Summer Interns Share their Voices, Experiences

Four Cavalier Daily staffers spent their summers working at internships funded in full or in part by the Cavalier Daily Alumni Association. Here they recount their experiences.

CDAA/VPA Internship for Community Journalism
Katie Dalton, News Editor

I was a little apprehensive about working for The Daily Progress this summer. It was my first internship, and the only jobs I’d ever had involved face paint and Disney characters. I wasn’t sure what my responsibilities would be or if I would enjoy working at a paper outside of Newcomb Hall.

My hesitance subsided within the first week when I realized I would be treated more like a full-time employee than an intern, and that I wouldn’t be making copies or serving coffee to my bosses. I worked as both a reporter and copy editor, so I experienced both sides of the literary process.

As a reporter, I covered a broader range of topics than I ever have at The Cavalier Daily, including the death of a rabid cow in Albemarle County. My editors placed enough trust in me to figure out as much as possible on my own, including whom to call and from what angle I should approach a story.

I had one story appear on the front page—an article about the University’s placement in U.S. News & World Report’s best hospital rankings. But the story I wrote about a local Southern Baptist Church that disassociated from its denomination was the highlight of my reporting experience, because in covering a local story I touched on a national issue. The week I wrote my story, the Southern Baptist Convention had met in Florida and taken a stand against female pastors, a move that generated criticism from some churches and the media.

I spent most of my time on the copy desk, editing world, national, and local stories. My own reporting has improved dramatically just from reading so many professional stories so critically.

I learned more grammar rules than I ever knew existed. I also wrote headlines, drew layouts, cropped pictures and produced all the pages I edited.

I was surprised by how many responsibilities I had; I became an integral part of the staff even as an intern. I haven’t graduated from college, and I’ve already produced section fronts of a city paper.

All of these experiences have directly affected my work at The Cavalier Daily. My reporting is stronger, which enables me to more effectively direct my writers’ work. My editing has improved a great deal, and production moves faster now that I can prod part of the news page myself.

Perhaps the best way to describe my summer interning in New York is to say it did not meet my expectations. How could I have anticipated that the publication of SPORT Magazine would be suspended one month into my internship? Or that the suspension would enable me to play an important role in the development of the prototypes for two new magazines? Or that I would stumble onto the opportunity to work for ESPN, writing and researching for this season’s Dick Vitale’s College Basketball Preview? Or that I would pass much of my off-time pulling pints and mixing cocktails at a touristy bar at South Street Seaport?

The summer began innocuously enough, as I got acclimated to the professional but casual and tight-knit atmosphere at SPORT. I fine-tuned my fact checking and researching skills relatively quickly, a fact that proved fortunate, since the magazine’s elimination soon turned my skills in another direction. Instead of being one of six interns on a staff of approximately 20 editors and contributing writers, I was suddenly one of only three interns on a bare-bones staff of nine. My colleagues and I were no longer spread out over half the third floor of the Emap USA building; we were holed up in a fifth-floor conference room, with barely enough table space for six computers and desk chairs. It was only in my last week on the staff that we three interns regained our own workspace and, even then, we were tucked away in a small office on the second floor.

Yet this sudden, drastic downsizing came with more benefits than drawbacks. After a brief transitional period, my newly condensed group began work on two magazine prototypes: FHM/Sport, a jazzed-up version of our usual sports fare blended with the "men’s magazine" attitude of FHM, one of our sister publications; and Sport Classic, a more traditional sports magazine aimed at the older male demographic. I had gone to staff meetings when SPORT was in publication, but now I played a more active role in discussions of content, tone and layout. We interns were precisely the type of readers FHM/Sport was geared to attract, so our input was valued greatly.

While continuing to work on the new prototypes, I was also able to assist one of my colleagues in his work on ESPN’s Dick Vitale’s College Basketball Preview. I wrote small pieces throughout the magazine and contributed one larger article, a full-page overall preview of the Mid-Continent Conference.

Of course, all work and no play makes Jim a dull boy. I also took time to take in some of the experiences that make New York the most exciting city in the world. I made my maiden voyages to Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, caught a Maceo Parker concert, frequented artsy movie houses and generally soaked in the Big Apple atmosphere. Living in Brooklyn Heights was a coffee connoisseur’s dream.

This summer I had the opportunity to intern at Simon & Schuster, the second- largest publishing company in the world, at its main office in New York City.

I interned in the production department; my official job description was "title archive."

That means that my official duties were that of a typical intern; I did lots of filing, but I did so electronically, consolidating files over the computer. In other words, all of the different physical aspects that go into making a book (i.e., the cover page, dust jacket art, text, "About the Author" page, etc.) are saved separately. In saving them, I made the job infinitely easier for anyone who needed to recall some aspect of the book for future printings.

I served a second vital purpose at my internship. In addition to archiving files, I also formatted them so that they could be made into e-books, the new trend of paying to read book excerpts online. Simon & Schuster was the first publishing company to try this out with author Stephen King, and it is a boom industry.

Simon & Schuster also offered many great learning opportunities about working in the real world.

I took it upon myself to talk to workers in such departments as human resources, sales, marketing, audio, art, publicity and editorial.

More importantly, I now have a greater understanding of the production process that I have taken back with me to The Cavalier Daily.

I also had a lasting, tangible impact during my eight-week stay. I actually had a hand in choosing one of the covers for a book printed over the summer, a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" tie-in.

I also made the most of my stay in the city outside of the work environment. I sat in the studio audience for "The Rosie O’Donnell Show," "Late Night with Conan O’Brien," and "Total Request Live" on MTV.

I saw roughly one Broadway or Off-Broadway show a week, and got to meet many celebrities after the shows. I also toured The New York Times’ office, and met several people there. Plus, I made several friends in the New York University dorm where I stayed.

I had a wonderful, enlightening summer experience, and I hope that it is one that will aid me in future career pursuits. I am grateful to the Cavalier Daily Alumni Association for helping to make my experience a great one.

I made the decision to become a professional photojournalist some time before, and the scholarship enabled me to take a series of photos in Hidalgo County, Texas.

I have always had an interest in that area; as one of the poorest counties in the nation, it is different in virtually every area imaginable.

If it had not been for the Pierson Scholarship, I would have not been able to complete my photo project.