Before I really knew Manny Garcia, he pulled out his wallet and handed me one twenty dollar bill and one five dollar bill.

Then he asked for the five dollar bill back, and he gave me a second twenty dollar bill instead.

The money covered an expensive taxi story I was writing for the World Journalism Institute in Manhattan. I was the student reporter, he was the instructor. And Manny, a former Miami Herald editor, didn’t want me to go shorthanded.

That told me something about him from day one. It told me how much he cared about reporting. He was a nice guy, a gentleman, all that. But even more he had a fire for reporting, and he was passionate about passing that on to his students.

And that was true for all the professors and staff at the World Journalism Institute. WJI brought in the all the best speakers and teachers from CNN’s Clayton Sizemore to The Indianapolis Star’s Russ Pulliam. They went all out to give us first-class experience so we could succeed.

“My goal is to end up giving you the torch,” Garcia told us. “You move it forward and you keep it relevant from what you learn here.”

• Anthony Bradley (Covenant Theological Seminary) taught worldview, and helped us incorporate our Christian faith in the workplace.
• Michael Longinow (Biola University) was an outstanding encourager. He kicked off the journalism portion of the course with many smaller assignments to prepare us for the big project that we worked on throughout the course.
• Manny Garcia (El Nuevo Herald) boosted our efforts with an investigative edge that gave more depth to our stories.
• Clayton Sizemore (CNN) labored with us over our videos, as we filmed, logged, edited and produced video stories.
• And Kenny Irby (Poynter Institute) placed the finishing touches on our projects by helping us complete photo stories.

Each of these professors are experts in their fields. So we learned from the best, ensuring top-notch quality. And they were constantly encouraging us to pursue excellence.

“You have to write better than they do. Not as good as, better,” Longinow told us about the fierce competition ahead. “You have to stay out on streets reporting longer than they do.”

“Come early, leave late. Be relentless,” he added. “Doesn’t mean you have to be a workaholic. Just means you have to be driven and passionate. That will gain the respect of people who don’t know Christ.”

They encouraged us to look for diverse perspectives to tell the story from different angles.

“When other people zig, you zag,” Longinow said. “The crowds going left, you go (right)….I bet there’s a story over there and I’m going to find it.”

It wasn’t easy. It was a challenge. But it was worth it.

“It’s long hours – this career is long hours – and it can be like a battlefield,” Garcia said. “It’s like a war. You’re in a war because you want to get the story. You fight the battle…It’s a battle you got to learn things. You got to learn it on the fly.”

“We’re in a tough (economic) time right now, but this is the key: People will always need information,” he added. “And that’s what you can report and give them.”