By Claire Oven
At the start of my second semester of my senior year, I decided to take an internship position at the Newberry News. I had reached my limit in college classes I’m allowed to take and had a load of free hours that I needed to fill.
Being that I plan on majoring in writing when I leave for college, I figured working at a newspaper was a safe option. I cannot begin to explain what I have been able to learn and experience here.
I wasn’t sure what to expect as I was entering into this position. I knew that I would be coming here for two hours every morning and that was about it. In my head, the people there were going to have me filing papers or organizing shelves.
To my surprise, I was granted the opportunity to actually write articles for the paper to get published. As a seventeen-year-old, having your own writing published for the community to see is sort of terrifying. Regardless of the fear I may have been experiencing, I was more excited to get to work as a real journalist.
My second story, the one that came after my introductory piece, was by far my favorite one to do. For this story I got to actually interview a couple with my own questions and write a feature story about them. The best part was that I got to have my own reporter notebook, so I got to feel fancy and professional. Maybe I’m biased because I work here, but I can’t stress enough how amazing the people I work with are.
They are always willing to accommodate my busy schedule and have allowed me to have creative freedom when it comes to the stories I put out. I am very thankful to have been given this opportunity to experience a journalism work environment. If there are any aspiring writers out there that are looking for a school-to-work program, I definitely recommend working at the newspaper.
