue journalism in the long-term,” Cintigo said.