Author: Melissa Budijono ('23)
Photographer: Joycelynn Saputra ('25)
Journalism isn’t just your average form of writing. As Tivara Tanudjaja (‘18) quotes, “journalism can be fun. There's so many things that you can do with journalism. You can do photojournalism if you're into photography, which is what I'm doing. And it doesn't always have to be just about the news. You can do feature stories and do profiles. It's not just about politics and the law.”
After her graduation, Tivara, an alumni of the class of 2018 in BAIS, pursued journalism as her major in Emerson College. She also has a minor in Environmental Studies and Narrative Nonfiction, and will graduate in December of 2021. Passionate in journalism, she said that “journalism requires persistence, curiosity, and questions.” In the interview, Tivara delved deeper into how she became interested in the field of journalism and writing.
Photo Courtesy of Tivara Tanudjaja
At first, Tivara didn’t like writing stories, but she became fixated on journalism because she could meet a variety of people from different backgrounds and listen to their stories. She mentioned that she really loved the process of writing, and added a thought that:
“What really made me stay was the process of it all even though it was very stressful. I like how journalism gives me the opportunity to listen to other people’s experiences and be able to write articles. Journalists can be some of the most well-informed people that one can meet, because they get to interview experts and people from all different kinds of fields.”
Crystal Muljadi (‘18), one of Tivara’s best friends who is currently studying Food Science at the University of Melbourne, said that Tivara “was never confused on what her major was; it was just journalism.” Crystal also said that “She’s very passionate about writing and about being a journalist,” which is really important to be a successful journalist.
Photo Courtesy of Joycelynn Saputra
Photojournalism, which combines journalism with photography, gives Tivara a chance to pursue her passion in photography. Photojournalism, according to Tivara, is when “the photos are the main aspect of the story. Photojournalism puts together what I like about journalism, and then what I like about photography, and it's just the perfect combination of the two.”
Tivara has a blog, A Little Taste of Paradise, that functions as her portfolio, which she started because she wants to show all her photos and past work in a website. She fills it with random thoughts and what she wants to showcase as a journalist. Some various topics that Tivara likes to write about and put in her blog are nature, environmental journalism, feature stories, spirituality and religion. Be sure to check out her blog that is linked here to see all of her beautiful photos!
Photos Courtesy of Tivara Tanudjaja; Collage by Ji Hyeon Park
Responding to Tivara’s the initial comment “journalism requires persistence, curiosity, and questions,” Mr. Squiers, a secondary English teacher at BAIS adds that it is Tivara’s beliefs and faith that keeps her grounded and willing and able to stand strong, be able to say the truth, tell the facts as they are, and try new things.
“A lot of stories come from you questioning things, just being curious,” said Tivara.
Mr. Squiers taught Tivara for three years at BAIS. He further said that she “had a knack for writing” and had a “willingness to work hard and think critically.” As a student, Tivara was able to see things at a new angle in various literature assignments or see the questions in a different depth that was “outside of the norm.”
Tivara noted that “Journalism is hard. You have to keep pushing and every story will have its challenges.” She also mentioned that pursuing journalism could be tiring and that the process was really long. One of the hardest parts is “finding people to talk to for the various interviews and stories,” she said.
The process of journalism and reporting does not always occur according to one’s expectations. “One time when I was at home, I did a story on a trend and I got to interview someone who was an athlete from the SEA games, which was completely random. I just went up to this person and it's like, oh, I'm actually an ex-athlete from the SEA games. And I'm like, that's really cool. So you got to meet some really cool people and get to learn more about them,” Tivara said.
When asked about BAIS students starting their own newspaper club, Tivara responded that it is “cool to have an experience in a high school newspaper, and hopefully the BAIS Times will be able to do journalism and see how it can be enjoyable.” Some advice she gave to the BAIS Times as a team of writers, photographers, editors, and graphic designers is to “do something that you are interested in, and write about something that interests you. Go after what you want to write about. If something interests you then other people will want to know and read about it too.”