Category: Youth Advisory Board

Sophia Lora is a WJMC 2023 alumna from Long Island, New York. She is currently a junior at Bethpage High School. In her free time, Sophia enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family. Throughout the week, you can find Sophia writing for her school’s newspaper, The Eagle’s Cry. This year, she gained the position of editor. Sophia is a student-athlete who participates in varsity kickline and competitive dance at a local studio. This past summer, Sophia interned at the Mindful Reading Center, located in New Jersey. Here, she was able to curate content for their social media. Sophia also takes part in clubs at her school, including the student council, internship club, and newspaper club. After high school, Sophia plans to attend college, where she will obtain a degree in communications and hopefully study abroad. Sophia enjoyed every moment at WJMC last summer, and she is beyond excited to help make this year just as spectacular!

Catherine is a senior at North Penn High School in Lansdale, PA. She is a part of many organizations at her school, including Key Club, Link Crew, and Class Cabinet. Outside of school, Catherine volunteers at an animal rescue and works part-time at a local daycare. She also loves writing, which led her to attend WJMC last summer. Catherine had an incredible experience at WJMC and is excited to be on the Youth Advisory Board! 

Summer Dooley is a WJMC alumni who attended the conference in the summer of 2023. She is proudly apart of Blue group, aka, the best group. At 17 years old, she has already involved herself in her local community, one example being an internship at Representative Rob Wittman’s Yorktown office. She currently attends York High, and plans to study political science in the future.  

Avery Cupp is currently a senior in Charlotte, North Carolina. She’s a 2023 WJMC alumni with a passion for journalism and community building. Avery currently serves as student body president as well as a senior advisor at her highschool. In her free time Avery enjoys watching documentaries, listening to music, and hanging out with her friends! 

Sabrina Glosson is a Senior at McHenry Community High School in McHenry, Illinois. She is apart of her school’s Journalism program and is an editor on her school’s yearbook. Sabrina absolutely loved her experience at WJMC 2023 as it gave her an opportunity to interact with other like minded students and a chance to speak with people in the journalism field! She is incredibly excited to be apart of the Youth Advisory Board this year and can’t wait to collaborate with the other board members.

Annalise Shorb (she/her) is a junior at Franklin High School in Portland, Oregon and attended WJMC during the Summer in 2023. Outside of being on the YAB, she loves playing sports like competitive mountain biking for her Portland team and being on her school’s swim team! Annalise was a News editor her sophomore year and now is one of the Editors in Chief for her school newspaper, The Franklin Post. She has a job teaching swim lessons for Portland Parks and Rec and also enjoys babysitting. When not involved with in her extracurriculars, you can find her backpacking or paddleboarding on a mountain lake. She looks forward to sharing the WJMC experience with other students across the country!

Maci Jacobs is an ambitious journalist. She wrote for her student newspaper, the Coffee County Press. She discovered her love of journalism through years of experience and learning. As an alumni of the Washington Journalism and Media Conference, she is looking forward to helping individuals discover themselves while enjoying their week-long stay at George Mason University. 

Amaya is a Junior at Spring Lake High School in Spring Lake Michigan. She has been a member of the the Varsity Dive Team and Junior Varsity Tennis team since her freshman year. She is also the editor of her schools online newspaper, as well as a the secretary for her schools chapter of BPA. Amaya attended WJMC in 2023 and wants to encourage anyone to do it if they have the opportunity. Outside of school, Amaya loves to read, spend time with her friends, and travel. 

Abbey Esposito is a Junior at Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School in New Haven, Connecticut. She is part of the National Honor Society and writes for the school paper. In her free time she likes to work on her novel and listen to music for inspiration. Her WJMC experience showed her more ways she can expand on her love for writing. She hopes to make future WJMC Youth Correspondents have an amazing time just like she did.

Kamila Makhmudova is currently a senior at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology where she studies technical theatre. For the longest time, she thought that her only big passion was theatre, but her interest in journalism was sparked in sophomore year and eventually became a great passion after she attended WJMC in 2023. She’s currently a publicist for clubs like NHS and her varsity volleyball team. She hopes to continue learning about journalism and she won’t be able to do so without the opportunities that WJMC had provided her.