Bright Future for Teen Reporter

A common perception is that teens and young adults are not as vulnerable to developing complications from COVID-19, but teen journalist Sunaya Mueller knows they are not invulnerable.

This summer, the 17-year-old high school senior from Palisades, New York, attended the Boston University Summer Journalism Academy, a two-week workshop where high school students build their reporting skills and develop three to four of their own stories. While the sessions couldn’t meet in person, Mueller made the most of the current climate by writing about young people fighting long-term effects of COVID-19, a story that was published in Teen Vogue. 

“As I started researching it, I realized how scary it is for a teenager like me and how little we know about it,” Mueller said. “I realized the importance of giving a platform to these voices. The people I talked to, their doctors didn’t know what was going on.”

For her article, Mueller featured three patients under 25 and interviewed leaders in the field. She was able to connect with Dr. Tregony Simoneau, the lead pulmonary expert at a long COVID clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Public Health at Brown University.

“Sunaya is fearless,” said Lara Salahi, Mueller’s instructor at the program and a COM alum herself. “Many students who are new are hesitant to reach out to sources, and she’s not.” 

Salahi described Mueller as having “incredible news sense,” and added, “She will go where the story takes her.” Salahi (COM’07) was a broadcast journalism major and is an assistant professor of journalism at Endicott College. 

Sunaya is fearless. Many students who are new are hesitant to reach out to sources, and she’s not.

Lara Salahi

Mueller won a full scholarship to the program in a journalism contest sponsored by COM, along with AppleTV+ and the Boston Globe. In addition to learning skills such as interviewing and writing for different platforms, students are divided into teams led by a professional journalist. They then have the chance to cover events like city council meetings and human-interest features.

Although she had some previous experience, Mueller said the BU program gave her more practice working with tight deadlines and grew her confidence as a reporter. It was this confidence that led her to reach out to a Teen Vogue editor through Twitter, a chance that paid off.

“My mentor [Salahi] was very encouraging,” she said. “Her editing and wise words helped guide me. The program was a very celebratory and warm environment to be in.”

Learn more about the Summer Journalism Academy.