Camas High School Senior Jacob Warta signed up for journalism because he aspires to become a better writer and journalist. After attending a TEDx club that had very high standards, he felt that he could better himself and his writing skills by joining the CHS journalism team.

He had a lot of connections with people who had gone through the class, and he thought it would be a good use of his writer and speaking skills. After a short period of consideration, Warta was sold and signed up for journalism.

“(My friends) thought that I would be perfect for the program, they thought I was a great writer and that I would enjoy interviewing and working with other people,” Warta said.

As a freshman, Warta saw an advertisement for a TED club, which met every once in a while. The goal of the club was for the members to form a speech about a topic that they were interested in and then present it to a larger audience.

At first, Warta was intimidated by the requirements of the club because not every person who signed up made it in. In fact, only about 60 of the people who actually signed up were selected.

He spent hours researching, discussing, interviewing, and preparing for his speech.

Warta said, “Through that event, I was really able to get out of my comfort zone, and I started to communicate with people a lot better, especially people I didn’t know. I had to send emails to our speakers or just people at PBL that I needed to coordinate with for the location (of these events).”

Warta has several key takeaways from this experience. He learned several valuable communication skills, how to overcome challenges, and some newly improved writing skills.

After Warta’s hard work and dedication in the TEDx program, he felt that his writing and communication skills were broadened. He wanted to do something more with these new talents and decided that journalism was the perfect class for him to take.