Being the youngest person on the MIPA teaching staff is “definitely cool” for 19-year-old Mishal Charania.
But daunting.
Intimidating.
“All the other teachers have great experiences with actually teaching and being in the professional realm and world,” Charania, who teaches the social media journalism course, said.
Charania felt welcomed by the other teachers and is happy they see the importance of social media.
“It was honestly a little bit of nepotism that I got this job, but I also have a lot of experience with social media, which is why I think they thought I was a good fit,” she said.
While studying sports management with minors in writing and social media analysis and design at the University of Michigan, Charania will be the editor-in-chief of “The Michiganesian,” the university’s yearbook, this fall.
“Social media is a great place to be,” Charania said. “It’s so important. It’s so timely all the time. It’s necessary for all news and media organizations, so I’m excited to be teaching students this.”
Charania feels that even though she might have been selected due to previous connections, she also has a lot of social media experience.
This year is her sixth summer at MIPA, and Charania was a MIPA ambassador last summer.
“I knew that I would love to come back to MIPA after being a student here for a long time,” Charania said. “It’s a great organization and workshop because you learn so much, you make friends and you have a great experience. I wanted to be a part of that for students and bring that to other people and help other people experience what I experienced and learn so much.”
Charania’s face lit up even more when “TikTok” was mentioned.
“I feel like it’s the most fun, and the students last year were so creative,” Charania said. “I learned how to be creative with TikTok at my internship this year. I just think it’s the most fun.”
She hopes to teach students how to incorporate social media in their school’s newspaper and yearbook publications through hands-on learning.
“I’m kind of just throwing them in, that’s the only way you learn,” Charania said. “You aren’t going to learn if I’m just teaching or talking at you.”
Charania will also help the students find inspiration for how they can use social media in their publications, including TikTok, Twitter and Instagram.
“I hope that they truly do just learn by collaborating every day,” Charania said. “Every single day they’ll be working with someone like you which I think is great, and the class and I’ll just be there to support them with whatever they need, honestly.”