Internship brings reality to students

Six students received credit from the Journalism Department for internships last summer with a number of area organizations. Department chair Colleen Callahan and the interns spoke to the ONLINE JOURNALIST about the experience.

Rachel Weddig, who worked for the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Public Affairs Office during the summer of 2000 believes the internship was very valuable for her as a journalist. Her job included writing press releases to be published in a number of newspapers.

"I got a lot of one-on-one attention from the Public Affairs director, Mark Kinders," Weddig said. "He edited all my stories that were published and also explained why he made the changes. He also told me what the editors will be looking for in the real work situation."

Weddig, a journalism major, served as a reporter and assistant editor for The Student Voice. She has also written stories for the Journalism Department, the Journalist, the alumni office publication, Falcon Features, and many other publications.

Dan Hilsgen, also a journalism major, says the internship gave him an opportunity to get a glimpse of what to expect in the real job situation. He served as an intern for the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Public Affairs.

Although Hilsgen is yet to start job searching, he feels the internship helped him beef up his resume. "I plan on working as a sports writer and one of my goals is to cover the NFL teams as my main beat."

Kristopher Jensen, a double major in journalism and political science, says the internship helped him to grow as a person and a journalist. Jensen worked for the River Falls Journal covering spot news and city council meetings.

"The theoretical things we learn in the classroom come to life when you apply them in real life," he said. It's a lot different when you know 7000 community members may be reading the things that you write."

Jensen plans to take another internship during the summer of 2001 with a daily newspaper to further sharpen his journalistic skills.

Professor Colleen Callahan, who is in charge of the internship program said: "Students are graded on an essay describing the work they did and how it benefited them. We also require their supervisors to fill out an evaluation form on the performance of the intern. Then we grade that in the scale of pass or fail."

Other students who received credit for their Summer 2000 Internship are Jolene Bracy, Troy Mallat and Heather Harmer.

 

 

University of Wisconsin-River Fall.
Department of Journalism.
The Online Journalist. Copyright 2001