Long overdue internship announcement

Since May, I have been interning at The Gainesville Sun. I interviewed with one of the editors twice at the college’s job fair and heard I was accepted in May. I was thrilled! It’s been an amazing experience and I have so much to write about.

I periodically send an internship report about how things are going to the dean of the college. I’ll be posting them here.

Internship Report 1

     These past few weeks at The Gainesville Sun have been eye-opening. I have visited a second-grade classroom at Rawlings Elementary, a pre-kindergarten classroom at Queen of Peace Catholic Academy and a building in construction on the UF Eastside campus. I chatted with a local lawyer at his office about his experiences on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” I have done countless interviews by phone and written a couple stories.
     One of the most interesting aspects of my internship has been being in the newsroom. Though it is less full and chaotic than I expected, the air is charged with excitement for breaking news. Reporters and editors like to fill the room with amusing commentary. When tragedies occur, reporters act swiftly.
     As cliche as it sounds, I’ve learned that everyone makes mistakes. We all cringe at them but we all make them. Fact errors, are, unfortunately, a part of life. I have made a few errors and I have seen others in the newsroom make some too. Though they bring me to journalistic despair, I know I need to move on. Journalists don’t have time to sulk. I am extremely meticulous but these errors have forced me to be even more careful, not just when inserting facts into a story from my notes, but also when listening to people spell out their names.
     I am extremely lucky to have fantastic editors who help me sharpen my skills. One of my editors said she appreciates my attention to detail but wants me to step back and look at the bigger picture. She is dead-on about my traits, both in reporting and in my personality. Sometimes I get caught up in facts, figures or interesting tidbits and forget why people should read the story, what makes it a story worth telling. In the next few months, I hope to cultivate that sense of stepping back and developing the “why” of each story.

Lesson learned! No more fact errors since the minor mistakes I made in that second week. Though I’m only a few weeks shy of wrapping up this internship, I’ll still share my experiences here (as cliche as it is, better late than never!).