Not counting weekends, I only had 12 days to myself throughout this summer break. The rest, I spent working at my summer internship at the Los Angeles Times. It was the best, but busiest, summer of my life.
Every summer, High School Insider, the LA Times teen program, runs an internship program. This summer, I was one of eight applicants selected for the opportunity. The internship focuses largely on the student’s enterprise story, the article pitched during the interview process. I focused on how libraries are changing to accommodate the needs of their communities.
I enjoyed writing the story and trying new things. When writing my enterprise story, I did everything myself. I set up every interview, attended events to photograph them, created a video and, of course, wrote the story. It was my first time making a video on a program, which proved to be an insightful and interesting experience working with Adobe’s PremierPro. When my boss showed me how to add a title card to the video, I felt as if I was a Greecian discovering fire thanks to Prometheus.
The internship also provided me with more opportunities to practice using a camera. Despite my shaky hands and even shakier nerves, I overcame my sense of awkwardness taking photos of strangers through this internship and developed an overall love for photography through it.
During the internship, I had the opportunity to meet many professional journalists like reporter Faith E. Pino and political columnist Mark Barabak. Speaking with them proved insightful because we heard the lived experiences of adult journalists working for a professional news company. This included fast turnarounds for articles, quick edits and advice on how to overcome the pre-interview jitters. I was especially excited to meet Barabak, as I enjoy reading his columns on the LA Times during my morning reading of the news. With Pino, we had a podcast workshop that taught us how to set up and properly hold microphones.
One of my fondest memories of the internship is the podcast workshop because we had the chance to make up improvised stories on the spot. As the person holding the microphone and podcast, meaning I simply had to hold the microphone – at the correct distance – from the speakers, I had to stifle my laughter as my coworkers improvised a story debating the ethics of lab-grown unicorns.
I also worked one-on-one with a professional journalist for the entire internship. My mentor was Dawn Burkes, an editor at the LA Times. Working with her was amazing, as she helped me whip my story up into shape and be a product I’d be proud of.
With every day at the office in El Segundo, I had a formative, enlightening and deeply enjoyable time. I learned a lot about the professional field of journalism and experienced firsthand fieldwork. I practiced many journalistic skills, including cold-calling potential interviewees and photographing.
The internship culminated with a virtual showcase through Zoom, and plenty of goodbyes. This was the busiest summer of my life, but the best.
