Irene Zheng had never taken a journalism class or written for a school paper.

On July 12, the rising Southridge High School senior was climbing poles, walking across suspended ropes, and ziplining alongside 18 strangers at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

It was day one of the 2026 High School Journalism Institute, an eight-day program run by The Oregonian/OregonLive in partnership with OSU. By July 13, Zheng had published her first program essay, describing how she'd bonded with her cohort over late-night common room hangouts, sleepy breakfast conversations, and a Love Island watch party.

"I've found a community over the beginning of this program; meeting a group of students with the same goals, passions, and values as mine," Zheng wrote. "I find that to be most valuable along with the immersion of a professional workplace and an academic environment."

The program, which runs July 11–18, brings 19 high school students from Oregon and southwest Washington to OSU's campus for hands-on newsroom training. Students work with Oregonian editors on partner profiles, photography, and original news stories. By week's end, they produce a 36-page newspaper and multimedia pieces published on OregonLive.com.

The institute is free. Meals, campus housing, and a college credit from OSU are included. Major funding comes from the S.I. Newhouse Foundation and the Oregon Newspapers Foundation. Elliot Njus, director of content at The Oregonian, oversees the program.

For Zheng, the four-hour challenge course on that first Saturday broke the ice fast. She described feeling nervous about tackling aerial obstacles with people she'd never met, but wrote that the shared fear and excitement brought the group together immediately.

The program is free and targets students who lack access to journalism training, according to The Oregonian's application page. Nik Streng, a sports reporter and editor at The Oregonian who has staffed the institute four times, put it simply in a 2025 reflection: "It takes in kids that have a small love for journalism and turns that into a big love for journalism."

Zheng wrote that the program "has only grown my love for journalism and media and affirmed my passion for its world."

Applications for the High School Journalism Institute open each spring at OregonHSJI.org/apply.