For my first post, I want to talk about my overall experience with my internship. This past summer, I had the opportunity to intern at St. Jude under their fundraising department otherwise known as ALSAC. I am going to sum up my experience by describing a particular day that stood out to me. During my second week of interning I was finally able to go on a tour of the hospital. I tagged along with two women from the “SoulPancake” media company. As we were passing by the artwork wall, a parent stopped the tour and asked if he could say a few words. The tour guide confirmed and stepped aside. The parent smiled and said, “I don’t know who you all are or if you are looking to partner with St. Jude or not. What I DO know is that this hospital has given my son life and hope. We were turned away from three different hospitals until we finally came here and St. Jude has been nothing less than incredible. If my son does not make it to see tomorrow, I know that St. Jude went above and beyond to make his life and his journey as memorable as possible. If you’re trying to decide if you should donate or not, I mean it when I say that its people like you that make miracles happen. Thank you so much.” I experienced what they call a “St. Jude moment” that day. They apparently happen often but that was the only one I encountered during my three months at St. Jude. How incredible!
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My name is Scottie and I am an intern/editorial assistant at Southern Bride Magazine. This is truly the most fabulous internship I have ever had. As a traveler, writer, and lover of all things pretty, this publication embodies all of my passions. Through the internship I have traveled a lot and I’d like to take this blogging opportunity to share with the internet my traveling experiences with Southern Bride Magazine. As a professional hair stylist and fashion stylist, I’ve attended dozens of photo shoots in my life, but never a shoot on this scale. This was a positively huge, three-day shoot, with a massive crew, over 30 designers, and an incredible destination location. We stayed at the luxurious Hilton Hotel in Destin, Florida and shot on the newly remodeled grounds and beautiful white beaches located on site. I was “setting editor” – Yes, they allowed me to be an editor of something. This meant that I was in charge of props and set scenes for the models to pose in. Now, while the shoot was absolutely beautiful and with out a doubt, our rooms were fabulous and they fed us like kings, we still worked harder than I have ever worked before. From the very moment we arrived until the moment we left, I worked (with the exception of dinners in swanky restaurants every night, of course). All the hard work was totally worth it in the end. The shoot was chosen for a beautiful 10 page spread in the summer/fall issue and is something that I am extremely proud to put in my portfolio. Every college student should intern at least once or twice in his or her college career. At your internship, do not allow your supervisor to cast you aside, but make them cherish everyday that you are there.
For example, my intern supervisor loves to create events that generate money for charities. So I heard that Vince Carter, a Memphis Grizzlies’ basketball player, loves to bowl. Knowing this information, we are preparing to create a Vince Carter Bowling Tournament to help local children in Memphis. You have to make yourself look valuable. If you do that, your intern supervisor might hire you or put in a good word at other jobs for you. Another thing to remember is there is always something for you to do at your internship. Never tell your boss that you have nothing to do. People see that as a cop out. When you fulfill a task, always ask if there is anything else for you to do. A saying of mine is, “you have not because you ask not.” Remember that quote in life. Ask employers how did they get to the place they are in now? While interning for ABC24, I asked everyone I worked with, what steps did they take to get to their position? Each answer showed me that as long as I keep going in life, I could reach any goal I so desire. Your internship is simply what you make of it. Do not apply for an internship to meet a requirement, but do it as an opportunity to gain a great experience. My name is Ashley Deering and I am working at WUMR U92 Jazz station on the University of Memphis campus. Originally I was supposed to do the daily news report in the mornings. However, I could not always come every day in the mornings. So Melvin, my boss, and I devised a schedule that worked for both of us. What I didn’t know was that I would also be a DJ for the station as well. DJing has put a new aspect of journalism into view. I will still continue to presume broadcast reporting, but I can now fall back on DJing for a radio station.
When I first got the internship is was just so I could have more hours. I needed an internship for class and Melvin needed a volunteer. So we naturally made the perfect match. I then was trained to be a reported, but ended up being a DJ too. It was hard at first and stressful at first, because all I had was a three minute crash course. However, over the past few weeks I have grown to love my job. I try to play a variety of music. I have also been told by many that I have a really good radio voice. They really don’t notice that at times I slur my speech. I believe that when time comes for me to have a great job that whoever hires me will love me. I will give them my 110 percent of my game. I will work really hard to accomplish everything I can. I do still have a lot to learn when it comes to reporting the news in the mornings, but I really do enjoy the experience of being a DJ. This has been the best job I have ever had. I’ve had an internship before, but my position with Substream Magazine has really opened my eyes and made me excited about what I want to do when I “grow up.” During the past month, I have reviewed albums that still haven’t been released, interviewed band members and posted throwback articles on the magazine’s website.
Now, I’m in the process of writing my first two full-page feature stories that are going to be published in the December/January edition of the publication. I’ll never forget the day that my first story was published in The Daily Helmsman, but I can’t wait to see my work in a national publication. Since my previous internship was a paid position, my paychecks were my reward. The experience that I’m gaining and the knowledge that I’m learning about myself through my internship with Substream, however, are priceless. Before obtaining my position, I thought University of Memphis students and faculty would be the only other people to ever read my writing other than my family and friends. Now I know that if I put in the work to write an entertaining or informative article, people could be read my work from coast to coast. I know that I’m only a month into this internship, but it has solidified that I want to work in music journalism. From attending and writing about concerts to writing album reviews, all areas of the field so far excite me, and I can’t wait to see what other opportunities this internship brings. This is my second journalism internship, but my first related to my major, broadcast journalism. I am one of the interns at WMC Action News 5 and I have thoroughly enjoyed this first month. The experience has caught me up to speed with how the newsroom works and the entire process of bringing a story to life.
Throughout my first few weeks I have kept an open mind and tried to learn as much as possible, because I’m still not entirely sure what I would like to do when I graduate this December. My plan is to learn as much as I can at channel 5 and gain skills from many different positions, from the news assignment desk to reporting in the field, photographing, producing or writing content and learning about the digital aspect of the job. There are many ways to get involved at the station and I’m budgeting my time in many different roles so that I am able to use that knowledge when it comes time for me to apply for jobs later this year. I have gone out with reporters in the field working on stories and have listened to their advice and observed how they work and what they do in order to create their stories. Although each reporter works in a different way, picking up different methods will ultimately help me evaluate the way I report. As well as spending time with reporters, I have helped the digital content managers and producers in order to learn about how to take the story and write it as well as clip the story and put it on the web. It is important to be able to know how the story goes from reporter to the web, because stations are more and more often hiring young reporters who can perform as multimedia journalists. It is essential to be well-rounded in order to make a resume more appealing to potential employers, and my first month I have really focused on learning a little about a lot of these roles. The way that I got my internship with the MemphisTiger Network is different from what you might expect. While I am the only intern in my department, I never went through a lengthy, competitive application process.
On the day of the final exam for my TV producing/editing class, my teacher came up to me and told me that she needed to talk to me after class. First of all, a student never wants to hear a teacher say, “I need to talk to you after class.” Second of all, you don’t want to hear that right before a test because you’re just wondering what you could have possibly done wrong. And third of all, a student especially doesn’t want to hear it on the day of the final exam. After class, I talked to the teacher and she offered me the internship with the MemphisTiger Network. I was in complete shock and didn’t know what to say; but for some reason, I blurted out, “Yes.” I never thought about reporting sports, but I wanted to challenge myself and learn something new. I went into my first game not knowing anything about reporting or filming sports. I had one filming class under my belt - that’s it. At my first volleyball game, my boss gave me a camera and told me to film. He gave me a few pointers, but for the most part I was on my own. My boss looked at some of my footage after the first match and told me everything I did wrong. He wasn’t trying to be mean, but I really didn’t film anything correctly. Filming sports isn’t exactly something that you learn how to do in a class. It’s something that you have to learn by trial and error. That’s the great thing about getting an internship. You learn things that you can only learn by actually doing them. As an intern, you’re just beginning your career, so you won’t know everything. This is the time to get out a lot of the kinks and really develop your professional skills. For me, I’m seeing a completely different side of broadcast news. It’s incredibly fast paced. Almost everything you learn comes from experience and knowledge of the sports you’re covering. I’m a full month in to my time with At Home Memphis & Midsouth magazine, where I’m working as one of their three fall editorial interns. Thus far, the experience has been unlike anything that I would have even thought to expect. My work includes writing monthly articles assigned to me by the editor, interacting with PR agents on behalf of the magazine, and working alongside the graphic designer.
My thoughts on all of that are a bit of a mixed bag. To begin with, everyone I work with is incredibly easy going. Going into this internship, I imagined it would be filled with deadlines, stressed out coworkers, negative feedback, and lots of writing/rewriting. I never thought I’d be be assigned articles that would be published in a tangible magazine. I’ll see my name in print for the first time in October and I’m excited, to say the least. I never expected the lack of feedback, however. My entire life has been essays, papers, articles, and stories that have been submitted to my teachers/professors, and I’ve always received feedback. The constructive criticism is something that I’ve come to expect and appreciate, and I was definitely thrown off guard when I submitted my first real piece, with hardly a word in reply. I’m assuming that’s just how things work, because it’s a job. You get assigned an article to write, you write it, and that’s that. Which is fine, just unexpected. Beyond that, it’s interesting working on the opposite side of things. My position at the magazine has me writing to a multitude of PR agents, in order to acquire information for the magazine. It’s been an interesting experience to view my prospective career from the outside in, and seeing just how these practitioners handle press inquiries and various other requests. I think in the long run it will beneficial, because this sort of backwards position will help me understand the information journalists want, and the way they want it. When I first began to contemplate how I would spend my last summer vacation of graduate school, I never thought that it would turn out to be the hardest and most gratifying summer of my life. I applied to two internships, both were exciting opportunities. When I was offered a position at both Baptist Memorial Health Care and Signal Flow PR I had a choice to make- which do I take? Instead of choosing between the two, I took on both. It was the best decision I have ever made for my career track, I now know exactly where I want to go and what I would like to do as soon as I graduate.
Working at Signal Flow was full of small daily tasks and exciting events, I was able to take on projects and help to keep the small business running. I loved being able to see the inner workings of a business that focused on local talent and hard work. My time as a part of Baptist’s PR team has been a whole other story. Watching a group of people run the image of a large corporation has been eye-opening. I had never before really wanted to work in a corporate setting, I had a very negative view of cubicle filled buildings. Now I know that those cubicles make up a small community, a group of people that work together towards a main goal. I have made so many great connections amongst the team a Baptist, they have shown me that it’s all about perception, and the willingness to stick it out. I value both experiences more than I can say, and am grateful to the people who chose me and were willing to work with my schedule, but I have made the decision that I want a team. I want to be a member of a community, who cares if there are cubicles, it’s all in your perception. I love sports and I can’t remember a time when that wasn’t the case. So not only have I landed a lucky gig, but one that most certainly couldn’t be more fitting for me personally. My name is Jacob Woloshin. I was born and raised in Memphis and I am the current sports director of WUMR, the University of Memphis’s campus radio station. I graduated from White Station and since I was a boy I’ve been a die-hard fan of a select few teams. Naturally, growing up in a city where basketball is more religion than sport, I quickly fell in love with the hometown program. The University of Memphis has always felt like the perfect place for me to grow into the broadcaster and human being I want to be.
As sports director, my job is to educate and mentor anybody wanting and willing to be on air. It’s not just the sports crew that I work with; WUMR is basically one big, diverse family of radio personalities. I try and encourage any interested students to try and be DJs as well as members of the sports desk. And trust me, the job definitely has its perks. As students, my crew and I are allowed to broadcast home football and basketball games. We are also lucky enough host a morning radio show from 8:35 to 9:00, Mondays through Fridays on 91.7fm, The Jazz Lover. With our football team looking solid, basketball season right around the corner, and our broadcast team more excited and ready than ever, we’re sure to have some great Memphis Tiger action which will be the inspiration for my blog posts throughout the semester. |
Erin Willis, Ph.D.Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis. Loves news. Loves food. Loves Pugs. And now, loves Memphis basketball. Go Tigers, Gooooo! Archives
April 2015
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